wayfinder: remove the Handoff ceremony

Every session ended with a Handoff that queried the frontier and emitted
per-ticket copy-paste commands — real token cost each session. Cut it
entirely and let the natural flow carry continuation: the next
/wayfinder session already loads the map and picks the next frontier
ticket, so nothing is lost, just deferred to re-invocation.

Reconciles the references left behind: the one-ticket-per-session rule
and "charting is one session's work" constraint survive as plain lines;
the Refer-by-name paragraph drops its Handoff mentions.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

.changeset/tdd-reference-only-seams.md

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+"mattpocock-skills": patch
+---
+
+Reshape the `tdd` skill into reference-only. The red → green → refactor loop is anchored by leading words the model already holds, so the step-by-step Workflow was largely restating the loop and duplicating the horizontal-slicing anti-pattern. Dropped the Workflow and per-cycle checklist; folded their one durable idea — vertical slices / tracer bullets — into the Anti-patterns section and a short Rules-of-the-loop list. Introduced **seam** as the leading word for where tests go, collapsing the old Philosophy "public interfaces" prose and the Planning "confirm interface / behaviors" handshake into one rule: test only at pre-agreed seams, confirmed with the user before any test is written.
+
+Also dropped the refactor stage — TDD is now red → green, not red → green → refactor. Refactoring belongs to the review stage, not the implementation loop, so the refactor rule and `refactoring.md` were removed (its home is the `review` skill).

.changeset/wayfinder-collaborative-tracker.md

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+"mattpocock-skills": minor
+---
+
+Make **`wayfinder`** collaborative by moving the map off a local Markdown file and onto the repo's issue tracker.
+
+The map is now a single `wayfinder:map` issue whose tickets are its child issues — one shared URL the whole team can watch and comment on. Blocking, claiming (`wayfinder:claimed`), and the frontier query all use native tracker semantics, so a session loads the map at low resolution (Notes + one context pointer per closed ticket + Fog prose) and zooms into individual tickets on demand, instead of loading the whole map every time.
+
+Wayfinder stays tracker-agnostic: the per-tracker mechanics live behind a pointer in `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`, so `setup-matt-pocock-skills` now seeds a "Wayfinding operations" section for GitHub, GitLab, and local-markdown. Absent that doc, Wayfinder defaults to local-markdown.

.changeset/wayfinder-map-index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+"mattpocock-skills": minor
+---
+
+Make **`wayfinder`**'s no-duplication contract explicit: the map is an **index**, not a store.
+
+Adopting "index" as the leading word for the map's role fixes two duplication risks. The map now states up front that a decision lives in exactly one place — its ticket — so it only ever gists and links, never restates the answer (previously this rule was implied inside an HTML comment in the map-body template). And graduating fog into a ticket now clears the graduated patch from the Fog, so a suspected question can't linger in both places at once.

.changeset/wayfinding-rename.md

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+"mattpocock-skills": minor
+---
+
+Rename the **`decision-mapping`** skill to **`wayfinder`**, invoked as `/wayfinder`.
+
+"Decision map" was jargony and inaccurate — only one of the skill's four ticket types (Grilling) is actually a decision. The reframe charts a route through a foggy problem, resolving investigation tickets one at a time until the way to the goal is clear. This makes one coherent leading-word frame (fog of war / frontier / the map) instead of mixing an invented term on top of it.
+
+Also a pruning pass: unified `node`→`ticket`, bound "the frontier" to the unblocked tickets, dropped the duplicated "one question at a time" (owned by `/grilling`), and trimmed intro no-ops.

.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
     "./skills/engineering/tdd",
     "./skills/engineering/to-issues",
     "./skills/engineering/to-prd",
+    "./skills/engineering/implement",
     "./skills/engineering/prototype",
     "./skills/engineering/domain-modeling",
     "./skills/engineering/codebase-design",

skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-github.md

@@ -32,3 +32,14 @@ Create a GitHub issue.
 ## When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"
 
