git:20260909.e9c1896 to git:20260915.df30567

---

name: adopt-existing

description: Source-first growth of an existing single- or multi-repository project into CYPRESS's unified docs/graph knowledge system. Use from initialize when code already exists, or for a graph refresh after material code changes. Scout executable evidence, model subsystem nodes, build project-specific architecture/product/API/data/dependency/prompt/operations leaves, connect them for progressive discovery, and validate navigation. Never trust centralized prose without source corroboration, invent specs or ADRs, modify application files, run application builds, or push Git.

id: skill.adopt-existing

tier: 2

kind: skill

origin: seed

title: adopt-existing — grow an existing codebase into the docs/graph knowledge plant, source-first

owns:

- adopt-existing.method

- adopt-existing.refresh

- adopt-existing.validation

requires:

- protocol.grow

peers:

- protocol.initialize

- skill.knowledge-graph

load_when:

- "adopt an existing codebase into the graph"

- "initialize cypress on a project that already has code"

- "refresh the knowledge graph after material code changes"

- "onboard a multi-repo or monorepo project"

- "build docs/graph for existing source"

artifacts:

- templates/prompts/graph-session-bootstrap.md

- templates/prompts/handback-payload.md

est_tokens: 1614

---

# Adopt an existing project

Turn a generic installed seed into a project-specific knowledge plant.

Follow `docs/graph/protocols/initialize.md`; this skill supplies the existing-project

discovery and authoring discipline.

## Invariants

- `docs/graph/` is the only maintained knowledge root. The router, nodes,

LLM wiki, provenance, plans, runbooks, contracts, and deep dives are

layers of one graph, not separate documentation systems.

- Executable source outranks prose. Manifests, entry points, routes,

schemas, migrations, config, deployment, tests, CI, prompts, and evals

are primary evidence. Existing docs are corroborating evidence only.

- Make additive knowledge changes. Preserve application code and unrelated

existing files. Never delete or relocate competing AI configurations.

- Do not run builds or application test suites during adoption. Extract

their exact commands and label them `discovered, not executed`. An

inherited suite is untrusted until it has been proven by mutation (see

`docs/graph/protocols/test-first.md` — prove RED by mutation); record it as discovered,

never as passing.

- Do not fetch, pull, switch, commit, or push. Record repository revision

as provenance; Git operations need a separate explicit request.

- Observed behavior is not a normative spec. Observed choices are not ADRs

with invented rationale. Unknown means unknown.

## Scout pass

Establish the governed boundary first: one repo, workspace/monorepo, or an

umbrella of sibling repos. For each repository record path, branch, HEAD,

worktree state, role, manifests, and stack. Boundaries follow capabilities,

not repository count.

Inventory cheaply, excluding generated/vendor/cache/build output. Then

open the smallest authoritative files needed to trace:

1. bootstrap and runtime entry points;

2. module/service/package boundaries and imports;

3. inbound APIs, messages, scheduled work, and outbound integrations;

4. entities, schemas, migrations, storage, and data movement;

5. config/secrets interfaces, deployment, and observability;

6. tests, CI, scripts, prompts, evaluations, and operational commands;

7. direct dependencies and evidence of their actual usage.

Return facts with exact paths and symbols. When prose makes a claim, find

source corroboration or record it as untrusted/unverified. Do not let a

central docs repository become the authority by repetition.

Every delegated worker's brief embeds the canonical block from

`docs/graph/templates/prompts/graph-session-bootstrap.md` — this file does not

restate that discipline.

When a codebase's identifiers and domain vocabulary are in a non-English

(or otherwise non-default) natural language, record that explicitly as a

graph fact during adoption. Downstream agents must grep and reason in the

codebase's actual language rather than an assumed one; an unrecorded

language mismatch silently defeats every later search.

## Librarian pass

Normalize the evidence into single fact owners:

- configure `ROOT_ID` and `KINDS` in `docs/graph/graph-lint.py`;

- author a root node and capability/subsystem nodes;

- factor shared stack, platform, data, domain, and cross-cutting facts into

their own nodes only where this reduces duplication;

- give nodes concrete `load_when` triggers and source paths;

- keep `requires` minimal and acyclic; use `peers` for boundaries, and

`composes` where an `expertise.*` node offers sub-expertises the router

should descend into only when the task names one;

- link detailed leaves using `artifacts:` and dependency wiki pages using

`libraries:`.

