Grizzly Init

Grizzly Init — Project Setup Wizard

Creates the project state files through a short interview plus analysis of the author's own writing. Do the steps in order. Don't skip the voice derivation; it is the highest-leverage step in the whole suite.

Step 1 — Locate the project

Ask where the manuscript lives (or will live) and confirm the filename pattern for chapters. All state files go at the project root. If state files already exist, stop and ask whether to update instead (route to grizzly-voice for VOICE.md).

Step 2 — The interview (NOVEL.md)

Ask, in one batch, only what the template needs:

1. Title, one-to-two-sentence premise, current status.
2. Genre and subgenre.
3. Format: serial or traditional novel. Explain why it matters in one line

(serials need per-chapter hooks and a shorter payoff cadence).

1. POV scheme and tense.
2. Benchmark titles: 2-4 published works the author wants their scenes measured

against for amplitude. If they hesitate, ask what they read and admire in-genre.

1. Anything the assistant must never do in this project (the never-do list).

Fill templates/NOVEL.md and write it to the project root. Show it; let the author correct before saving.

Step 3 — Voice derivation (VOICE.md)

Ask for 2-3 passages of the author's own prose, 300+ words each, that they consider their best representative work. Published or not doesn't matter; AI-assisted passages do (decline them politely; the spec must be derived from the author's hand).

Analyze the passages for every field in templates/VOICE.md:

• Sentence-length distribution (count a sample; don't guess). Fragment frequency

and function.

• Paragraph shape and scene-transition style.
• Narrator distance, and what the narrator never does in these samples.
• Dialogue: information load, tag style, subtext habits.
• How emotion enters (hands, objects, silence, action). Cite the actual instances.
• How violence or high intensity enters, if present in the samples.
• Register and diction: words that recur, words that would break the texture.
• Imagery density and source domains.

Then propose 3-6 anchor lines from their samples and ask the author to confirm or swap them. Write VOICE.md. Tell the author this file is theirs to edit and can be re-derived later with grizzly-voice as their style evolves.

If the author has no samples yet (brand-new writer), say plainly that VOICE.md will start thin: seed it with their preferences by interview, mark it provisional, and re-derive after they have 2-3 chapters of their own.

Step 4 — Standards (STANDARDS.md)

Copy templates/STANDARDS.md with its seeded defaults. Walk the author through the nine defaults briefly; let them strike or amend any. Add their project-specific rules to Author Additions. Save.

Step 5 — Codex scaffold

Create codex/ with chapters/, arcs/, characters/, and an _Index.md from the codex templates. If a manuscript already exists, offer grizzly-cards bootstrap mode to card it chapter by chapter, and note the cost saving (cards make long manuscripts cheap to work on; bootstrap once, then maintain by the drift rule).

Step 6 — Genre pack

If a pack under packs/ matches the declared genre/format, record it in NOVEL.md. Packs adjust defaults (pacing norms, hook conventions); they never override VOICE.md.

Step 7 — Close

Summarize what was created, in one short list. Tell the author the entry points: draft, edit, review, audit, plan, brainstorm, cards. Do not demo anything on their manuscript unasked.

Source & license

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

• Author: HarishDvs
• Source: HarishDvs/Grizzly
• License: MIT

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