 Run `gh issue view <number> --comments`.
+
+## Wayfinding operations
+
+Used by `/wayfinder`. The **map** is a single issue with **child** issues as tickets.
+
+- **Map**: a single issue labelled `wayfinder:map`, holding the Notes / Decisions-so-far / Fog body. `gh issue create --label wayfinder:map`.
+- **Child ticket**: an issue linked to the map as a GitHub sub-issue (`gh api` on the sub-issues endpoint). Where sub-issues aren't enabled, add the child to a task list in the map body and put `Part of #<map>` at the top of the child body. Labels: `wayfinder:<type>` (`research`/`prototype`/`grilling`/`task`), plus `wayfinder:claimed` once claimed.
+- **Blocking**: native issue relationships where available; otherwise a `Blocked by: #<n>, #<n>` line at the top of the child body. A ticket is unblocked when every issue it lists is closed.
+- **Frontier query**: list the map's open children (`gh issue list --state open`, scoped to the map's sub-issues / task list), drop any with an open `Blocked by` issue or the `wayfinder:claimed` label; first in map order wins.
+- **Claim**: `gh issue edit <n> --add-label wayfinder:claimed` — the session's first write.
+- **Resolve**: `gh issue comment <n> --body "<answer>"`, then `gh issue close <n>`, then append a context pointer (gist + link) to the map's Decisions-so-far.

skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-gitlab.md

@@ -33,3 +33,14 @@ Create a GitLab issue.
 ## When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"
 
 Run `glab issue view <number> --comments`.
+
+## Wayfinding operations
+
+Used by `/wayfinder`. The **map** is a single issue with **child** issues as tickets.
+
+- **Map**: a single issue labelled `wayfinder:map`, holding the Notes / Decisions-so-far / Fog body. `glab issue create --label wayfinder:map`. (On GitLab tiers with native epics, an epic may hold the map instead; a labelled issue works everywhere.)
+- **Child ticket**: an issue carrying `Part of #<map>` at the top of its description and labels `wayfinder:<type>` (`research`/`prototype`/`grilling`/`task`), plus `wayfinder:claimed` once claimed.
+- **Blocking**: GitLab's native `/blocked_by #<n>` quick action (or a `Blocked by: #<n>, #<n>` line in the description as fallback). A ticket is unblocked when every issue it lists is closed.
+- **Frontier query**: `glab issue list -F json` scoped to the map's children, drop any with an open blocker or the `wayfinder:claimed` label; first in map order wins.
+- **Claim**: `glab issue update <n> --label wayfinder:claimed` — the session's first write.
+- **Resolve**: `glab issue note <n> --message "<answer>"`, then `glab issue close <n>`, then append a context pointer (gist + link) to the map's Decisions-so-far.

skills/engineering/setup-matt-pocock-skills/issue-tracker-local.md

@@ -17,3 +17,14 @@ Create a new file under `.scratch/<feature-slug>/` (creating the directory if ne
 ## When a skill says "fetch the relevant ticket"
 
 Read the file at the referenced path. The user will normally pass the path or the issue number directly.
+
+## Wayfinding operations
+
+Used by `/wayfinder`. The **map** is a file with one **child** file per ticket.
+
+- **Map**: `.scratch/<effort>/map.md` — the Notes / Decisions-so-far / Fog body.
+- **Child ticket**: `.scratch/<effort>/issues/NN-<slug>.md`, numbered from `01`, with the question in the body. A `Type:` line records the ticket type (`research`/`prototype`/`grilling`/`task`); a `Status:` line records `claimed`/`resolved`.
+- **Blocking**: a `Blocked by: NN, NN` line near the top. A ticket is unblocked when every file it lists is `resolved`.
+- **Frontier**: scan `.scratch/<effort>/issues/` for files that are open, unblocked, and unclaimed; first by number wins.
+- **Claim**: set `Status: claimed` and save before any work.
+- **Resolve**: append the answer under an `## Answer` heading, set `Status: resolved`, then append a context pointer (gist + link) to the map's Decisions-so-far in `map.md`.

skills/engineering/tdd/SKILL.md

@@ -5,107 +5,32 @@ description: Test-driven development. Use when the user wants to build features
 
 # Test-Driven Development
 
-## Philosophy
+TDD is the red → green loop. This skill is the reference that makes that loop produce tests worth keeping: what a good test is, where tests go, the anti-patterns, and the rules of the loop. Every section applies on every cycle — consult them before and during the loop, not after.
 
-**Core principle**: Tests should verify behavior through public interfaces, not implementation details. Code can change entirely; tests shouldn't.
+When exploring the codebase, read `CONTEXT.md` (if it exists) so test names and interface vocabulary match the project's domain language, and respect ADRs in the area you're touching.
 
