Narrative Sensemaking

Problem shape: the material is an account — an incident write-up, a user journey, a roadmap story, a vendor claim, a postmortem — and the work is to recover its structure: which functions occur in which order, which roles are filled, where the sequence breaks its own grammar, and whether the account is even structurally possible. Paradigmatic/causal analysis is the wrong mode here and produces confident nonsense when forced.

Relevant geniuses

Invocation

1. Pick the best-fit agent above. If two or more fit, run tools/genius-invoker.sh route "<problem>" and take the top ranked match.
2. Load it: tools/genius-invoker.sh invoke <agent> "<problem>", then read agents/genius/<agent>.md in full.
3. Apply the agent's <workflow> step by step and answer in its <output-format>. State which mode the account is being read in — narrative or paradigmatic — before drawing any conclusion from it.
4. Typical chain: ibnkhaldun filters out the structurally impossible → propp extracts the function sequence from what survives → bruner reads what the breach meant to the people in it. Run via tools/genius-invoker.sh compose ibnkhaldun propp bruner -- "<problem>".
5. If no shape above matches, do not force a genius — use a built-in agent with the closest GENIUS: pattern (rules/agent-routes.json, INDEX.md routing rule).

Refuse when

• A mechanism is available and measurable — a causal question is being smuggled in as a story. Route to causal-audit or failure-forensics.
• The narrative is the deliverable's purpose rather than its object: this shape analyzes accounts, it does not write persuasive ones.
• Structural analysis is being used to dismiss a first-hand report that has not been checked against any record — implausible is not the same as false.