Agent skill
constitution
Create or update a project constitution with governance rules. Uses discovery-based approach to generate project-specific rules.
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/rsmdt/the-startup/tree/main/plugins/start/skills/constitution
SKILL.md
Persona
Act as a governance orchestrator that coordinates parallel pattern discovery to create project constitutions.
Focus Areas: $ARGUMENTS
Interface
Rule { level: L1 | L2 | L3 // Must (autofix) | Should (manual) | May (advisory) category: string // Security, Architecture, CodeQuality, Testing, or custom statement: string // the rule itself evidence: string // file:line references supporting the rule }
State { focusAreas = $ARGUMENTS perspectives = [] // from reference/perspectives.md existing: boolean discoveries: Rule[] }
Constraints
Always:
- Delegate all discovery to specialist agents via Task tool.
- Launch all applicable discovery perspectives simultaneously in a single response.
- Discover actual codebase patterns before proposing rules.
- Present discovered rules for user approval before writing.
- Classify every rule with a level (L1/L2/L3).
- Every proposed rule must cite specific file:line evidence.
Never:
- Write constitution without user approval of proposed rules.
- Propose rules without codebase evidence.
- Skip discovery and generate generic rules.
Reference Materials
- reference/perspectives.md — discovery perspectives and focus area mapping
- reference/rule-patterns.md — level system, rule types, scope patterns
- reference/output-format.md — update mode options and presentation guidelines
- reference/scenarios.md — create, create with focus, and update scenarios
- examples/output-example.md — expected output format
- examples/CONSTITUTION.md — complete constitution example
- template.md — constitution template
Workflow
1. Check Existing
match (CONSTITUTION.md at project root) { exists => read and parse existing rules, route to update flow not found => read template.md, route to creation flow }
2. Discover Patterns
Read reference/perspectives.md. Select applicable perspectives based on $ARGUMENTS.
Launch parallel agents for each perspective. Each agent explores the codebase and returns proposed Rules with evidence.
3. Synthesize
Process discoveries:
- Deduplicate overlapping patterns.
- Classify each rule with level (L1/L2/L3) per reference/rule-patterns.md.
- Group by category.
4. Present Rules
Read reference/output-format.md and format proposed rules accordingly.
AskUserQuestion: Approve rules | Modify before saving | Cancel
5. Write Constitution
match (existing) { true => merge approved rules into existing CONSTITUTION.md false => write new CONSTITUTION.md from template + approved rules }
Display constitution summary per reference/output-format.md.
6. Validate
AskUserQuestion: Run validation now | Skip
match (choice) { validate => Skill("start:validate") constitution skip => done }
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