Brain scaffold

Set up the ballast memory structure in the current project. Decide everything you can yourself; report what you created instead of asking questions.

Steps

1. Create memory/ in the project root and copy these templates from this skill's templates/ directory, filling <project> placeholders with the actual project name:
   • templates/00-INDEX.md → memory/00-INDEX.md
   • templates/DECISIONS.md → memory/DECISIONS.md
   • templates/OPEN-QUESTIONS.md → memory/OPEN-QUESTIONS.md
   • templates/SESSION-LOG.md → memory/SESSION-LOG.md
   • templates/PRODUCT-TRUTH.md → memory/PRODUCT-TRUTH.md — only if the project is (or documents) a product; skip for pure-knowledge projects and say so
2. Append the session-start block from templates/CLAUDE-snippet.md to the project's CLAUDE.md (create the file if missing; if the block is already there, don't duplicate it). The snippet is tool-neutral — if the project also uses Codex, append the same block to AGENTS.md (see docs/CODEX.md).
3. If the user keeps rules in .claude/ballast.rules.json, leave it untouched; if they ask for a starter catalog, copy rules/ballast.rules.example.json from the plugin root to .claude/ballast.rules.json and tell them to prune it.
4. Report: files created, files skipped (and why), and the one-line habit — "decisions get recorded the moment they're confirmed."

Conventions (explain these to the user once, briefly)

• The index is the map. 00-INDEX.md says what lives where and the write rules. New file types get a row there first.
• The ledger is append-only. See the decision-ledger skill — never edit, only supersede.
• Open questions never dissolve silently. Unresolved items are registered in OPEN-QUESTIONS.md and closed with a link to the decision that resolved them. The same file holds readings in force — an "ok" that could have meant anything, written down as what the user said plus what you assumed — so a non-answer never quietly becomes a decision.
• The session log is cheap insurance. A few dated bullets per working session; when context resets, this is the recovery path.
• Claims carry labels; product claims carry proof. See verify-gate and proof-standard.
• The scaffold is a floor, not a ceiling. Other skills grow memory/ later — checkpoint adds CHECKPOINT.md, checkpoints/, and the single-use HANDOFF.md; verified reference material accumulates under memory/knowledge/. Don't pre-create these; give each a row in the index when it first appears.

Part of ballast — foundations first, every solved path kept, done means checks pass.