Setup Zsl Superpowers

Bucket: Engineering · Slash command: /zsl:setup-zsl-superpowers · Source: skills/engineering/setup-zsl-superpowers/SKILL.md

User-invocable only

This skill is marked disable-model-invocation: true — Claude won't auto-trigger it, so you must invoke it explicitly with the slash command above.

What it does

Sets up an ## Agent skills block in AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md and docs/agents/ so the engineering skills know this repo's issue tracker (GitHub or local markdown), triage label vocabulary, domain doc layout, and ship style (PR vs direct push). Run before first use of to-issues, to-prd, triage, diagnose, tdd, improve-codebase-architecture, or zoom-out — or if those skills appear to be missing context about the issue tracker, triage labels, domain docs, or ship style.

---

Scaffold the per-repo configuration that the engineering skills assume:

• Issue tracker — where issues live (GitHub by default; local markdown is also supported out of the box)
• Triage labels — the strings used for the six canonical triage roles
• Domain docs — where CONTEXT.md and ADRs live, and the consumer rules for reading them
• Ship style — how changes reach the default branch (pull request or direct push)
• Project board (optional) — a GitHub Projects v2 board whose Status column should mirror triage labels and tdd lifecycle

This is a prompt-driven skill, not a deterministic script. Explore, present what you found, confirm with the user, then write.

Process

1. Explore

Look at the current repo to understand its starting state. Read whatever exists; don't assume:

• git remote -v and .git/config — is this a GitHub repo? Which one?
• AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md at the repo root — does either exist? Is there already an ## Agent skills section in either?
• CONTEXT.md and CONTEXT-MAP.md at the repo root
• docs/adr/ and any src/*/docs/adr/ directories
• docs/agents/ — does this skill's prior output already exist?
• .scratch/ — sign that a local-markdown issue tracker convention is already in use

2. Present findings and ask

Summarise what's present and what's missing. Then walk the user through the five decisions one at a time — present a section, get the user's answer, then move to the next. Don't dump them all at once.

Assume the user does not know what these terms mean. Each section starts with a short explainer (what it is, why these skills need it, what changes if they pick differently). Then show the choices and the default.

Section A — Issue tracker.

Explainer: The "issue tracker" is where issues live for this repo. Skills like to-issues, triage, to-prd, and qa read from and write to it — they need to know whether to call gh issue create, write a markdown file under .scratch/, or follow some other workflow you describe. Pick the place you actually track work for this repo.

Default posture: these skills were designed for GitHub. If a git remote points at GitHub, propose that. If a git remote points at GitLab (gitlab.com or a self-hosted host), propose GitLab. Otherwise (or if the user prefers), offer:

• GitHub — issues live in the repo's GitHub Issues (uses the gh CLI)
• GitLab — issues live in the repo's GitLab Issues (uses the glab CLI)
• Local markdown — issues live as files under .scratch/<feature>/ in this repo (good for solo projects or repos without a remote)
• Other (Jira, Linear, etc.) — ask the user to describe the workflow in one paragraph; the skill will record it as freeform prose

Section B — Triage label vocabulary.

Explainer: When the triage skill processes an incoming issue, it moves it through a state machine — needs evaluation, waiting on reporter, ready for an AFK agent to pick up, ready for a human, a tracking container for sub-issues, or won't fix. To do that, it needs to apply labels (or the equivalent in your issue tracker) that match strings you've actually configured. If your repo already uses different label names (e.g. bug:triage instead of needs-triage), map them here so the skill applies the right ones instead of creating duplicates.

The six canonical roles:

• needs-triage — maintainer needs to evaluate
• needs-info — waiting on reporter
• ready-for-agent — fully specified, AFK-ready (an agent can pick it up with no human context)
• ready-for-human — needs human implementation
• tracking — container/parent issue (e.g. PRD) — work lives in sub-issues
• wontfix — will not be actioned

Default: each role's string equals its name. Ask the user if they want to override any. If their issue tracker has no existing labels, the defaults are fine.

Section C — Domain docs.

