Skills

aid-design-document

Frontmatter

name — aid-design-document
description — Develop a document design as a DESIGN SEED in .aid/design/document.md — the document’s kind and structure, its audience, and its placement. Use this skill when a document’s angle, audience and shape are still being worked out, before it is drafted. Grounded in the Knowledge Base (.aid/knowledge/) and the project source. It WRITES NO production code and NO KB document — realize the seed into the written document with /aid-create-document once it is ready. To write a general document now rather than develop its direction as a seed, use /aid-document. Produced by the aid-architect agent and independently verified by aid-reviewer (full verify). Allocates a work-NNN folder.
allowed-tools — Read, Glob, Grep, Bash, Write, Edit, Agent
argument-hint — <subject> — the document to design (kind, structure, audience, placement)

Definition: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md

Flow

flowchart TB
  classDef aidNode color:#fff
  classDef aidEntry fill:#166534,stroke:#14532d,color:#fff
  classDef aidExit fill:#991b1b,stroke:#7f1d1d,color:#fff
  classDef aidDecision fill:#92400e,stroke:#78350f,color:#fff
  classDef aidLoopBack fill:#1e3a8a,stroke:#1e3a8a,color:#fff
  classDef aidStep fill:#1a2035,stroke:#d4a853,color:#f1f5f9
  n1(["INTAKE"])
  n2["DESIGN"]
  n3["VERIFY"]
  n4["PRESENT<br/>hard stop -- the user decides"]
  n5(["DONE"])
  n1 --> n2
  n2 --> n3
  n3 -.-> n2
  n3 --> n4
  n4 --> n5
  class n1 aidEntry
  class n2 aidStep
  class n3 aidLoopBack
  class n4 aidStep
  class n5 aidExit
  class n1 aidNode
  class n2 aidNode
  class n3 aidNode
  class n4 aidNode
  class n5 aidNode

Source fragments

Every node in the chart above, in chart order, with the exact canonical/ text it was derived from.

1 · INTAKE · entry

## State: INTAKE

1. **Require a subject.** Empty argument -> ask one bootstrapping question ("What document
   do you want to design -- its kind, structure, audience, and placement?") and wait.
2. **Allocate** through the Work Initiation Gate exactly as the contract's Allocation rule
   requires (`canonical/skills/aid-design/SKILL.md` INTAKE step 4 is the shape), with
   `initiator: aid-design-document`. `phase` is not driven.
3. **Acquire `.aid/design/`** per the contract, then read `.aid/design/document.md` if a
   prior seed exists -- re-invocation iterates it rather than starting over.
4. **Classify complexity** for the `aid-architect` dispatch (verifier tier >= producer).

Source: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L38-L47 · full step: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L38-L49

2 · DESIGN · step

## State: DESIGN

Dispatch **`aid-architect`** (clean context, tiered) to write or iterate
`.aid/design/document.md` in the seed shape the contract fixes (`design-seed.md`;
feature-002 §4), grounded in `.aid/knowledge/` and the project source plus any seed read
in INTAKE. What this artifact's seed must settle: **the document's kind and structure, its
audience, and its placement**; its `## Destination` names where the written document
lands. **Never writes `.aid/knowledge/` and never writes production code** -- the `design`
invariant (`design-lifecycle.md`).

Source: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L53-L61 · full step: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L53-L63

3 · VERIFY · loop-back

## State: VERIFY

**Full verify**, as `design-lifecycle.md` defines it. Not clean -> loop to DESIGN; the
3-cycle circuit breaker there escalates to IMPEDIMENT + `lifecycle: Blocked`.

Source: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L67-L70 · full step: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L67-L72

4 · PRESENT — hard stop — the user decides · step

## State: PRESENT (hard stop -- the user decides)

Set `lifecycle: Paused-Awaiting-Input`. Present the seed clearly. Assert no resolution --
the user iterates (re-invoke this skill) or realizes it now (`/aid-create-document`).

Source: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L76-L79 · full step: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L76-L81

5 · DONE · exit · UNSPECIFIED

## State: DONE

Set `lifecycle: Completed`, `updated` now, append a `## Lifecycle History` row. The seed
persists at `.aid/design/document.md`; consumption happens at `/aid-create-document`.

Source: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L85-L88 · full step: canonical/skills/aid-design-document/SKILL.md#L85-L88

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