Then enrich the leaf collections under `docs/graph/`:

| Collection | Source-grounded content |

|---|---|

| `product/` | actors, capabilities, flows, observed constraints |

| `architecture/` | context, components, runtime flows, integrations, sharp edges |

| `api/` | observed HTTP/RPC/event/job contracts with code locations |

| `data/` | ownership, schemas, persistence, migrations, lineage |

| `libraries/` | all direct deps indexed; critical deps richly wikified |

| `sources/` | provenance for external information actually used |

| `prompts/` | discovered prompt contracts, versions, and call sites |

| `evaluations/` | discovered datasets, rubrics, gates, and failure modes |

| `runbooks/` | exact operational and verification commands, with status |

| `plans/` | evidence gaps, drift/backfill work, next useful increment |

| `best-practices/` | conventions demonstrated by this project |

Keep `specs/` and `decisions/` indexes, but leave them empty unless genuine

intent records already exist and can be preserved with provenance. Put

implementation observations in nodes or architecture leaves.

When the sweep confirms zero test or gate infrastructure, the librarian

pass MUST still emit explicit `absent (YYYY-MM-DD) — <reason>` rows for the

standard gates in the verification runbook, rather than leaving it blank. A

blank runbook is indistinguishable from one nobody checked; recording each

gate as deliberately absent turns an unknown into a stated finding.

When a legacy or parallel documentation source predates and conflicts with

the evidence-derived graph, excluding it as evidence is not enough — do not

merely stop reading it. Silence reads to a later agent as

absence-of-a-decision, and the artifact gets rediscovered and re-trusted.

Give the exclusion a real, routable node that states (a) the source is

excluded as evidence, (b) what supersedes it, and (c) that this is a

trust/evidence decision, NOT authorization to modify or delete the artifact

(see Invariants: never delete or relocate competing configurations). The

Handoff's excluded-docs report then points at this node rather than standing

in for it.

## Dependency wiki depth

Index every direct dependency from manifests. Create a detailed library

page during initialization when the dependency is architecturally

significant, security/operations critical, unusual, or used across several

subsystems. Each page answers how this project uses it, where configuration

lives, relevant constraints, sharp edges, and verification status.

Installed versions come from manifests/locks. Upstream lifecycle,

compatibility, or current guidance requires a primary upstream source;

otherwise mark it pending rather than guessing. Record consulted sources

in `docs/graph/sources/`.

## Refreshing an existing graph

Treat graph prose as a read model to verify against current source:

1. compare repository revisions with the graph changelog/provenance;

2. scout changed areas and their dependency/data/API blast radius;

3. update the existing fact owner instead of creating a duplicate;

4. preserve valid hand-authored context;

5. remove or supersede stale seed-owned claims only with cited contrary

evidence;

6. record conflicts and unanswered questions in the plan.

Never claim a full refresh when part of the governed source was unavailable.

## Validation

Run knowledge checks only:

```sh

python3 docs/graph/graph-lint.py

python3 docs/graph/graph-lint.py --plan "change a representative capability"

```

Verify all graph links resolve; every Tier-3 leaf is reachable from an

owning node; no duplicate fact homes exist; representative task routes are

small and relevant; commands say whether they were executed; where no test

or gate infrastructure was found, the verification runbook carries explicit

`absent (YYYY-MM-DD) — <reason>` rows for the standard gates rather than a

blank template; and no template placeholders, fabricated success, inferred

specs, or invented rationale remain.

Use known-answer navigation questions from several capabilities plus an

adversarial false-premise question. A wrong or bulk-read answer is a graph

defect: improve ownership, routing, or leaf content and rerun — **at most

two fix-and-rerun rounds per defect** (`docs/graph/protocols/recover.md`); a defect

that survives them is recorded as an honest unknown in the handoff and

handed to the user, never looped on a third time.

## Handoff (the stopping condition)

Adoption is DONE when validation passes within its bounded rounds and the

open defects are recorded — not when every file has been read; completeness

is measured by reliable progressive discovery, not file count. End with

the payload from `docs/graph/templates/prompts/handback-payload.md`, and report:

repository revisions, evidence inspected, graph artifacts created or

refreshed, validation outcomes, docs deliberately excluded as untrusted

(named by their exclusion node, not merely mentioned in passing),

remaining unknowns, and one highest-leverage next action with its tier.