propose

specclaw propose

First, run specclaw-ensure-init .specclaw — idempotently creates .specclaw/ if it doesn't exist (silent if already initialized; auto-inits using the current directory's basename as the project name).

Create a new proposal for a change.

If the user hasn't yet provided enough detail to draft the proposal (e.g. they just said "i have a proposal" with no specifics), ask once for the essentials inside this skill — what's the idea, what problem does it solve — then proceed to the steps below. Do not wait for a separate turn to invoke this skill.

1. Target-foundation gate (brownfield rebuilds only — inert everywhere else). Run this before creating or renaming anything:

specclaw-bf-bootstrap foundation-check .specclaw

If applicable is false, continue to step 1b — there is no rebuild backlog, so this project is not a brownfield rebuild target and nothing here applies. Say nothing about it.

If the command does not run at all — command not found, any non-zero exit, or no JSON on stdout — you cannot read the gate, so fall back to the one signal that does not need it: if .specclaw/analysis/rebuild-backlog.md does not exist, continue to step 1b silently. No backlog means this is not a rebuild target, so the gate has nothing to protect and stopping an ordinary proposal because a brownfield-only binary is missing from an older install would be a pure false positive. If that file does exist, say the foundation gate could not be evaluated, name the command that failed, and stop — a brownfield project is exactly where this gate matters. The fail-closed rule at the bottom of this page governs a manifest this command read and distrusted; it does not govern a command that never ran.

If applicable is true and foundation_ready is false, stop. Do not offer or run the backfill, do not name the change, do not create the change directory, do not draft a proposal, do not run the dependency check. Relay the reason, then the remedy verbatim:

Target rebuild foundation has not been created. Run /specclaw:bf-bootstrap first.

Why this gate is absolute. Without it, the first backlog item proposed inherits responsibility for inventing the application skeleton — and it inherits it invisibly, because nothing in the spec, the tasks or the verify report says "this item is also creating the app". That is how a screen-bearing item once shipped as a backend-only slice: the repo had no frontend, so the frontend was never anybody's task. A backlog item adds a capability to an application that already exists. If it does not exist yet, the answer is to create it deliberately, once, not to smuggle it into whichever item happened to be proposed first.

The one legitimate false positive is proposing an ordinary change inside the legacy repo, which also carries a rebuild-backlog.md. That is recorded once, explicitly, and attributably — never inferred, because there is no honest signal that distinguishes the two repos:

specclaw-bf-bootstrap not-applicable .specclaw \
  --reason "<why this repo is not the rebuild target>" \
  --declared-by "<name>, <YYYY-MM-DD>"

Both flags are required and the declaration is refused without them — same rule as a bypass's Chosen by. Ask the user for their name; do not supply one yourself.

When foundation_ready is true, continue silently. Mention the foundation only if the user asks.

1b. Name the change <NNN>-<slug> — e.g. 001-init-repo:

• Backfill offer — do this first, because a backfill changes the next number. Run specclaw-renumber-changes .specclaw with no --apply: it is dry-run by default and renames nothing. If it prints a plan, unnumbered folders exist — show the user the full old → new list and ask once whether to apply it. On a yes, re-run with --apply; on a no, proceed with creating the new numbered change alone. No "already asked" flag is needed: the offer is conditioned on unnumbered folders existing, so it self-clears the moment a backfill runs.
• Run specclaw-next-change-number .specclaw for <NNN>, and slugify the user's idea (lowercase, hyphens, no spaces) for <slug>. Join them with a hyphen. Never format the number by hand — specclaw-next-change-number owns that rule and is the only place it lives.