Coordinator Init Mode

> Load this skill when: you detect that no .squad/team.md exists in the resolved team root — that means this is a fresh repo or a repo that has never been squadified, and Init Mode is the right path. The short stub in squad.agent.md tells you to load this skill; the full two-phase protocol lives here.

>

> ⚠️ Eager-execution exception: Init Mode is the ONE exception to the eager-execution / parallel-fan-out doctrine. Phase 1 MUST end with a user confirmation before any file is created. Do not bypass.

Phase 1: Propose the Team

No team exists yet. Propose one — but DO NOT create any files until the user confirms.

• Identify the user. Run git config user.name to learn who you're working with. Use their name in conversation (e.g., *"Hey {user}, what are you building?"*). Store their name (NOT email) in team.md under Project Context. Never read or store git config user.email — email addresses are PII and must not be written to committed files.
• Ask: *"What are you building? (language, stack, what it does)"*
• Cast the team. Before proposing names, run the Casting & Persistent Naming algorithm (see the canonical Casting reference at .squad/templates/casting-reference.md):
• Determine team size: pick 4–5 cast (user-domain) agents, then add the 4 always-on built-ins (Scribe + Ralph + Rai + Fact Checker — see their dedicated sections in squad.agent.md). A typical fresh squad has 8–9 total roster entries, not 4–5.
• Determine assignment shape from the user's project description.
• Derive resonance signals from the session and repo context.
• Select a universe. Allocate character names from that universe.
• Scribe is always "Scribe" — exempt from casting.
• Ralph is always "Ralph" — exempt from casting.
• Rai is always "Rai" — exempt from casting.
• Fact Checker is always "Fact Checker" — exempt from casting (same pattern as Scribe / Ralph / Rai).
• Propose the team with their cast names. Example (names will vary per cast):

🏗️  {CastName1}  — Lead          Scope, decisions, code review
⚛️  {CastName2}  — Frontend Dev  React, UI, components
🔧  {CastName3}  — Backend Dev   APIs, database, services
🧪  {CastName4}  — Tester        Tests, quality, edge cases
📋  Scribe       — (silent)      Memory, decisions, session logs
🔄  Ralph        — (monitor)     Work queue, backlog, keep-alive
🛡️  Rai         — (background)  RAI awareness, content safety
🔍  Fact Checker — (verifier)    Verification + Devil's Advocate

• Use the ask_user tool to confirm the roster. Provide choices so the user sees a selectable menu:
• question: *"Look right?"*
• choices: ["Yes, hire this team", "Add someone", "Change a role"]

⚠️ STOP. Your response ENDS here. Do NOT proceed to Phase 2. Do NOT create any files or directories. Wait for the user's reply.

Phase 2: Create the Team

Trigger: The user replied to Phase 1 with confirmation ("yes", "looks good", or similar affirmative), OR the user's reply to Phase 1 is a task (treat as implicit "yes").

> If the user said "add someone" or "change a role," go back to Phase 1 step 3 and re-propose. Do NOT enter Phase 2 until the user confirms.

• Create the .squad/ directory structure (see .squad/templates/ for format guides or use the standard structure: team.md, routing.md, ceremonies.md, decisions.md, decisions/inbox/, casting/, agents/, orchestration-log/, skills/, log/, rai/).

Casting state initialization: Copy .squad/templates/casting-policy.json to .squad/casting/policy.json (or create from defaults). Create registry.json (entries: persistent_name, universe, created_at, legacy_named: false, status: "active") and history.json (first assignment snapshot with unique assignment_id).

Seeding: Each agent's history.md starts with the project description, tech stack, and the user's name so they have day-1 context. Agent folder names are the cast name in lowercase (e.g., .squad/agents/ripley/). The Scribe's charter includes maintaining decisions.md and cross-agent context sharing. Rai's charter is seeded from the Rai-charter.md template, and .squad/rai/policy.md is seeded from rai-policy.md. Fact Checker's charter is seeded from fact-checker-charter.md and .squad/fact-checker/policy.md is seeded from fact-checker-policy.md.

Team.md structure: team.md MUST contain a section titled exactly ## Members (not "## Team Roster" or other variations) containing the roster table. This header is hard-coded in GitHub workflows (squad-heartbeat.yml, squad-issue-assign.yml, squad-triage.yml, sync-squad-labels.yml) for label automation. If the header is missing or titled differently, label routing breaks.

Merge driver for append-only files: Create or update .gitattributes at the repo root to enable conflict-free merging of .squad/ state across branches:

.squad/decisions.md merge=union
.squad/agents/*/history.md merge=union
.squad/log/** merge=union
.squad/orchestration-log/** merge=union
.squad/rai/audit-trail.md merge=union

The union merge driver keeps all lines from both sides, which is correct for append-only files. This makes worktree-local strategy work seamlessly when branches merge — decisions, memories, and logs from all branches combine automatically.

• Say: *"✅ Team hired. Try: '{FirstCastName}, set up the project structure'"*

• Post-setup input sources (optional — ask after team is created, not during casting):
• PRD/spec: *"Do you have a PRD or spec document? (file path, paste it, or skip)"* → If provided, follow PRD Mode flow.
• GitHub issues: *"Is there a GitHub repo with issues I should pull from? (owner/repo, or skip)"* → If provided, follow GitHub Issues Mode flow.
• Human members: *"Are any humans joining the team? (names and roles, or just AI for now)"* → If provided, add per Human Team Members section.
• Copilot agent: *"Want to include @copilot? It can pick up issues autonomously. (yes/no)"* → If yes, follow Copilot Coding Agent Member section and ask about auto-assignment.
• These are additive. Don't block — if the user skips or gives a task instead, proceed immediately.