software-lifecycle
How to work in a Software Lifecycle project (the `software-lifecycle` starter pack): proposals → decisions → specs → postmortems, plus guides. Read when the project has these folders, or when asked how this project is organized. Carries the doc lifecycle, status flows, and per-folder agent behaviors so that guidance does not live inside template bodies or folder descriptions. The five workflows — frame a proposal, write a spec, record a decision, write a postmortem, review a design — each ship as their own sibling skill in this pack. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/inkeep/open-knowledge /tmp/software-lifecycle && cp -r /tmp/software-lifecycle/packages/server/assets/skills/packs/software-lifecycle ~/.claude/skills/software-lifecycleSKILL.md
# Software Lifecycle pack — how to work here
This project holds the doc lifecycle for an engineering team or OSS project. The flow is **proposals → decisions → specs → postmortems**, with **guides** as the how-to bucket. This skill holds the workflow so templates and folder descriptions stay clean.
> This skill is pack guidance. The platform `/open-knowledge` skill (read/write/preview/linking/grounding rules) still governs every markdown operation — this layers the lifecycle conventions on top.
## The flow
```
proposals/ in-flight RFC-shape design proposals
↓ accepted
decisions/ frozen ADRs (the record of what was decided)
↓ derived
specs/ implementation specs for accepted proposals
↓ when things break
postmortems/ blameless incident write-ups
guides/ how-to / onboarding / runbooks (referenced throughout)
```
## Per-folder rules + agent behaviors
**`proposals/`** — One file per proposal (`0001-feature-name.md`). Status flows `draft → fcp → accepted/rejected`. An accepted proposal graduates to a record in `decisions/`. Shape: Motivation / Design / Drawbacks / Alternatives / Unresolved questions. *Agent: when a proposal sits at `status: draft` more than 14 days, surface it for the author to advance, park, or close.*
**`decisions/`** — Architecture Decision Records (MADR / Nygard shape). Frozen once accepted. One file per decision (`NNNN-title.md`); status `proposed/accepted/deprecated/superseded`. A new decision that supersedes an older one links back via `Supersedes:`. *Agent: on a new decision, scan existing records touching the same subsystem and surface `Supersedes:` candidates before commit.*
**`specs/`** — Implementation specs derived from accepted proposals. Prefer the `github/spec-kit` shape: one folder per spec (`specs/NNN-name/`) with `spec.md` + `plan.md` + `tasks.md` (the pack ships all three templates). References the parent proposal. *Agent: when a spec moves to `status: shipped`, suggest a postmortem template if the owner reports an incident in the spec's subsystem.*
**`postmortems/`** — Blameless incident write-ups, one file per incident (`YYYY-MM-DD-name.md`): Summary / Timeline / Root cause / What went well / Action items (Google SRE shape). *Agent: surface a `Related:` block linking prior postmortems that share subsystems.*
**`guides/`** — How-to guides, onboarding docs, and service-bound runbooks (Diátaxis how-to). Ships `guide`, `onboarding-guide`, and `runbook` templates. Carries `last_verified` so stale guides surface in periodic reviews. *Agent: when a postmortem is published, scan its action items for guide-shaped follow-ups and stub a guide pre-filled with the symptom and timeline excerpt.*
## The five workflows
Authoring in this project is procedural, not conventional. Each workflow ships as its own skill so it loads only when the work calls for it — reach for the one that matches the task rather than writing into a folder from scratch.
