maintaining-project-contextlisted

# Maintaining Project Context CONTEXT.md is a one-page narrative of what a project is, what it cares about, and the constraints on how it operates. It is the file you would hand to a new contributor (human or agent) who has 60 seconds to understand the project well enough to act in alignment with it. Adapted from Matt Pocock's `grill-with-docs` pattern, distinct from LANGUAGE.md (which defines terms) and `config/project.yaml` (which holds machine-readable state). ## When to Use Invoke this skill when: - Significant new work begins: a new phase, a new mission, a structural change to how the project relates to its consumers. - The project's mission or scope materially shifts (not for routine task progress). - A new agent or human contributor needs to ramp up quickly and needs project orientation. - The relationship with downstream consumers changes (new repos joining, repos leaving, propagation protocol changes). - A key constraint is discovered or relaxed (e.g., a hard rule becomes a soft preference, or vice versa). Do **not** invoke this skill for: - Routine task completion or session progress — those go in session docs. - Code-level decisions — those are commits or, when warranted, ADRs. - Status updates — those are SITREP / status-report. ## CONTEXT.md Format The canonical sections, in order: ```markdown # CONTEXT.md — What This Project Is [One-paragraph orientation. What this project is. Why it exists.] ## Identity [1–2 paragraphs. What the project IS, not what