setup-workspace

Run onboarding as a paced compile: confirmed owner knowledge becomes a durable workspace, while temporary setup guidance disappears from the prompts loaded every session. The owner is not an engineer. Use plain English, explain each unfamiliar term immediately, and make progress visible on disk.

Operating contract

• Structure is the foundation. Identity, areas, ownership, and routing come before accounts or useful tasks. The first-area preview is interview work: one real area and one mini-brief, then straight back to mapping the business.
• One question, one confirmation, one write. Research first, reflect the answer in plain words, receive a clear yes, save it, and only then continue.
• Disk is the checkpoint. .solo-staff-setup.md is the only temporary ordering signal. Durable memory describes the business; it never doubles as setup state.
• Resumes are exact. Continue at the first missing output. Preserve confirmed work, finish half-built areas in place, and avoid repeating completed interviews.
• The workspace is the boundary. Edit only the owner's workspace. Follow AGENTS.md, keep outside actions draft-first, and leave uncertain facts blank.
• The owner controls the pace. Explain that “explain that again,” “skip this for now,” and stopping are safe. Offer pauses after each major piece except the first-area preview, which flows directly into the remaining-area map.

1. Route the run

Read Start or resume completely. Classify the run from file content, not file existence: fetched templates already contain root files. If a completed receipt exists, verify before reconstructing anything. On a resume, use .solo-staff-setup.md to locate the first missing output.

Complete when: the run is classified as fetch, fresh personalization, resume, bounded repair, or already complete; the next action is known; and an already-green workspace has stopped without mutation.

2. Establish a fresh foundation

For a fetch or fresh personalization, read Fetch and outside research completely. Land a clean, writable Solo Staff copy, verify its shape, obtain one public business anchor, and show the owner a clearly labeled outside first take. A resume with valid research state skips this phase; a reconstructed resume performs only the missing research pass.

Complete when: the base files and both discovery surfaces exist, writes work, and the owner has corrected or accepted a research draft covering the business, customers, revenue model, likely areas, and public voice.

3. Capture identity and the checkpoint

Read Interview and build completely before the first owner question. Interview for the four identity lines and the current time sink. Reflect the set back, receive a clear yes, write only the confirmed identity to AGENTS.md, show the block, and create .solo-staff-setup.md.

Complete when: all four Who you are lines contain confirmed answers and the temporary checkpoint records Status: in progress, identity, time sink, First area: next, and an unconfirmed full area list.

4. Build the business structure

Follow the first-area preview and per-area loop in Interview and build. Build the time-sink area first, show one file-grounded mini-brief, immediately confirm the full area map, order the remainder by time or money, and finish one registered area at a time.

Complete when: every confirmed area has a personalized real folder, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md, and registry row; no area has template stubs; and .solo-staff-setup.md says Areas remaining: none.

5. Capture how the owner works

Continue the owner-context pass in Interview and build: real work rhythm, tools, communication, decision style, key clients or projects, past AI friction, voice, and hard limits. Route confirmed facts to their mapped homes and promote executable corrections only through tune-workspace.

Complete when: voice and limits are compiled into AGENTS.md; confirmed preferences, corrections, clients, and project context are reconciled in mapped memory with confirmation date and source; and skipped topics remain honestly empty.

6. Grade the result

Run the solid-or-thin review in Interview and build. Report identity, voice and limits, every area, operating context, corrections, and leftovers in plain words. For each thin part, name the single answer that would strengthen it and either resolve it or record the owner's acceptance of the gap.

Complete when: every quality category has an honest solid-or-thin result, each thin spot is resolved or explicitly accepted, and the temporary state says all interview and area work is complete.

7. Finalize automatically

Read Finalize completely. This is the terminal onboarding phase, not a separate command or owner prompt. Seed the local memory map, compile the runtime prompts, run the completed-workspace contract, repair bounded failures, and repeat the whole contract until green. Then retire the temporary state to one dated completed setup receipt.

Complete when: the verifier reports VERDICT: READY; .solo-staff-setup.md is absent; one completed receipt exists in archive/setup/; rerunning finalization makes no change; and the owner has been told the workspace was set up and checked.

8. Offer the optional day-one branches

Only after finalization is green, read Day one and handoff. Offer the separate connect-tools pass and one capped useful task. The owner may decline either. A chosen task stays grounded in the finished workspace, draft-first, inside the workspace, and limited to one result.

Complete when: each optional branch is either declined or completed within its cap, any connection receipt lives under operating decisions, and any useful result is shown with its saved location or clearly labeled as a draft.

9. Hand off

Use the handoff contract in Day one and handoff. Explain what exists, how memory and areas work, how the workspace grows through its existing skills, what was created today, and the single most useful next action.

Complete when: the owner understands that setup is finished, their files are theirs and resumable, future areas use add-area rather than setup, and no post-setup cleanup prompt or maintenance command has been assigned to them.