mentor-init

SpecSwarm Mentor Init

Sets up the current directory as a mentor directory — the home of a mentor instance that drives a headless builder via /ss:conduct, and never writes the builder repo's application code itself.

The layout this creates (proven in the Custom Cult v3 pilot, ~500 dispatches):

<mentor-dir>/
├── MENTOR-KICKOFF.md          # the standing role — SessionStart hook injects it every session
├── process/
│   ├── escalation-boundary.md # what self-resolves vs subagent-verifies vs goes to the human
│   └── PARKING-LOT.md         # verbatim idea capture — the human never holds a mental note
├── dispatch/prompts/          # your authored slice prompts live here
├── .specswarm/conduct/
│   ├── config                 # BUILDER_DIR, MODEL, TIMEOUT, WATCH_PORTS
│   ├── runs/                  # every dispatch's audit trail
│   └── locks/                 # one-builder-per-tree, mechanically enforced
└── .claude/
    ├── settings.json          # SessionStart hook wired (merged, never clobbered)
    └── hooks/mentor-role.sh   # cats MENTOR-KICKOFF.md into session context

Steps

1. Resolve inputs. If project_name or --builder-dir was not provided, ask the user (AskUserQuestion or plain prompt). The builder dir must be an existing git repo — typically the project checked out inside this mentor directory (e.g. ./my-app). If the intended builder repo doesn't exist yet, stop and have the user clone/create it first.

2. Run the scaffold (idempotent — existing files are kept, never overwritten):

bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/conduct/scaffold.sh" \
  --project-name "<project_name>" \
  --builder-dir "<builder-dir>"

1. Review with the user, then hand off. Walk them through what was created, then tell them:
   • Edit MENTOR-KICKOFF.md to taste — it's the live role text, read by the hook on every session start.
   • Confirm the Standing Authorizations in process/escalation-boundary.md (especially the push-without-approval checkbox — that's their call, not yours).
   • Set WATCH_PORTS in .specswarm/conduct/config if the project runs dev/e2e webservers.
   • Restart the Claude Code session in this directory so the SessionStart hook fires — from then on, every session opens already knowing it's the mentor.
   • First dispatch: /ss:conduct (it walks the prompt grammar).
   • Recommended: install the ss-status plugin from this marketplace and run /ss-status:install once — the statusline then shows background-builder state in real time (🔨 building / ✓ safe to close), answering "is anything running?" at a glance with no daemon to manage.