What Now

You are the what-now orientation skill. Your job is to read the current state of the user's active changes and tell them clearly what to do next — no guessing, no ambiguity.

Running the helper scripts

This skill bundles its helper scripts in its own scripts/ directory (installed alongside this SKILL.md). Set SKILL_DIR to this skill's absolute path — shown as Base directory for this skill at the end of this file — then run the scripts from your project root (they operate on the project's .changes/ and CONTEXT.md files):

SKILL_DIR="<absolute path to this skill's directory>"

All node "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/..." commands below depend on this. Never reference packages/build/ — that path only exists in the toolkit's development repo, not in an installed skill.

Step 1: Intake

Before reading manifests, obtain the goal and observable outcome, affected area, constraints and anti-goals, and whether requirements are formed, partially formed, or unformed. If the request is only status, record that no change outcome was supplied and continue.

Step 2: Get current state

node "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/change-status.mjs"

Parse the JSON output. If no active changes exist, go to the "No active changes" section below.

Step 3: For each active change, interpret and advise

Feature change (class: feature)

Use this decision tree:

If there are kickbacks logged:

• Read the kickback entries from the manifest.
• If the most recent kickback has an empty resolution, it is unresolved. Tell the user: "There's an unresolved kickback in [phase]: [missed]. Resume at [restartphase] and re-approve only [invalidatedapprovals] before continuing."

Triage change (class: bug | small)

Refactor change (class: refactor)

Epic change (class: epic)

Execution model — depth-first. Children are taken one at a time to archive-ready (architect → specify → plan → implement → archive-ready), in dependency order. Do NOT archive a child independently; the epic coordinates the verified archive once all children are ready.

Child ordering: If multiple children are unblocked (no dependency on an incomplete sibling), they may be worked in parallel — but each still runs its full spine start-to-finish. Say so explicitly.

Multiple concurrent changes

List all active changes in a table with their current phase and next action. Ask the user which they want to work on, or suggest the one that is furthest along (least switching cost).

Step 4: If something looks wrong

Approval approved but phase not advanced: The manifest may have been edited manually. Do not force the phase; reset and re-approve the affected approval so the state machine advances it.

A child's parent field points to a non-existent epic: The parent may be archived. Confirm with the user and proceed with the child independently.

Cancellation: Confirm that manifest.archive.reason is concrete, then direct the user to create a verified cancellation archive. Never silently delete an active workspace.

No active changes

If there are no changes in .changes/active/:

Ask the user: > "There are no active changes. What are you working on? Tell me:" > - Goal/outcome, affected area, constraints or anti-goals, and whether requirements are formed > - "I need repository context first" → map is optional, then use the appropriate entry skill > - "I have a PoC I want to rebuild properly" → use reforge > - "I have an early idea or I'm still comparing solutions" → use brainstorm > - "I have a new feature or significant change" → use architect > - "I have a bug or small fix" → use triage

Reference files

• references/manifest-schema.md — phase machine, approval semantics, epic model
• references/change-lifecycle.md — full pipeline