-**Good tests** are integration-style: they exercise real code paths through public APIs. They describe _what_ the system does, not _how_ it does it. A good test reads like a specification - "user can checkout with valid cart" tells you exactly what capability exists. These tests survive refactors because they don't care about internal structure.
+## What a good test is
 
-**Bad tests** are coupled to implementation. They mock internal collaborators, test private methods, or verify through external means (like querying a database directly instead of using the interface). The warning sign: your test breaks when you refactor, but behavior hasn't changed. If you rename an internal function and tests fail, those tests were testing implementation, not behavior.
-
-**Tautological tests** restate the implementation inside the assertion, so they pass by construction and give zero confidence. When the expected value is computed the way the code computes it — `expect(add(a, b)).toBe(a + b)`, snapshotting a figure you derived by hand the same way the code does, asserting a constant equals itself — the test can never disagree with the code: break the code wrong and the assertion breaks wrong with it. The expected value must come from an independent source of truth — a known-good literal, a worked example, the spec.
+Tests verify behavior through public interfaces, not implementation details. Code can change entirely; tests shouldn't. A good test reads like a specification — "user can checkout with valid cart" tells you exactly what capability exists — and survives refactors because it doesn't care about internal structure.
 
 See [tests.md](tests.md) for examples and [mocking.md](mocking.md) for mocking guidelines.
 
-## Anti-Pattern: Horizontal Slices
+## Seams — where tests go
 
-**DO NOT write all tests first, then all implementation.** This is "horizontal slicing" - treating RED as "write all tests" and GREEN as "write all code."
+A **seam** is the public boundary you test at: the interface where you observe behavior without reaching inside. Tests live at seams, never against internals.
 
-This produces **crap tests**:
+**Test only at pre-agreed seams.** Before writing any test, write down the seams under test and confirm them with the user. No test is written at an unconfirmed seam. You can't test everything — agreeing the seams up front is how testing effort lands on the critical paths and complex logic instead of every edge case.
 
-- Tests written in bulk test _imagined_ behavior, not _actual_ behavior
-- You end up testing the _shape_ of things (data structures, function signatures) rather than user-facing behavior
-- Tests become insensitive to real changes - they pass when behavior breaks, fail when behavior is fine
-- You outrun your headlights, committing to test structure before understanding the implementation
+Ask: "What's the public interface, and which seams should we test?"
 
-**Correct approach**: Vertical slices via tracer bullets. One test → one implementation → repeat. Each test responds to what you learned from the previous cycle. Because you just wrote the code, you know exactly what behavior matters and how to verify it.
+## Anti-patterns
 
-```
-WRONG (horizontal):
-  RED:   test1, test2, test3, test4, test5
-  GREEN: impl1, impl2, impl3, impl4, impl5
+- **Implementation-coupled** — mocks internal collaborators, tests private methods, or verifies through a side channel (querying the database instead of using the interface). The tell: the test breaks when you refactor but behavior hasn't changed.
+- **Tautological** — the assertion recomputes the expected value the way the code does (`expect(add(a, b)).toBe(a + b)`, a snapshot derived by hand the same way, a constant asserted equal to itself), so it passes by construction and can never disagree with the code. Expected values must come from an independent source of truth — a known-good literal, a worked example, the spec.
+- **Horizontal slicing** — writing all tests first, then all implementation. Bulk tests verify _imagined_ behavior: you test the _shape_ of things rather than user-facing behavior, the tests go insensitive to real changes, and you commit to test structure before understanding the implementation. Work in **vertical slices** instead — one test → one implementation → repeat, each test a **tracer bullet** that responds to what the last cycle taught you.
 
-RIGHT (vertical):
-  RED→GREEN: test1→impl1
-  RED→GREEN: test2→impl2
-  RED→GREEN: test3→impl3
-  ...
-```
+## Rules of the loop
 
