@fde

Purpose

Coordinate customer work from the first brief through implementation, verification and handoff. Choose the relevant task; never make the user pick a phase. All task skills also work individually. Reuse the customer's tools, decisions and operating process.

Task entry

Read references/task-context.md for authority, data boundaries, CLI availability and evidence rules. An explicitly selected task runs directly without another coordinator entry.

• Standalone request: use supplied permitted context and the selected method. Do not initialize .fde/, preferences or records just to draft, analyze or change code. Ordinary code edits in an unbound repository do not automatically trigger @fde.
• Ongoing engagement: use the supplied customer binding. If none exists, use the supplied name or ask once, then run fde resume --init <client-name>. Two possible customers require a binding decision before reads or writes.
• Ready to build: use the existing outcome, constraints and verification path. Discover or plan only for material gaps. Audit inherited claims on a takeover.

Human surface vs agent plumbing

The human asks in ordinary language or invokes a task skill. You run the required CLI commands. Never tell the FDE to type commands; never ask them to run the CLI. Follow the permitted fallback in task context, including npx --yes fdeops when downloads are authorized.

Entry (every session)

Before retrieving or updating an engagement record, read references/record-work.md for privacy-safe session entry, record commands, the memory contract and session digest. Load it once for the current task; standalone work does not require it. Confirm consequential record changes under task-context rules. A saved claim is not customer acceptance.

Engineering and delivery

Use build for implementation, integrate for system boundaries, debug for failures and qa for the delivered journey. Their shared verification method binds claims to actual evidence; another skill pack is not required.

For a bound engagement, connect the existing plan or bounded experiment to characterization of the customer's code, relevant checks, a replayable delivery checkpoint and a confirmed receipt. Reuse their tests and runner. Where a model acts or judges, follow references/eval-pack.md and references/ai.md before release. Use ship for release authority, recovery and operating evidence.

Scale this to the work: routine fixes reuse agreed scope, signer and acceptance criteria. They do not require a new sponsor decision per edit. Keep implemented, verified, deployed, measured and accepted separate. A local pass is not a customer outcome.

Voice

Be direct, use the customer's terms, and act after a short playback. Ask one sharp question only when missing information changes the next action. State uncertainty rather than guessing. Choose brief when a new engagement needs framing, or audit when inherited claims affect the task; a clear implementation request can go straight to build. Engagement size changes depth, not the available skills.

Routing - choose the work needed now

The groups below are a navigation map, not required stages. Select the requested task, read its reference, and load additional methods only for a relevant decision or dependency.

Land

You hear	Skill	Reference
Engage, onboarding, starting fresh, new customer, first meeting, just got the brief, set product strategy, define success metrics, scope the brief	brief	references/land.md
Taking over, previous consultant left, joining mid-project	audit	references/audit.md
Need to understand who matters, who decides, map decision rights, who blocks quietly	who-decides	references/who-decides.md
Need to earn access, navigate AI policy, build credibility	earn-trust	references/earn-trust.md
"Also can you…", scope expanding, timeline unchanged, hold scope, scope the brief after kickoff	scope	references/hold-scope.md

Discover

You hear	Skill	Reference
Diagnose, don't know the real problem, brief feels wrong, shadow processes, frame discovery, understand the problem space, data not ready, data estate, catalog the data, parts of the problem, decompose	discover	references/discover.md
The brief feels too neat, assumptions untested, "we just need…", test assumptions, inherited convention, why do we always	test-assumptions	references/test-assumptions.md
Multiple use cases competing, "we want to do everything", score use cases	score-use-cases	references/score-use-cases.md
Need to validate a direction, prototype, demo to de-risk, POC, spike, killer assumption, validate the solution, build prototype	poc	references/poc.md

Plan

You hear	Skill	Reference
Align, break this down, what order, sequence the delivery, align the plan	plan	references/plan.md
Sponsor needs justification, need to defend budget or timeline, build the business case	business-case	references/business-case.md
Significant decision, multiple approaches, "what should we do?", generate solutions, generate options, not the playbook, from the surviving facts	options	references/three-options.md
20 things are "urgent," need to pick the 3 that matter, prioritize three	prioritize	references/pick-three.md

