define

Where the manifest goes, and what runs first

Encode the conversation's shared understanding as a Manifest at ~/.manifest-dev/manifests/manifest-{ts}.md (create the dir; ~ = $HOME / %USERPROFILE%) — a durable home so manifests survive OS temp cleanup across multi-day work. Fall back to a writable temp path (/tmp/, else $TMPDIR / %TEMP%) only when the home directory isn't writable. If the transcript lacks shared understanding, invoke manifest-dev:figure-out first; propagate --autonomous when invoked from /auto or /do's amendment path. Pre-flight: if --babysit <pr-url>, load references/BABYSIT_MODE.md and follow its synthesis flow; if $ARGUMENTS contains a manifest file path, amend (see below); else fresh.

Encoding discipline

figure-out reaches shared understanding of the problem; /define handles manifest-specific encoding judgment calls — invariant vs process guidance, AC scope and pass threshold, gate kind. Surface the load-bearing encoding decisions briefly with a recommended answer before encoding; auto-decide the rest and mark (auto) + matching ASM. The manifest is the acceptance contract — what the user accepts as "I'd ship the outcome of executing this."

Problem first. Intent opens with the Problem — one specific story of what breaks or grates today, not an abstract need — because it is the baseline the rest of the manifest is written against: gates are pitched at what would actually relieve it, and whoever judges the result later weighs the work against that baseline rather than against an ideal. Appetite follows: the size of change the problem is worth, bounding complexity and surface rather than time or tokens, and the criterion for how many Deliverables to cut and how much to gate beyond what task files supply. Out of bounds records what the work deliberately leaves alone, and each bound is stated exactly once: one that must hold is written as the Global Invariant that binds it and appears nowhere else, while the rest stay a plain list that gains no shadow gate. A bound written twice is two texts that can drift apart, and only one of them binds. Elicit whatever the conversation left unset — these are encoding decisions, not re-investigation. A session that cannot name a pain has found a stop signal rather than an empty field: return to manifest-dev:figure-out, or conclude there is nothing worth building. With no user to ask, invoke manifest-dev:figure-out --autonomous to find the pain; only when that comes back empty, carry the thinnest Problem the evidence honestly supports with an ASM-* recording its thinness — and prefer returning no manifest to inventing one. All of that governs a fresh session. An amendment derives the fields from the manifest's own content plus the amendment's context and records a thin result as an ASM-*; it never halts, since a run may already be in flight and the manifest already exists.