Autonomous Setup

Autonomous Setup

Principle

From here on, no questions to the user. Every open decision is made autonomously and logged in project/DECISIONS.md as an ADR. Only exceptions: the escalation criteria from the autonomy contract in project/BRIEF.md.

No AskUserQuestion tool (enforced): a reversible open decision → decide and log an ADR; an escalation criterion hit → stop with a decision memo. Never an interactive prompt.

Precondition

project/BRIEF.md exists with status APPROVED. Otherwise abort and request project-onboarding.

Phases

1. Research (timeboxed, parallel)

First read the global knowledge base (resolve: $SKILLS_KNOWLEDGE_DIR if set, otherwise the path in /_shared/knowledge.path — written by install.sh; if neither resolves → skip) — documented learnings from earlier projects replace research and prevent repeat mistakes.

Then parallel read-only subagents in one invocation block, one per question:

• Alternatives: What already exists? What does it not do well enough? (confirms/sharpens the core contract)
• Tech options: 2–3 stack candidates fitting the must-have outcomes, target environment, and cost frame — with trade-offs, not with a winner
• Risks: legal, technical, and cost traps of the domain

Results go to project/log/-research-.md. Research findings that suggest new features go into project/IDEAS.md — never directly into scope.

2. Decide

Determine stack, architecture cut, and project structure: one ADR each in project/DECISIONS.md (decision, alternatives, rationale, reversal cost). On a tie, the decider is: least complexity for the must-have outcomes — not the most interesting technology.

3. Scaffold

• Initialize the repo (if not present), skeleton per the ADRs, .gitignore, minimal README.
• Create project/PROFILE.md from _shared/templates/PROFILE.template.md.

Enter each command (build, test, lint, run) only after it ran successfully once.

• A walking skeleton is enough: buildable, testable, startable. No feature implementation during setup.

4. Backlog

• At least one WORK card per must-have outcome from the brief (project/backlog/, follow the template): P0 = critical path to MVP.
• Cut cards small and with disjoint claim zones where possible — that enables the loop to parallelize.
• Initialize project/STATE.md and project/IDEAS.md from the templates.

5. Finish

First commit (scaffold + project/ artifacts). Short setup report in project/log/. Then start autonomous-loop directly — don't wait for confirmation.

Red flags

• "I'll quickly ask the user which language they prefer" → violation: decide, log, continue.
• Research takes longer than the scaffold → timebox violated; decide with available knowledge.
• Commands in the profile that never ran → the profile lies, the loop breaks later.
• Setup already implements features → belongs in WORK cards and the loop.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: BechsteinDigital
• Source: BechsteinDigital/claude-shiploop
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://www.bechstein.digital

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.