-## Workflow
-
-### 1. Planning
-
-When exploring the codebase, read `CONTEXT.md` (if it exists) so that test names and interface vocabulary match the project's domain language, and respect ADRs in the area you're touching.
-
-Before writing any code:
-
-- [ ] Confirm with user what interface changes are needed
-- [ ] Confirm with user which behaviors to test (prioritize)
-- [ ] Identify opportunities for deep modules (small interface, deep implementation) — run the `/codebase-design` skill for the vocabulary and the testability checks
-- [ ] List the behaviors to test (not implementation steps)
-- [ ] Get user approval on the plan
-
-Ask: "What should the public interface look like? Which behaviors are most important to test?"
-
-**You can't test everything.** Confirm with the user exactly which behaviors matter most. Focus testing effort on critical paths and complex logic, not every possible edge case.
-
-### 2. Tracer Bullet
-
-Write ONE test that confirms ONE thing about the system:
-
-```
-RED:   Write test for first behavior → test fails
-GREEN: Write minimal code to pass → test passes
-```
-
-This is your tracer bullet - proves the path works end-to-end.
-
-### 3. Incremental Loop
-
-For each remaining behavior:
-
-```
-RED:   Write next test → fails
-GREEN: Minimal code to pass → passes
-```
-
-Rules:
-
-- One test at a time
-- Only enough code to pass current test
-- Don't anticipate future tests
-- Keep tests focused on observable behavior
-
-### 4. Refactor
-
-After all tests pass, look for [refactor candidates](refactoring.md):
-
-- [ ] Extract duplication
-- [ ] Deepen modules (move complexity behind simple interfaces)
-- [ ] Apply SOLID principles where natural
-- [ ] Consider what new code reveals about existing code
-- [ ] Run tests after each refactor step
-
-**Never refactor while RED.** Get to GREEN first.
-
-## Checklist Per Cycle
-
-```
-[ ] Test describes behavior, not implementation
-[ ] Test uses public interface only
-[ ] Test would survive internal refactor
-[ ] Expected values are independent literals, not recomputed from the code
-[ ] Code is minimal for this test
-[ ] No speculative features added
-```
+- **Red before green.** Write the failing test first, then only enough code to pass it. Don't anticipate future tests or add speculative features.
+- **One slice at a time.** One seam, one test, one minimal implementation per cycle.
+- **Refactoring is not part of the loop.** It belongs to the review stage (see the `review` skill), not the red → green implementation cycle.

skills/engineering/tdd/refactoring.md

@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-# Refactor Candidates
-
-After TDD cycle, look for:
-
-- **Duplication** → Extract function/class
-- **Long methods** → Break into private helpers (keep tests on public interface)
-- **Shallow modules** → Combine or deepen
-- **Feature envy** → Move logic to where data lives
-- **Primitive obsession** → Introduce value objects
-- **Existing code** the new code reveals as problematic

skills/in-progress/README.md

@@ -2,9 +2,10 @@
 
 Skills that are still being developed. They're not ready to ship — expect rough edges, breaking changes, and abandoned experiments. They're excluded from the plugin and the top-level README until they graduate to a stable bucket.
 
-- **[decision-mapping](./decision-mapping/SKILL.md)** — Turn a loose idea into a sequenced map of investigation tickets, then drive them to resolution one at a time. User-invoked.
+- **[wayfinder](./wayfinder/SKILL.md)** — Chart a route through a foggy problem — turn a loose idea into a map of investigation tickets and resolve them one at a time until the way to the goal is clear. User-invoked.
 - **[loop-me](./loop-me/SKILL.md)** — Grill yourself into implementable workflow specs over multiple sessions, using the current directory as a stateful workspace. User-invoked.
 - **[wizard](./wizard/SKILL.md)** — Generate an interactive bash wizard that walks a human through a manual procedure (setup, a one-off migration, a state transition) — opening URLs, capturing values, writing `.env` and GitHub Actions secrets. User-invoked.
 - **[writing-beats](./writing-beats/SKILL.md)** — Shape an article as a journey of beats, choose-your-own-adventure style. Pick a starting beat, write only that beat, then pivot to the next, until the article reaches a natural end.
 - **[writing-fragments](./writing-fragments/SKILL.md)** — Grilling session that mines you for fragments — heterogeneous nuggets of writing — and appends them to a single document as raw material for a future article.
 - **[writing-shape](./writing-shape/SKILL.md)** — Take a markdown file of raw material and shape it into an article paragraph by paragraph, arguing format choices at each step.
+- **[claude-handoff](./claude-handoff/SKILL.md)** — Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately, seeded with a handoff summary via `claude --bg`. User-invoked.

