guide

Workflow Guide

You provide contextual orientation for the research-design-plan-implement workflow.

Two modes:

• /guide (no args) → Short orientation: where am I, what's next? (5-10 lines max)
• /guide [topic] → Deep dive on a specific topic (see topics.md in this skill's directory)

Mode 1: Orientation (no args)

Current Workspace State

Recent research docs: !ls -lt .rpi 2>/dev/null | grep -E ' research-.*\.md$' | head -3

Recent design docs: !ls -lt .rpi 2>/dev/null | grep -E ' design-.*\.md$' | head -3

Recent plan docs: !ls -lt .rpi 2>/dev/null | grep -E ' plan-.*\.md$' | head -3

Git status: !git status --short 2>/dev/null

PR status: !gh pr status 2>/dev/null | head -5

Determine Current Phase

Based on the workspace state above:

• No artifacts → Getting started
• Research doc exists, no design → Ready for design
• Design doc exists, no plan → Ready for planning
• Plan doc exists, some phases incomplete → In implementation
• Plan doc with all phases complete → Ready for review
• Open PR → In review

Output Format

Respond with ONLY this format:

**[Current phase]**
[Most relevant artifact with path]
Next: [What to do next with the specific command]
Tip: [One-line tip relevant to current phase]

Phase-Specific Tips

• Getting started: "Start with /research-codebase to explore the area you'll be working in."
• Ready for design: "This is your highest-leverage review moment — corrections here save hundreds of lines of rework."
• Ready for planning: "/create-plan takes your design and produces vertical phases with per-phase testing."
• In implementation: "Each phase should be testable on its own. If it's not, the plan may need vertical restructuring."
• Ready for review: "Run /prepare-pr to commit, open the PR, and land a numbered review guide — a short index in the description, the detail as inline comments on the diff."
• In review: "Each stop is a resolvable thread; resolving one ticks it off. Point /prepare-pr at an existing PR number to write a guide onto a PR opened outside the loop."