Orient in a project

Establish a factual, scoped starting point before another SDD skill changes repository files. This skill is a shared, read-only capability. It neither authorizes a mutation nor decides which later workflow to run. Read inspection and handoff for the evidence checks and report contract.

1. Establish the user's intended project path and proposed scope, if supplied. Distinguish the project root from its enclosing Git root; do not assume the current directory is the project.
2. Inspect root SDD-MANAGER.md, AI_DISCLOSURE.md and README links as adoption/disclosure evidence and report missing or conflicting records in the handoff; do not create them during orientation. Identify applicable repository instructions, including root and path-scoped AGENTS.md, referenced policies, and project-designated sources. Inspect docs/dev/PROJECT.md for the project brief; if it contains operating instructions, preserve their applicability and report their scope and any conflict.
3. Inspect Git, current branch or detached/unborn state, HEAD, worktree status, and changes affecting the intended paths. Suppress optional Git writes with command-scoped git --no-optional-locks or an equivalent scoped GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0. Git commands must not change the index, branch, working tree, or configuration.
4. Inspect adjacent SPEC/PLAN/TASKS (and selected feature) review reports, finding/gate state and reviewed/governing identities; report absent or apparently stale readiness without performing QC or writing reports. Discover present development documents and their focused children, the active feature or change context, relevant code and tests, and declared project commands. When a task list exists, identify the last committed task and compare it with the owning checklist, pending changes, and existing verification evidence. Distinguish completed work awaiting commit from incomplete work; pass the identified state to sdd-implement for continuation.
5. Produce the scoped orientation report. Separate observed facts from inferences and unknowns, identify concrete blockers, and state whether the Git prerequisite for a contemplated mutation is met. Re-orient when the project path, target scope, HEAD, instructions, or material worktree state changes.

If the target is outside a usable Git worktree, mark repository mutation blocked. Do not initialize Git, create files, clean worktrees, restore files, run tests with side effects, commit, or invoke a mutating workflow. A conversational or read-only inspection may continue.

For a subagent, the orchestrator supplies the applicable path scope, instructions, relevant document authorities, Git baseline, known dirty paths, and prohibited mutations. A subagent can inspect additional evidence within its scope; the orchestrator rechecks the overall state before coordinating any mutation or commit.