Explainer: Some skills (improve-codebase-architecture, diagnose, tdd) read a CONTEXT.md file to learn the project's domain language, and docs/adr/ for past architectural decisions. They need to know whether the repo has one global context or multiple (e.g. a monorepo with separate frontend/backend contexts) so they look in the right place.

Confirm the layout:

• Single-context — one CONTEXT.md + docs/adr/ at the repo root. Most repos are this.
• Multi-context — CONTEXT-MAP.md at the root pointing to per-context CONTEXT.md files (typically a monorepo).

Section D — Ship style.

Explainer: When a skill like tdd finishes a change, it needs to know how to get that change to the default branch. Team projects almost always go through pull requests; solo projects often push direct. This affects whether the skill creates a feature branch, opens a PR with a closing keyword, or commits straight to the default branch and closes the issue explicitly.

• Pull request — every change goes through a PR. Skills create a feature branch, push, and open a PR with Closes #<issue> in the body. The human merges.
• Direct push — changes go straight to the default branch. Skills commit, push, and close the related issue explicitly.

Default: pull request, unless the user specifies otherwise.

Section E — Project board sync (optional, GitHub only).

Explainer: If you're using GitHub Projects v2 to track your issues on a board — or want to start — the triage, to-issues, and tdd skills can update a card's Status column whenever they change the issue's lifecycle (e.g. triaged to ready-for-agent → Status Ready; tdd starts work → In progress; PR opened → In review). Without this, the board stays static and you have to drag cards across columns manually. The skill can wire up either an existing board or create a fresh one. Skip this section if you don't want a project board, or if you'd rather wire the sync up via GitHub Actions yourself.

If the user opts in, walk them through:

1. Identify or create the project. Ask whether an existing Projects v2 board should be wired up, or whether to create a new one.

2. Existing board. Ask for the project URL (e.g. https://github.com/users/<owner>/projects/<number> or https://github.com/orgs/<org>/projects/<number>) or an owner/number pair. Parse out the owner and number.

3. New board. Ask for a title (default: the repo name). Determine the owner — for org-owned repos default to the org; for user repos default to the user — and confirm before creating. Then:

   gh project create --owner <owner> --title "<title>" --format json
   

   Capture the returned number, url, and node ID. Two follow-ups, both optional but worth offering:
   • Link the repo so issue/PR pickers know about the board: gh project link <number> --owner <owner> --repo <owner>/<repo>.
   • Enable built-in workflows at <url>/workflows — at minimum Auto-add to project (filter repo:<owner>/<repo> is:issue,pr is:open) and Auto-close issue (so closing an issue lands its card on Done without the skills having to). These workflows can't yet be toggled via gh; point the user at the URL.

4. Fetch the project's structure. Run:

   gh project view <number> --owner <owner> --format json
   gh project field-list <number> --owner <owner> --format json
   

   Capture the project's node ID (PVT_…), find the single-select field named Status (or whatever the user calls their lifecycle column — confirm with them), and capture its field ID (PVTSSF_…) and option IDs.

5. Customise Status options if needed. New projects ship with Todo / In Progress / Done. These skills work best with five canonical options — Backlog, Ready, In progress, In review, Done — because they map cleanly onto the triage and tdd lifecycle. Compare the option list from step 2 against the canonical five. If any are missing, ask the user which approach they'd prefer:

6. Replace the Status options with the canonical five (recommended for new boards, or older boards with no cards yet). Run the mutation:

   gh api graphql -f query='
     mutation($projectId: ID!, $fieldId: ID!) {
       updateProjectV2Field(input: {
         projectId: $projectId
         fieldId: $fieldId
         singleSelectOptions: [
           {name: "Backlog",     color: GRAY,   description: ""}
           {name: "Ready",       color: BLUE,   description: ""}
           {name: "In progress", color: YELLOW, description: ""}
           {name: "In review",   color: PURPLE, description: ""}
           {name: "Done",        color: GREEN,  description: ""}
         ]
       }) {
         projectV2Field {
           ... on ProjectV2SingleSelectField {
             id
             options { id name }
           }
         }
       }
     }
   ' -f projectId=<PVT_…> -F fieldId=<PVTSSF_…>
   

   Re-run gh project field-list to capture the new option IDs. Note: updateProjectV2Field replaces the option set wholesale; any cards assigned to a removed option (e.g. Todo) become unassigned and need manual remapping. Don't run this on a board with live cards without warning the user first.

