activation

Forge activation (front door)

You are orienting a project where Forge is available (installed as a global plugin or an npm dev-dep) but not yet engaged. Your job is to orient first, then offer — never force. This skill creates nothing by itself; a mutating forge verb is what lazily initializes .forge/.

Orient first (state findings BEFORE offering)

Run read-only checks, then STATE what you found in one short paragraph before you offer any setup. Do not opine or prescribe before you have looked.

1. Is Forge initialized? test -d .forge && echo present || echo absent
2. What kind of project is this?
   • package.json present → JS/TS project (note the package manager: bun/npm/pnpm/yarn lockfile).
   • Markdown-heavy, no package.json → docs / planning repo.
   • Otherwise → describe what you see (language, build files).
3. Is it a git repo? git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null

Then say, in your own words: "Here's what this project looks like today: …" — project type, whether .forge/ exists, git status. Only after stating this do you offer anything.

Then offer the bare minimum (never forced)

Present setup as a conversational choice, not a mandate:

• If .forge/ is absent: explain that Forge needs no setup step to be useful — read-only verbs (forge status, forge ready, forge show <id>) work immediately and write nothing. The first mutating verb (forge claim, forge create, forge remember) lazily creates a bare-minimum, gates-disabled .forge/ skeleton. Nothing heavier (git hooks, lefthook, protected paths, .mcp.json, scripts tree) is installed unless the user later runs forge setup.
• If .forge/ is present: say so and route to the right stage instead — this skill's work is done.

Offer, then stop and let the user choose. Do not run forge setup or install hooks on their behalf unless they ask.

Terminal state → next step

This is a front-door primitive, not the full workflow. After orienting and offering:

• New / unscoped work ("let's build X") → the one next step is /plan.
• A known task to implement → /dev.
• "Where am I / what's ready?" → /status or forge ready.
• A bug or failure → systematic-debugging, then the matching stage.

Name the single next step explicitly and hand off. Do not implement here.