Init milestone base workflow

Skill uHappyLogic/cairn/.agents/plugins/cairn/skills/init-milestone-base-workflow

One-time bootstrap for the milestone workflow in a project — creates the milestones/ directory and milestones/README.md with the Current Milestone pointer, and ensures CLAUDE.md carries the Milestone Workflow guidance. Safe to run on an existing project; never overwrites existing files.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add uHappyLogic/cairn --skill init-milestone-base-workflow

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

3 stars3 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

5.2 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

init-milestone-base-workflow

Bootstraps the milestone-driven workflow inside a project. It creates the milestones/ directory and milestones/README.md (with the grep-able Current milestone: pointer line), and ensures CLAUDE.md contains the ## Milestone Workflow guidance. Run this once per project, before any other workflow skill.

This skill is additive and idempotent: it creates missing scaffolding and inserts missing sections into existing files, but never overwrites or rewrites content that is already there.

Usage

/init-milestone-base-workflow

No arguments.

Workflow

1. Detect existing state

Probe the workspace root in parallel and record what already exists:

Does milestones/ exist?
Does milestones/README.md exist? If so, does it contain a Current milestone: line?
Does CLAUDE.md exist? If so, read it and note whether it already contains a ## Milestone Workflow section.

Use these findings to decide which steps below are no-ops. If all of the following are already present — milestones/, milestones/README.md, and a Current milestone: line in milestones/README.md — the project is already initialized: report that and stop without changing anything.

2. Create the milestones/ directory

If milestones/ does not exist, create it.

3. Create milestones/README.md

If milestones/README.md does not exist, create it with this exact structure:

# Milestones

This file is the source of truth for which milestone is current.

Each milestone lives at `milestones/milestone_<N>_<slug>/` and contains:

- `requirements.md` — goal, relevant starting state, decisions, open questions
- `TASKS_TODO.md` — pending tasks ordered by priority (highest first)
- `TASKS_DONE.md` — completed tasks

## Current Milestone

Current milestone: none

## Milestone History

_No milestones completed yet._

## Completed Milestones

| # | Title | Path |
|---|-------|------|

If milestones/README.md already exists, do not overwrite it. Instead, ensure it contains a ## Current Milestone section with a Current milestone: line; if either is missing, insert the section (with Current milestone: none) after the file's top-level heading, and leave the rest of the file untouched. Report that the file was preserved.

The README intentionally carries both a ## Milestone History section (written by /finish-current-milestone) and a ## Completed Milestones table (written by /goto-next-milestone). Keep both so neither skill fails.

4. Ensure CLAUDE.md carries the workflow guidance

If CLAUDE.md does not exist, create it with this minimal content:

# CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code when working in this repository.

## Milestone Workflow

This project uses the milestone-driven workflow. Each milestone lives at
`milestones/milestone_<N>_<slug>/` with `requirements.md`, `TASKS_TODO.md`, and
`TASKS_DONE.md`. `milestones/README.md` is the source of truth for which milestone
is current. Never advance the pointer without first running `/finish-current-milestone`.

After creating it, suggest the user run /init to document the project in CLAUDE.md — its domain context, working conventions, available tools, and how work is verified as done. The workflow skills read this environment context from CLAUDE.md.

If CLAUDE.md already exists, update it without disturbing existing content:

If it has no ## Milestone Workflow section, append the ## Milestone Workflow section (the paragraph shown above) to the end of the file.
If the section already exists, leave it exactly as-is — do not rewrite or re-template it.

5. Confirm

Report:

Which items were created (milestones/, milestones/README.md, CLAUDE.md sections) vs. already present and left untouched.
The current-milestone pointer in milestones/README.md is initialized to none.
Suggested next steps, in order:
1. /init — document the project in CLAUDE.md: its domain context, working conventions, available tools, and how work is verified as done (run once, if not already documented).
2. /define-milestone-goal <goal> — define the first milestone.

Rules

Run once per project. If the project is already initialized (presence of milestones/ and milestones/README.md with a Current milestone: line is sufficient), stop and report — do not re-scaffold.
Never overwrite or rewrite an existing milestones/README.md or CLAUDE.md — only create missing files and append missing sections.
The current-milestone pointer lives only in milestones/README.md; do not write a pointer into CLAUDE.md.
Do not create any milestone_<N>_<slug>/ directory — that is /define-milestone-goal's job.
Do not document the project's environment context in CLAUDE.md — that is /init's job; only recommend it.
Do not commit — leave staging to the user.