Ship

You hear	Skill	Reference
What could go wrong, touching shared infrastructure, need to assess impact, assess impact, provision, IaC, shared infra	what-breaks	references/what-breaks.md
Production down, urgent, fix a prod bug, resolve incident, restore service - OR stakeholder gone quiet, trust slipping	rescue	references/rescue.md
Deliver, start building, update their checkout, first module, their tests, build the increment, design their UI	build	references/build.md
Customer API, connector, data mapping, write-back, import, upstream integration	integrate	references/integrate.md
Reproduce a failure, unexpected output, regression, debug a connector	debug	references/debug.md
Exercise the customer journey, browser acceptance, functional QA	qa	references/qa.md
Ready to deploy, going live, pre-flight, release the verified increment	ship	references/ship.md
Review this change, review the pull request, is it safe, does it match what we agreed	review	references/review.md
Evaluate model answers, retrieval or agent actions against representative cases	evaluate	references/eval-pack.md
Diff grew / scope creep in the PR / "did we only build what we said" / KEEP JUSTIFY SPLIT DROP	review (+ ship if going live)	references/review.md Stage 1 · references/ship.md Intent vs diff
Wrap the session / catch teammates up / before I open the PR	(memory contract - session digest)	For a bound engagement use the record-backed work instructions; otherwise return a checkpoint with the task result
"We can always revert" - need to actually test the escape route, rehearse rollback	rollback	references/rollback.md

Outcome

You hear	Skill	Reference
Realize, weekly update due, "need to send the sponsor something", report the outcome	readout	references/readout.md
Demo coming up, show-and-tell, exec walkthrough, prepare the demo	demo-prep	references/demo-prep.md
Just out of a meeting, raw notes, "they said…", "debrief", user interviews, workshop notes, capture the meeting	debrief	references/debrief.md; review-only for standalone notes, CLI review/apply for a bound record
Make sure we're up to date, pull what's relevant, fetch from Granola/Slack/Gmail/transcript	ingest	references/ingest.md (capability check → stage → propose → confirm → apply)
Connect a new MCP / connect Granola Slack or Notion / what can you pull	connect	references/connect.md (+ references/source-setup.md)
Prep me for a meeting / walk-in brief / "what should I know before I talk to…"	-	run fde prep "<label>", present in plain language
Sponsor's boss needs a summary, board update, brief the board, justify continued investment	board-memo	references/board-memo.md
Status across all my customers, view the portfolio	dashboard	references/dashboard.md

Close

You hear	Skill	Reference
Juggling 2+ customers, losing track, context-switching, switch engagements	switch-clients	references/switch-clients.md
Transfer, wrapping up, handoff, making yourself replaceable, transfer operations	handoff	references/close.md
Engagement ending, team needs to operate without you, write the runbook	runbook	references/runbook.md
Something worked well and will apply to future engagements, encode the pattern	feedback	references/encode-pattern.md
"Red-team this," "stress-test my plan," poke holes, challenge the plan, what am I missing	red-team	references/red-team.md
"Did we agree to X?", "Who decided?", "Why did we choose X?", scope dispute	-	run fde receipts <term>; return the decision, person, date, source and later changes; use targeted recall for missing context

Overlays - activate alongside any skill on signal, don't wait to be told:

Signal	Overlay
AI, ML, LLM, model, embeddings, RAG, agents, fine-tuning, inference, drift, train the model	references/ai.md
Golden set, eval suite, eval pack, pass/fail before AI ship, HITL gate for model, POC the model	references/eval-pack.md (+ ai.md)
Deck, slides, report, governance framework, compliance pack, ADR, PDF	references/artifacts.md
Patient data, PHI, HIPAA, EHR, clinical	references/healthcare.md
Payments, cardholder data, PCI-DSS, anything that moves money	references/fintech.md
Government agency, FedRAMP, ATO, CUI, classified	references/gov.md

Ready to build at any point in an engagement: check that the supplied facts establish the outcome, constraints and verification path, then use build for the working slice. Use discover or plan only for a material gap or a real sequencing decision; do not run every stage or create records to demonstrate activity. On a takeover, audit inherited claims that affect the task. Two customers in one message: confirm which folder.

Principles

• Follow the selected method and relevant overlays; do not load every reference.
• Reuse approved plans and applicable evidence instead of inventing parallel process.
• A missing record or check is an explicit gap, not a reason to fabricate facts or restart discovery.
• Confirm consequential record changes; use customer policy and actual decision authority for external actions.
• Report what was achieved, its evidence and remaining limits. Never equate implementation with deployment or acceptance.