orienteer

Orienteer

A loose idea has arrived — too big for one agent session, and wrapped in fog: the way from here to the destination isn't visible yet. Orienteering is about finding that way, not charging at the destination. This skill charts the way as a shared map on the work graph, then works its decision nodes — questions whose resolution is a decision, not slices of a build to execute — one at a time until the route is clear.

The name is the practice: orienteering is checkpoint-based map navigation, and the route only counts if you pass the controls.

Fast path

Walking an existing map is the common case. Its root node id is the map:

soma graph frontier <root>     # what is takeable: open, unassigned, unblocked
soma graph claim <id>          # claim ONE, before any work
soma graph node <id>           # read it (body included), and any node it references
#  … resolve it …
soma graph close <id> --resolution-file <path> --gist "<one line>"
soma graph decisions <root> --write   # re-derive the map's decision index from receipts

The gist rides the receipt and decisions --write projects every closed node's gist into the map body — the map's index is derived, never hand-edited. Then graduate any fog the answer sharpened. Read Workflows/WalkTheMap.md before step one.

When to use

• A loose idea too big to hold in one session, where the route is unclear — not just the work. Chart it: Workflows/ChartTheMap.md.
• An existing map with open nodes. Walk it: Workflows/WalkTheMap.md.

Do not use when the way to the destination is already clear and the whole journey fits one session — you don't need a map, you need to do the work. If charting surfaces no fog, say so and stop.

The verbs

Every graph operation is a soma graph verb. Never reach past them to the tracker's own CLI — the verbs carry the rules (structural validation, cycle rejection, claim tie-break, the hollow-close refusal), and a raw tracker write is those rules not running. The backend hides behind the CLI; creation flags still reflect each forge's capabilities.