Project Context

Mission

Provide a reusable, private-by-default context layer for each project so environment information is collected once, reused across runs, and safely isolated from git history.

Scope boundary:

1. manages runtime context and secrets only
2. does not store heavy experiment artifacts (checkpoints, dataset caches, large logs)
3. stores per-project shared-memory source configuration, but not shared-memory records

Trigger

Use this skill when any of these are needed:

1. first-time project environment bootstrap
2. preflight checks before experiment/report/eval execution
3. missing runtime fields during task execution
4. per-run context snapshot for reproducibility
5. first use of shared-memory retrieval or export for a project

Private Directory Contract

Store all local runtime state under project root:

• <project-root>/.project_local/<project_slug>/context.json
• <project-root>/.project_local/<project_slug>/secrets.json
• <project-root>/.project_local/<project_slug>/runs/<run_id>/runtime_snapshot.json

Rules:

1. .project_local/ must be in .gitignore.
2. context.json is non-sensitive.
3. secrets.json is sensitive and must never be logged verbatim.
4. If multiple projects share one orchestration repo, isolate by project_slug.
5. Initialize .gitignore if missing and append .project_local/ if absent.

Incremental Collection Policy

Do not ask for all fields at once.

1. infer task type (report|sft|rl|eval|generic)
2. load existing context.json + secrets.json
3. auto-detect non-sensitive environment values where possible
4. if execution target is remote, consume reuse decision from run-governor first; ask only if decision is missing
5. ask only for missing required fields for the current task
6. during execution, allow blocker-only delta prompts (e.g. missing API URL/key)
7. persist immediately for reuse
8. when shared-memory retrieval/export is needed, ask the user where the local shared-memory repo should live if memory.shared_repo.path is missing

If new missing fields appear later, run preflight again and collect only deltas.

Security Policy

1. set <project-root>/.project_local and subdirectories to 0700
2. set secrets.json to 0600
3. redact sensitive keys in all CLI output (***)
4. never place secret content in stage reports or commit messages

Run Integration

Recommended order in research execution:

1. run-governor collects and confirms mode + local|remote target
2. run-governor initializes run_id
3. project-context preflight resolves runtime context and consumes remote reuse decision
4. experiment-execution runs with resolved context
5. project-context snapshot writes run-scoped frozen context
6. shared-memory retrieval/export reuses memory.shared_repo.* from context.json

Script

Use helper script:

• scripts/project_context.py

Examples:

python3 .agents/skills/project-context/scripts/project_context.py preflight \
  --project-root . \
  --project-slug my-sft-project \
  --task-type sft \
  --run-id 20260303_130000-my-sft-project

python3 .agents/skills/project-context/scripts/project_context.py preflight \
  --project-root . \
  --project-slug my-sft-project \
  --task-type generic \
  --require memory.shared_repo.path

python3 .agents/skills/project-context/scripts/project_context.py show \
  --project-root . \
  --project-slug my-sft-project

python3 .agents/skills/project-context/scripts/project_context.py migrate-layout \
  --project-root . \
  --clean-empty

Required Output for Operations

For each operation, emit:

1. Project: root and slug
2. Action: preflight/show/snapshot
3. State: loaded + newly collected fields
4. Paths: local/context/secrets/snapshot/runtime/shared-memory paths
5. Missing: unresolved required fields (if any)