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name: context-driven-development description: >- Creates and maintains project context artifacts (product.md, tech-stack.md, workflow.md, tracks.md) in a conductor/ directory. Scaffolds new projects from scratch, extracts context from existing codebases, validates artifact consistency before implementation, and synchronizes documents as the project evolves. Use when setting up a project, creating or updating product docs, managing a tech stack file, defining development workflows, tracking work units, onboarding to an existing codebase, or running project scaffolding. version: 1.0.0

Context-Driven Development

Guide for implementing and maintaining context as a managed artifact alongside code, enabling consistent AI interactions and team alignment through structured project documentation.

When to Use This Skill

• Setting up new projects with Conductor
• Understanding the relationship between context artifacts
• Maintaining consistency across AI-assisted development sessions
• Onboarding team members to an existing Conductor project
• Deciding when to update context documents
• Managing greenfield vs brownfield project contexts

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

1. Read context first: Always read relevant artifacts before starting work
2. Small updates: Make incremental context changes, not massive rewrites
3. Link decisions: Reference context when making implementation choices
4. Version context: Commit context changes alongside code changes
5. Review context: Include context artifact reviews in code reviews
6. Validate regularly: Run context validation checklist before major work
7. Communicate changes: Notify team when context artifacts change significantly
8. Preserve history: Use git to track context evolution over time
9. Question staleness: If context feels wrong, investigate and update
10. Keep it actionable: Every context item should inform a decision or behavior