git:20261006.eebad1b to git:20261017.5b1062d

---

name: curate-project-context

description: Curates a project's public and private agent context. Use when checking context health, reorganizing accumulated guidance, repairing AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md drift, finding stale, duplicated, misplaced or unreachable knowledge, or checking the public/private boundary.

---

# Curate Project Context

Keep the context system of a project coherent as it grows. Inspect public repository context,

private Brain knowledge, and the pointers between them; identify maintainability problems; then

apply only the repairs the user authorizes.

This skill has two modes:

- **Check** is the default. Diagnose and report without changing files.

- **Fix** applies findings the user explicitly asks to repair. An explicit request to organize,

maintain, or fix the context authorizes repairs within the named project, but not lifecycle work

owned by another skill.

## Scope limits

Fix mode writes files, so these bound what it may change:

- **Relocate settled facts, never adjudicate one.** A contested term or an unmade decision goes to

`grill-decisions`; moving a fact is in scope, deciding it is not.

- **Report wiring, do not repair it.** `dotbrain doctor` supplies the mechanical baseline and

`wire-brain` fixes it; use their evidence and route the repair.

- **Never touch another document's lifecycle.** Design closure and residue promotion are

`close-design`'s; Beads state is `manage-work-graph`'s.

- **Credentials belong in the configured secret store**, never in public or private context files.

`write-agent-docs` supplies the writing discipline for pointers, hierarchy, completion criteria, and

pruning. Apply it when revising prose.

## Authority map

Classify each piece of project knowledge by its durable authority:

| Information | Authority |

|---|---|

| Domain vocabulary | `.brain/CONTEXT.md` |

| Durable decisions and rationale | `.brain/adr/` |

| Initiative-specific working design | `.brain/designs/` |

| Execution status and work notes | Beads |

| Supporting explanation | A public or private referenced document chosen by sensitivity |

## Check

### 1. Inventory the context surface

Read the nearest project instructions, then enumerate relevant public and private `AGENTS.md` and

`.brain/CONTEXT.md`, `.brain/project.yaml`, ADR and design indexes or frontmatter, and documents

reached by context pointers. Load full ADRs, designs, or supporting docs only when a finding requires

their content.

Run `dotbrain doctor` when available to establish the mechanical baseline. Report its wiring

findings separately from content-maintainability findings.

Completion: every context surface and pointer relevant to the project has a known location,

visibility, authority, and mechanical state.

### 2. Test topology and boundaries

Completion: every broken link, weak pointer, invalid canonical relationship, and public/private

boundary violation is identified with its exact path and evidence.

### 3. Test authority and maintainability

Apply the authority map and `write-agent-docs` principles. Look for:

- the same meaning maintained by more than one authority;

- conflicting instructions or vocabulary across levels;

- stale guidance contradicted by the repository, configuration, or current Brain canon;

- easy environment lookups cached in prose without a useful convention, rationale, or hazard;

- knowledge stored in the wrong authority, including decisions or execution state in `AGENTS.md`;

- unreachable or orphaned documents, and pointers whose trigger does not name the branch that needs

them;

- sprawling files whose branch-specific detail should be disclosed;

- private information in public context, or public operating knowledge hidden unnecessarily in the

Brain.

Completion: each suspected problem is either supported by current evidence or discarded.

### 4. Report

Present findings in priority order:

| Finding | Evidence | Correct authority | Proposed repair | Owner |

|---|---|---|---|---|

Distinguish repairs this skill can apply from work routed to `wire-brain`, `grill-decisions`,

`close-design`, or `manage-work-graph`. A clean check says so and lists the surfaces examined.

Completion: every finding has an exact target and no proposed repair silently changes project

meaning or another document's lifecycle.

## Fix

Apply only the findings authorized by the user. Preserve meaning and useful history while moving a

fact to its authority, removing an exact duplicate, sharpening a pointer, pruning stale guidance,

or repairing an `AGENTS.md`/`CLAUDE.md` relationship. Back up a meaningful regular `CLAUDE.md`

before replacing it with a symlink.

After a move, update every pointer that should still reach the material. Keep public edits safe for

publication and scan the final public files for private Brain paths and identifiers. Re-run the

check against every changed surface and report any findings routed to other skills.

Completion: all authorized repairs are verified, unapproved findings remain untouched, and each

piece of moved knowledge has one reachable authority.