Scaffold a new data pipeline

Create a new pipeline repository under pipelines/.

Finding the workspace root

The workspace root contains CLAUDE.md alongside projects/, pipelines/, $ROOT/data_catalog/, research/. If the current directory is inside a project or pipeline, search upward to find the root. Use $ROOT for all paths below.

Step 1: Gather information

Ask the user:

1. Pipeline slug — short directory name (e.g., brazil, justica, politica)
2. Purpose — what data does this pipeline clean/process?
3. Input data — raw data sources (check $ROOT/data_catalog/ for existing ones)
4. Output — what cleaned datasets does it produce?

Step 2: Create the directory structure

Follow the pipeline structure from $ROOT/research-kit/rules/project_docs_contract.md:

$ROOT/pipelines/<slug>/
  README.md
  CLAUDE.md
  .claude/
    settings.local.json
  docs/
    summary.md
    thinking.md
    todo.md
    data.md
    decisions.md
    archive.md
  source/
  build/
    .gitkeep

Note: pipelines do NOT have paper/, talk/, or the full set of project docs (no meetings.md, feedback.md, literature.md, institutions.md, methods.md, results.md).

Step 3: Populate files

CLAUDE.md

# <Pipeline Name> Pipeline

## Purpose
<from user input>

## Input
<data sources>

## Output
<cleaned datasets produced>

## Shared code
- Uses `diarios` module for court/legal data utilities — check `$ROOT/research-kit/meta/diarios_api.md` before writing new helpers.

## Conventions
- Follow workspace rules in `$ROOT/research/rules/workspace.md`
- Documentation follows `$ROOT/research-kit/rules/project_docs_contract.md` (pipeline section)
- Scripts follow the Inline Audit Trail (IAT) convention in `$ROOT/research-kit/rules/inline_audit_trail.md`

.claude/settings.local.json

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Bash(python3:*)",
      "Bash(git add:*)",
      "Bash(git commit:*)"
    ]
  }
}

docs/summary.md

Populate with the pipeline's purpose, input sources, and output description.

docs/data.md

Document both input and output datasets using the data.md format. For pipelines, this file describes both sides — what goes in and what comes out.

docs/todo.md

# TODOs

## Setup
- [ ] Initial pipeline structure
  - created: <today's date>

Other docs/ files

Create thinking.md, decisions.md, archive.md with their headers and empty template sections.

README.md

# <Pipeline Name>

<One-line description of what this pipeline produces>

See `docs/summary.md` for details.

Step 4: Initialize git

cd $ROOT/pipelines/<slug> && git init

Create a .gitignore:

build/
*.pyc
__pycache__/
.ipynb_checkpoints/

Step 5: Register the pipeline

1. Suggest updating the pipeline listing in $ROOT/research/rules/workspace.md.
2. Check $ROOT/research/meta/data_linkages.md — note which projects will consume this pipeline's output.

Gotchas

• Pipelines are NOT projects. Do not create paper/, talk/, meetings.md, feedback.md, literature.md, institutions.md, methods.md, or results.md.
• Pipeline docs/data.md documents both inputs AND outputs (unlike project data.md which only documents usage).
• Build outputs are typically gitignored — they should be regenerable from source.
• Check $ROOT/data_catalog/ for existing metadata about the input data sources before populating data.md.