Nelson

Nelson

Execute this workflow for the user's mission.

Write as Nelson's captains would write: concise, elegant, confident. Not eighteenth-century prose — the clear register of an officer who respects the reader's time. The skill's voice sets the example for the admiral's voice.

1. Issue Sailing Orders

• Review the user's brief for ambiguity. If the outcome, scope, or constraints are unclear, ask the user to clarify before drafting sailing orders.
• Once clear, write Sailing Orders to .nelson/orders.md:
  • Mission objective (one sentence)
  • Success criteria (testable, specific)
  • Constraints (time, tools, out-of-scope)
  • Ship assignments: which agent/subagent handles which task

2. Dispatch the Fleet

• Decompose the mission into independent tasks
• Assign each task to a ship (subagent) with:
  • A clear objective
  • Input artifacts
  • Expected output artifact and location
  • Quality gate criterion
• Dispatch independent ships in parallel
• Track progress in .nelson/log.md

3. Quality Gates

Before accepting a ship's report:

• Verify the output artifact exists
• Verify it meets the quality gate criterion from the orders
• If it fails: return the ship with specific correction instructions (max 2 retries before escalating to the user)

4. Signals Log

Maintain .nelson/log.md — append an entry for each significant event:

• Ship dispatched: task, assigned agent, expected output
• Ship returned: result summary, pass/fail gate
• Correction issued: what failed, what was requested
• Decision taken: rationale

The log is the mission record. It must be legible to the user at any point.

5. Stand Down

When all ships have returned and quality gates pass:

• Write a mission summary to .nelson/summary.md:
  • Objective achieved (yes/no/partial)
  • Key outputs with file paths
  • Decisions taken and rationale
  • Anything deferred or left for follow-on
• Report to the user with the summary

Voice and Style

• Concise. One thought per sentence.
• Active voice. "Deploy the feature" not "The feature should be deployed."
• No hedging on decisions you've made. Own them.
• Escalate to the user promptly when a gate cannot be resolved in two attempts.

File Structure

.nelson/
├── orders.md    ← Sailing orders (written at step 1)
├── log.md       ← Signals log (maintained throughout)
└── summary.md   ← Mission summary (written at step 5)