MasterMind: Wayfinder

The front door of substantive work: decide what to load before you start, so you pull the 1–2 things a task needs instead of reading the whole brain. It's the skill that operationalizes MasterMind's token economy (~/.mastermind/engineering/active-field.md): and it knows when not to run.

Method

1. Name the destination. One line: what is this task actually producing? Scope before routing.
2. Right-size the map. If it's a one-line diff, a typo, or obviously covered by what's already in context: say "no map needed, just do it" and exit. Ceremony on a trivial task is waste (this is the same instinct as ~/.mastermind/engineering/core/rigor.md's refuse-list and "keep the always-on layer tiny").
3. Detect the field: package.json/configs/file types (usually free and decisive).
4. Build the load manifest: links only, no summaries. Consult ~/.mastermind/engineering/ROUTER.md and pick, by matching the task to each node's route_when:
   • which field-pack file(s) to load (and their token cost: budget it),
   • which skill(s) fit: pick from the index at ~/.mastermind/skills/README.md (which also names the isolated-context agents in ~/.mastermind/agents/): read that index, since memory goes stale,
   • which core docs the task genuinely needs (mindset/principles/rigor/agent-loop/product-sense in ~/.mastermind/engineering/core/),
   • which codebase areas to read first. The manifest points to files to open; it links instead of paraphrasing (so it can't drift out of sync).
5. Load progressively. For a big/foggy task, load the entrance set only; name the next files after the first decisions resolve. Front-load only the context this step uses.

Offer what fits: at most once, and only when it changes the outcome

Most users know three or four skills and never discover the rest, so a capability they already own stays invisible until it's too late to help. Routing is the one moment you can see the whole task and the whole library, so it's the right place: and the only place: to say something.

Offer only when every gate holds:

• It changes the outcome, not the ceremony. "This is a risky unknown, want a throwaway prototype first?" earns its line. "You could also run qa" does not.
• They didn't already ask for it, and haven't turned it down this session. One decline retires that offer for good.
• One per task, maximum. If two fit, offer the one with the larger consequence and stay quiet about the other.
• Say the value, not the tool. "There's client data in this repo. I can quarantine it so it can't be committed" lands; "invoke the quarantine skill" is homework.

Then continue with your own recommendation either way: an offer is a sentence they can ignore, never a question that blocks the work. Silence is the default: when it's a close call, skip it. A suggestion that isn't obviously worth its line costs attention, tokens, and trust, and those are the things the routing step exists to protect.

Seat the task as well as the knowledge (model economics)

Routing decides what to load; spend one extra second deciding what should run it. Four task shapes are small-model work billed at top rate only by inertia: classify, extract fields, rename, summarise. Name the shape when you see it: on Claude Code that means suggesting the cheap seat (/model, or an agent whose file pins one); on Cursor/Codex it's advice the user applies. The inverse holds too: planning is one expensive call at the top, not something to repeat mid-task on the execution seat. And grading is its own seat: code-reviewer pins a fixed model so the judge's seat doesn't follow the writer's (a guarantee of fresh context always, and of a different grader whenever the session runs another tier). Upgrading the execution seat to the planning seat doubles the bill and changes nothing.

Rules

• The manifest is a list of things to load, not a plan of work. Wayfinder chooses what knowledge to bring; the actual building is build (which can call this first).
• Load a file for a reason you can name. Every entry earns its tokens or it's cut.
• If ROUTER.md is missing/stale, fall back to the active field's engineering/fields/<field>/field.md load-on-demand map: routing is a speed-up over a fallback that already works.

Gotchas

• A load manifest, not a ticket/issue system. Wayfinder routes knowledge for one session; it is not a project tracker. Keep it to a load manifest.
• Over-routing is as bad as under-routing. A three-file task needs no map: the right-size step is a feature, not a formality.
• Points to the source. The moment the manifest starts summarizing a doc's contents, it will drift and lie. Link to the file; let the reader load the source of truth.