7. Map existing options onto the canonical states (recommended when the board already has live cards). Confirm a mapping with the user — e.g. Todo → Backlog, In Progress → In progress — and record it in docs/agents/project-board.md so the skills emit the right option IDs without mutating the field.

8. Map canonical states to Status options. Default mapping (override per user preference, or per the mapping agreed in step 3):

Skill action	Status option
/triage → needs-triage / needs-info	Backlog
/triage → ready-for-agent / ready-for-human	Ready
/triage → tracking / /to-issues parent	In progress
/tdd step 1 (work begins)	In progress
/tdd ship in PR-style (PR opened)	In review
/tdd-parallel step 4 (integration PR opened) — bulk parent + every integrated sub-issue	In review
/triage → wontfix	Done

/tdd invoked with --no-ship (used by /tdd-parallel sub-agents) skips the per-slice "In review" update; the orchestrator handles the bulk transition when the consolidated integration PR opens.

Issue closure (PR merged, direct-push commit, manual close) lands at Done automatically via the project's built-in Auto-close issue workflow — skills don't write Done themselves. 5. If the user's Status options don't include some of these labels (e.g. their column is named In Review not In review, or they have no In progress), confirm the substitutions before writing.

If the user opts out, do not write docs/agents/project-board.md — the skills detect its absence and silently skip the sync.

3. Confirm and edit

Show the user a draft of:

• The ## Agent skills block to add to whichever of CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md is being edited (see step 4 for selection rules)
• The contents of docs/agents/issue-tracker.md, docs/agents/triage-labels.md, docs/agents/domain.md, docs/agents/ship-style.md, and (if Section E was answered yes) docs/agents/project-board.md

Let them edit before writing.

4. Write

Pick the file to edit:

• If CLAUDE.md exists, edit it.
• Else if AGENTS.md exists, edit it.
• If neither exists, ask the user which one to create — don't pick for them.

Never create AGENTS.md when CLAUDE.md already exists (or vice versa) — always edit the one that's already there.

If an ## Agent skills block already exists in the chosen file, update its contents in-place rather than appending a duplicate. Don't overwrite user edits to the surrounding sections.

The block:

## Agent skills

### Issue tracker

[one-line summary of where issues are tracked]. See `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`.

### Triage labels

[one-line summary of the label vocabulary]. See `docs/agents/triage-labels.md`.

### Domain docs

[one-line summary of layout — "single-context" or "multi-context"]. See `docs/agents/domain.md`.

### Ship style

[one-line summary — "pull request" or "direct push"]. See `docs/agents/ship-style.md`.

If Section E was answered yes, also append:

### Project board

[one-line summary — project name and URL]. See `docs/agents/project-board.md`.

Then write the docs files using the seed templates in this skill folder as a starting point:

• issue-tracker-github.md — GitHub issue tracker
• issue-tracker-gitlab.md — GitLab issue tracker
• issue-tracker-local.md — local-markdown issue tracker
• triage-labels.md — label mapping
• domain.md — domain doc consumer rules + layout
• ship-style-pr.md — pull-request workflow
• ship-style-direct.md — direct push to default branch
• project-board.md — GitHub Projects v2 sync (only when Section E was answered yes)

For "other" issue trackers, write docs/agents/issue-tracker.md from scratch using the user's description. For docs/agents/project-board.md, fill the template placeholders with the project node ID, Status field ID, and option IDs you discovered in Section E.

5. Done

Tell the user the setup is complete and which engineering skills will now read from these files. Mention they can edit docs/agents/*.md directly later — re-running this skill is only necessary if they want to switch issue trackers or restart from scratch.