swain-help

Original：🇺🇸 English
Translated

Contextual help and onboarding for the swain skill ecosystem. Use when users ask about swain — what skills exist, how to use them, what artifacts are available, how workflows connect, or when they need a quick reference. Also invoked after swain-init to orient new users. Triggers on: 'how do I...', 'what is...', 'help', 'what can swain do', 'show me the commands', 'I'm confused', 'where do I start', any question about swain skills, artifacts, or workflows, and after project onboarding completes.

7installs
Sourcecristoslc/swain
Added on

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add cristoslc/swain swain-help

Tags

Translated version includes tags in frontmatter
swain-helponboarding-guideskill-ecosystemworkflow-referencecontextual-support

SKILL.md Content

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<!-- swain-model-hint: sonnet, effort: medium — default for conceptual explanations; see per-section overrides below -->

swain-help

Contextual help for the swain skill ecosystem.

Mode detection

Determine the mode from context:
SignalMode
Invoked from swain-init Phase 4, or user says "just set up swain" / "what now after init"Onboarding
User asks a specific question ("how do I...", "what is...", "when should I...")Question
User asks for a reference, cheat sheet, commands, or overviewReference

Onboarding mode

Present a concise orientation — help the user understand what they just installed without overwhelming them. Adapt tone to context (first-time dev vs experienced engineer).
Present this:
Welcome to swain. Here's how it works:
The big picture: Swain manages your project's documentation artifacts (specs, epics, ADRs, etc.) and tracks implementation work — so nothing falls through the cracks between sessions.
Three things to know:
  1. /swain
    is your entry point.     It routes to the right sub-skill automatically. You can also call skills directly (
    /swain-design
    , 
    /swain-do
    , etc.).
  2. Design before you build. When you want to implement something, start with 
    /swain
    to create a spec. Swain enforces a "plan before code" workflow — it creates tracked tasks before implementation begins.
  3. Health checks are automatic. 
    /swain-doctor
    runs at session start to ensure routing rules are in place and 
    .tickets/
    is healthy. You don't need to think about it.
Common starting points:
  • "I want to plan a new feature" → creates an Epic or Spec
  • "Write a spec for X" → creates an Agent Spec
  • "What should I work on next?" → checks your task backlog
  • "File a bug" → creates a Spec with 
    type: bug
  • "Let's release" → version bump + changelog
Need more? Ask me anything about swain, or say 
/swain help reference
for a full cheat sheet.
Then stop. Let the user ask follow-up questions — don't dump everything at once.

Question mode

Answer the user's specific question using your knowledge of swain. If you need details beyond what's in this skill, read the relevant reference:
TopicWhere to look
Artifact types, phases, relationships
skills/swain-help/references/quick-ref.md
— Artifacts section
Commands and invocations
skills/swain-help/references/quick-ref.md
— Commands section
Step-by-step walkthroughs
skills/swain-help/references/workflows.md
Artifact definitions and templates
skills/swain-design/references/<type>-definition.md
tk (ticket) CLI reference
skills/swain-do/references/tk-cheatsheet.md
Troubleshooting
skills/swain-design/references/troubleshooting.md
Guidelines for answering:
  • Be concise. Answer the question, don't dump the entire reference.
  • Use examples when they clarify — "You'd say 
    /swain create a spec for auth token rotation
    ".
  • Hand off when appropriate. If the user's question is really a request to do something (e.g., "how do I create a spec?" followed by "ok do it"), invoke the relevant skill directly via the Skill tool. Explain what you're doing: "I'll hand this off to swain-design."
  • Admit gaps. If something isn't covered, say so rather than inventing swain features.
<!-- swain-model-hint: haiku, effort: low — reference lookups are simple file reads -->

Reference mode

When the user wants an overview or cheat sheet, read 
skills/swain-help/references/quick-ref.md
and present the relevant section. If they want "everything", present the full quick reference but note it's dense.
For workflow walkthroughs, read 
skills/swain-help/references/workflows.md
.