skills/in-progress/claude-handoff/SKILL.md

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+---
+name: claude-handoff
+description: Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately.
+argument-hint: "What will the next session be used for?"
+disable-model-invocation: true
+---
+
+Write a handoff summary of the current conversation so a fresh agent can continue the work. Instead of saving it, launch a background agent seeded with the summary as its prompt: `claude --bg --name "<descriptive name>" "<handoff summary>"`. It starts in the current working directory and returns immediately; the user manages it with `claude agents`.
+
+Always pass `-n`/`--name` with a descriptive name (e.g. `--name "Fix login bug"`) — it sets the display name shown in the job list, session picker, and terminal title.
+
+Include a "suggested skills" section in the summary, which suggests skills that the agent should invoke.
+
+Do not duplicate content already captured in other artifacts (PRDs, plans, ADRs, issues, commits, diffs). Reference them by path or URL instead.
+
+Redact any sensitive information, such as API keys, passwords, or personally identifiable information — the summary becomes the agent's prompt.
+
+If the user passed arguments, treat them as a description of what the next session will focus on and tailor the summary accordingly.

skills/in-progress/decision-mapping/SKILL.md

@@ -1,108 +0,0 @@
----
-name: decision-mapping
-description: Turn a loose idea into a sequenced map of investigation tickets, then drive them to resolution one at a time.
-disable-model-invocation: true
----
-
-This skill is invoked when a loose idea requires more than one agent session to turn into a plan. It creates a stateful decision map in a markdown file, and drives the user through a sequence of tickets to resolve the open questions - which may require either prototyping, research or grilling. The map is domain-agnostic: it plans engineering work, course content, or anything else that fits the same shape.
-
-## The Decision Map
-
-The decision map is a single compact Markdown file, one per planning effort, git-tracked alongside the project. It is the canonical artifact — the **whole map is loaded as context into every session**, so it must stay compact.
-
-Assets created during tickets should be linked to from the map, not duplicated within it.
-
-### Structure
-
-Entries ("tickets"), each its own section keyed by a short dash-case slug that
-reads as a mini-title (e.g. `relational-db`, `auth-strategy`, `cache-layer`) —
-terse enough to stay token-efficient, and unique within the map.
-
-```markdown
-## relational-db: Relational Or Non-Relational Database?
-
-Blocked by: <slug>, <slug>
-Status: open | in-progress | resolved
-Type: Research | Prototype | Grilling | Task
-
-### Question
-
-<question-here>
-
-### Answer
-
-<answer-here>
-```
-
-The slug is the canonical id, used in every `Blocked by` edge and prose
-reference; the title after the colon is optional. A ticket
-is **unblocked** when every ticket in its `Blocked by` list is `resolved`. A
-session **claims** its ticket by setting `Status: in-progress` and saving the map
-before any work, so concurrent sessions skip it.
-
-Each ticket must be sized to one 100K token agent session.
-
-## Ticket Types
-
-There are four types of tickets:
-
-- **Research**: Reading documentation, third-party API's, or local resources like knowledge bases. Creates a markdown summary as an asset. Use this when knowledge outside the current working directory is required.
-- **Prototype**: Raise the fidelity of the discussion by making a cheap, rough, concrete artifact to react to — an outline, a rough take, a stub, or UI/logic code via the /prototype skill. Creates the prototype as an asset. Use this when "how should it look" or "how should it behave" is the key question.