| Workflow | Sibling skill | When |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Frame a proposal | `/frame-a-proposal` | A change needs designing and arguing before anyone builds it. |
| Write a spec | `/write-a-spec` | An accepted proposal needs scoping into an implementable spec. |
| Record a decision | `/record-a-decision` | A decision was actually made and needs its context and consequences preserved. |
| Write a postmortem | `/write-a-postmortem` | An incident happened and the team needs a blameless write-up. |
| Review a design | `/review-a-design` | An existing proposal, spec, or decision needs pressure-testing for soundness. |
## Templates
Create docs with `write({ document: { path, template: "<name>" } })`. Templates carry only structure (headings + frontmatter scaffold); what each section is for is described above, not repeated in the document body.How to work in a Codebase Wiki project (the `codebase-wiki` starter pack): an agent-authored, source-grounded wiki of the surrounding codebase. Read when the project has a `wiki/` knowledge base with `architecture/`, `modules/`, `flows/`, `concepts/`, and `guides/` sections plus `wiki/OVERVIEW.md`, or when asked to generate or refresh a wiki of this codebase. Carries the per-folder rules and freshness + log discipline, summarizes the audience/depth knobs and source-reference convention, and bundles the full generate/refresh procedure in `references/`. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.
Promote existing research into a stable-status canonical article under `articles/` in a Knowledge Base project (the `knowledge-base` starter pack). Read when a decision has actually been made and the team wants the source-of-truth written down, or when asked to consolidate, canonicalize, promote research, or supersede an older article. Carries the decision-confirmation gate, the `supersedes:` chain that keeps the evidence trail intact, and the canonical voice. Does not conduct new research — that is the sibling `research-with-sources` skill.
Frame a new design proposal (RFC-shape) under proposals/ — problem before solution, named beneficiary and observable change, real alternatives, honest drawbacks, and a live open-questions backlog. Read when asked to frame a proposal, write an RFC, propose a design, pitch a change, draft a PRD-style design doc, or open a design proposal for review. Do NOT read to record a decision after it is accepted (use record-a-decision), to write an implementation spec (use write-a-spec), to write a postmortem (use write-a-postmortem), or to review or critique an existing design (use review-a-design).
How to work in a Knowledge Base project (the `knowledge-base` starter pack). Read when the project has the three-layer source-grounded layout — `external-sources/` → `research/` → `articles/` — or when asked how this project is organized. Carries the layer model, per-folder rules, status flows, and log discipline so this guidance does NOT live inside template bodies or log.md. The three procedures live elsewhere: ingest in the platform `open-knowledge` skill, research and consolidate as their own sibling skills in this pack. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.
How to work in a Plain Notes project (the `plain-notes` starter pack): a flat notes/ folder plus a daily/ journal. The 'I just want to write' layout. Read when the project has these folders, OR when asked to jot a note, capture a quick thought, or write today's journal entry. Carries the linking habit and daily-entry behavior so templates and folder descriptions stay minimal. Complements the platform `open-knowledge` skill; does not replace it.
Open Knowledge Format (OKF) v0.2 guidance. Use when creating, reading, reviewing, or maintaining an OKF bundle; responding to OpenKnowledge `okf` plugin warnings; or choosing types, provenance, links, indexes, or logs.
Authoritative agent-runtime contract for working inside an OpenKnowledge project — a markdown-CRDT knowledge base exposed over MCP. Use whenever reading, listing, searching, editing, or linting any `.md` or `.mdx` file in the project, and before any `mcp__open-knowledge__*` tool call (`exec`, `search`, `write`, `edit`, `lint`, and the rest). Installed by `ok init`, so its presence means this is an OpenKnowledge project and it governs every markdown file here. Covers the read/write tool surface, grounding and linking rules, folder/template conventions, the live browser preview, and the rule that OK's MCP tools — never native file tools — handle in-scope markdown.
Read when the user asks what OpenKnowledge is, wants to install it on a repository, wants to open or preview a single markdown file that is not part of an OpenKnowledge project, wants to share an OpenKnowledge project with collaborators, asks whether OpenKnowledge supports a particular capability, or asks how `ok init` / `ok cowork` / OK Desktop set up a project. Do NOT load to perform OpenKnowledge reads/writes — the runtime guidance for editing markdown inside an initialized OK project ships as a separate project-local skill installed into each detected agent's skills dir (for example `.claude/skills/open-knowledge/`) whenever `ok init` runs.