story-context

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Context scoping for writing agent spawns — use when deciding what context a spawned agent should receive, whether ephemeral story decisions should be materialized before handoff, and how much to pass. Poor context handoffs cause writers to invent contradictions and critics to miss relevant history.

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Sourcehaowjy/creative-writing-skills

Added on2026-05-10

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add haowjy/creative-writing-skills story-context

SKILL.md Content

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Story Context

Every spawn starts with a context decision. Get it wrong and the writer invents facts that contradict established canon, the critic misses a continuity issue because it never saw the relevant chapter, or the brainstormer explores territory the author already rejected.

The

/meridian-spawn

skill teaches the mechanics of

-f

,

--from

, and spawn commands. This skill teaches the judgment — what story context to pass, when to materialize decisions before spawning, and how much is enough.

Choose the Right Mechanism

Three options, each for a different situation.

/meridian-spawn

has the command syntax; this section covers when to use which.

Files (
-f
) — when context already exists as files: chapters, outlines, wiki pages, style files, character state. Default choice because files are stable, inspectable, and survive compaction. Scope tightly — pass the files that matter, not everything.

Session history (
--from
) — when the agent needs decisions, reasoning, or brainstorm context that hasn't been written down yet. Session history captures the why behind choices — why the author picked this angle, what they rejected.

Materialize first — when context is too important to be ephemeral. If critical story decisions only live in conversation, write them to the kb or work directory before spawning. If a writer could accidentally contradict this context, materialize it. If it's supplementary background,

--from

is fine.

What Each Agent Needs

Writers

Writers need enough to stay in voice and on-canon, not everything ever written. The essential context:

Scene brief or outline — what happens in this scene, the beats to hit
Relevant style files — look at what exists in the styles directory and pick the files that match the scene. Character files for whoever appears, scene-type files for the kind of scene being written. Each style file is self-describing — read the top to know when it applies.
Continuity anchors — the immediately preceding chapter or scene (for flow), plus any chapters that establish facts this scene references. Two to four files, not the entire manuscript.
Character state — character files for characters who appear in the scene, especially if their emotional state or knowledge has changed recently

Tell the writer where to find more if it needs to explore — "the full arc outline is in the work directory, focus on the Route 1 section" — rather than attaching everything preemptively.

Critics

Critics need the draft plus enough context to judge it against:

The draft being reviewed — always via
```
-f
```
The scene brief or outline — so the critic can check whether the draft achieved what it was supposed to
Relevant style files — so voice critics can compare against the target voice
Prior chapters for continuity — so continuity critics can cross-reference facts
Author intent — via
```
--from
```
if the orchestrator discussed direction with the author, or via materialized decision notes
Known issues — tracked issues if the critic should watch for specific recurring problems

Brainstormers

Brainstormers need constraints, not answers:

The question being explored — scoped tightly in the prompt
Established context that constrains the answer — character profiles, timeline, prior decisions that limit the design space
What's been rejected — so they don't re-propose dead ends

Don't pass too much — brainstormers that receive the full project history tend to produce conservative ideas that fit neatly into existing patterns instead of exploring fresh territory.

Knowledge Maintenance

Chronicler: the chapter(s) to extract facts from via
```
-f
```
, plus existing canon files and timeline entries for deduplication
Base @kb-maintainer: the kb directory structure — it needs to see everything to rebuild connections
Base @kb-writer:
```
--from
```
pointing at the conversation to mine, plus kb paths for where to write findings

Cross-Phase Context

Carry forward what a previous phase learned using

--from <prior-spawn-id>

. The revision writer benefits from seeing what the first-draft writer discovered. The critic benefits from seeing prior critique rounds.

Combine mechanisms when phases produce artifacts:

--from

for reasoning context,

-f

for the files the prior phase created.