-- **Grilling**: Conversation with the agent. Uses the /grilling and /domain-modeling skills. Asks one question at a time. The default case.
-- **Task**: Literal manual work that must be done before the discussion can move forward — nothing to decide, prototype, or research. Moving data from one place to another, signing up for a third-party service, provisioning access. The agent automates it where it can; otherwise it hands the human a precise checklist to do by hand. Resolved when the work is done; the answer records what was done and any resulting facts (credentials location, new URLs, row counts) later tickets depend on.
-
-## Fog of war
-
-The map is _deliberately_ incomplete beyond the frontier. Your job is to investigate the frontier, and to resolve tickets in order to push the frontier forward. Push back the fog of war, one node at a time — until the path to the finish line is clear and no tickets remain.
-
-## Invocation
-
-Two branches. Either way, **every session ends with a [Handoff](#handoff)** — never resolve more than one ticket per session.
-
-### Create the map
-
-User invokes with a loose idea.
-
-1. Run a `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling` session to surface the open decisions. Ask one question at a time.
-2. Write a new decision map — mostly fog, frontier identified, trivially-decidable entries resolved inline.
-3. Handoff. Map-building is one session's work; do not also resolve tickets.
-
-### Work through the map
-
-User invokes with a path to an existing map. A ticket slug is **optional** — without one, you pick the next decision, not the user.
-
-1. Load the **whole map** as context.
-2. Choose the ticket. If the user named one, use it. Otherwise pick the first `open` ticket in document order that is [unblocked](#structure). [Claim it](#structure): set `Status: in-progress` and save before any work.
-3. Resolve it, invoking skills as needed — including any the `## Notes` block names. If in doubt, use `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling`.
-4. Record the answer in the ticket's body and set `Status: resolved`.
-5. Add newly-discovered tickets with correct `Blocked by` edges. If the decisions made invalidate other parts of the map, update or delete those nodes.
-6. Handoff.
-
-The user may run unblocked tickets in parallel, so expect other agents to be editing the map in their own sessions.
-
-## Handoff
-
-End every session by clearing the context and opening one or more fresh sessions. Close with a **Next steps** block the user can copy-paste. Two cases:
-
-**Open tickets remain.** List the currently-unblocked tickets, then give two copy-paste options: a bare command for one session (you pick the next ticket), and one pinned command per unblocked ticket for running them in parallel. Paste one line per fresh window — opening one, some, or all of them.
-
-> **Next steps** — 3 tickets unblocked: `auth-strategy`, `cache-layer`, `rate-limits`.
-> Clear the context, then open fresh sessions.
->
-> **One session** — resolves the next unblocked ticket:
-> ```
-> Invoke /decision-mapping with the map at <path>.
-> ```
->
-> **Parallel** — paste one line per window, up to all 3:
-> ```
-> Invoke /decision-mapping with the map at <path>, ticket auth-strategy.
-> Invoke /decision-mapping with the map at <path>, ticket cache-layer.
-> Invoke /decision-mapping with the map at <path>, ticket rate-limits.
-> ```
-
-**No open tickets remain.** The fog is pushed back far enough that the path to the finish line is clear — the map is done. (The initial grilling may also surface no fog at all, in which case there was never a map to build.) Recommend implementing directly, or using `/to-prd` to schedule a multi-session implementation.
-
-## Notes
-
-An optional block declaring the **domain**, any skills every session should `consult`, and freeform standing preferences the planning surfaces.

skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md

@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+---
+name: wayfinder
+description: Chart a route through a foggy problem — turn a loose idea into a shared map of investigation tickets on your issue tracker, and resolve them one at a time until the way to the goal is clear.
+---
+
+A loose idea has arrived — too big for one agent session, and wrapped in fog: the route from here to a plan isn't visible yet. This skill charts it as a **shared map** on the repo's issue tracker, then works its tickets one at a time. The map is domain-agnostic — engineering work, course content, whatever fits the shape.
+
+## Refer by name
+
+Every map and ticket is an issue, so it has a **name** — its title. In everything the human reads — narration, the map's Decisions-so-far — refer to it by that name, never by a bare id, number, or slug. A wall of `#42, #43, #44` is illegible; names read at a glance. The id and URL don't vanish — a name wraps its link — but they ride *inside* the name, never stand in for it.
+
+## The Map
+
+The map is a single issue on this repo's issue tracker, labelled `wayfinder:map` — the canonical artifact. Its tickets are child issues of the map.
+
+The map is an **index**, not a store. It lists the decisions made and points at the tickets that hold their detail; a decision lives in exactly one place — its ticket — so the map never restates it, only gists it and links.
+
+**Where the map, its child tickets, blocking, and frontier queries physically live is tracker-specific.** Consult `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md` (the "Wayfinding operations" section) for how _this_ repo expresses them. If that doc is absent, default to the local-markdown tracker.
+
+### The map body
+
+The whole map at low resolution, loaded once per session. Open tickets are **not** listed — they are open child issues, found by query.
+
+```markdown
+## Notes
+
+<domain; skills every session should consult; standing preferences for this effort>
+
+## Decisions so far
+
+<!-- the index — one line per closed ticket: enough to judge relevance, then zoom the link for the detail the ticket holds -->
+
+- [<closed ticket title>](link) — <one-line gist of the answer>
+
+## Fog
+
+<!-- see "Fog of war" for what belongs here -->
+```
+
+### Tickets
+
+Each ticket is a **child issue** of the map; the tracker's issue id is its identity. Its body is the question, sized to one 100K token agent session:
+
+```markdown
+## Question
+
+<the decision or investigation this ticket resolves>
+```
+
+Two label families:
+
+- `wayfinder:<type>` — one of `research`, `prototype`, `grilling`, `task` (see [Ticket Types](#ticket-types)).
+- `wayfinder:claimed` — a session sets this **first**, before any work, so concurrent sessions skip it.
+
+Blocking uses the tracker's native semantics. A ticket is **unblocked** when every ticket blocking it is closed. The **frontier** is the open, unblocked, unclaimed children — the edge of the known.
+
+The answer isn't part of the body — it's recorded on resolution (see [Work through the map](#work-through-the-map)). Assets created while resolving a ticket are linked from the issue, not pasted in.
+
+## Ticket Types
+
+- **Research**: Reading documentation, third-party APIs, or local resources like knowledge bases. Creates a markdown summary as a linked asset. Use when knowledge outside the current working directory is required.
+- **Prototype**: Raise the fidelity of the discussion by making a cheap, rough, concrete artifact to react to — an outline, a rough take, a stub, or UI/logic code via the /prototype skill. Links the prototype as an asset. Use when "how should it look" or "how should it behave" is the key question.
+- **Grilling**: Conversation with the agent. Uses the /grilling and /domain-modeling skills. Asks one question at a time. The default case.
+- **Task**: Literal manual work that must be done before the discussion can move forward — nothing to decide, prototype, or research. Moving data, signing up for a service, provisioning access. The agent automates it where it can; otherwise it hands the human a precise checklist. Resolved when the work is done; the answer records what was done and any resulting facts (credentials location, new URLs, row counts) later tickets depend on.
+
+## Fog of war
+
+The map is _deliberately_ incomplete: don't chart what you can't yet see. Beyond the tickets lies fog — the dim view of decisions and investigations you can tell are coming but can't yet pin down, because they hang on questions still open. Resolving a ticket clears the fog ahead of it, graduating whatever's now specifiable into fresh tickets — one at a time, until the way to the goal is clear and no tickets remain.
+
+The map's **Fog** section is where that dim view is written down: the suspected question, the area to revisit later, the risk you're deferring. Write as loosely or as fully as the view allows; it doubles as a signpost for collaborators reading where the effort is headed.
+
+**Fog or ticket?** The test is whether you can state the question precisely now — _not_ whether you can answer it now.
+
+- **Ticket when** the question is already sharp — even if it's blocked and you can't act on it yet.
+- **Fog when** you can't yet phrase it that sharply. Don't pre-slice fog into ticket-sized pieces: it's coarser than a ticket, and one patch may graduate into several tickets, or none, once the frontier reaches it.
+
+Fog excludes only what's already decided (that's Decisions so far) and what's already a ticket.
+
+## Invocation
+
+Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session.**
+
+### Chart the map
+
+User invokes with a loose idea.
+
+1. Run a `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling` session to surface the open decisions.
+2. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, Fog sketched.
+3. **Create the tickets you can specify now** as child issues of the map — then wire blocking edges in a **second pass** (issues need ids before they can reference each other). Wiring sorts them into the frontier and the blocked; everything you can't yet specify stays in the Fog.
+4. Stop — charting the map is one session's work; do not also resolve tickets.
+
+### Work through the map
+
+User invokes with a map (URL or number). A ticket is **optional** — without one, you pick the next decision, not the user.
+
+1. Load the **map** — the low-res view, not every ticket body.
+2. Choose the ticket. If the user named one, use it. Otherwise take the first frontier ticket in order. **Claim it**: set `wayfinder:claimed` and save before any work.
+3. Resolve it — **zoom as needed**: fetch the full body of any related or closed ticket on demand; invoke the skills the `## Notes` block names. If in doubt, use `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling`.
+4. Record the resolution: post the answer as a **resolution comment**, **close** the issue, and **append a context pointer** to the map's Decisions-so-far.
+5. Add newly-surfaced tickets (create-then-wire); graduate any fog the answer has made specifiable, clearing each graduated patch from the Fog so it lives only as its new ticket. If the decision invalidates other parts of the map, update or delete those tickets.
+
+The user may run unblocked tickets in parallel, so expect other sessions to be editing the tracker concurrently.