/team-constitution

name: team-constitution
description: Use when bootstrapping a new team AI directives repo, establishing team-wide principles for the first time, or amending the constitution in team-ai-directives.
disable-model-invocation: true

team-constitution

What this skill does

Interactively **create or amend** the team constitution at `{TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/context_modules/constitution.md`.

The scaffold written by `team-setup` (Mode 3) contains only a placeholder ("No team-wide principles defined yet"). This skill turns that placeholder into a real constitution through guided elicitation:

• Propose principles informed by team context (existing rules, CDRs, AGENTS.md)
• Review each principle interactively — confirm, edit, or reject
• Write the constitution in the established team format (OKF v0.2 frontmatter + numbered principles + Governance section)

**What this skill is NOT**:

• Not a port of spec-kit's `spec.constitution` template machinery — no placeholder tokens, no hooks, no `extensions.yml`, no template propagation, no Sync Impact Report
• Not semantic versioning — the team constitution is versioned by **git history** in the team AI directives repo; freshness is tracked by OKF v0.2 frontmatter (`generated`, `verified`, `stale_after`) via `/team-repair`
• Not for **project-level** constitutions (`docs/adlc/memory/constitution.md`, legacy `.adlc/memory/constitution.md` fallback) — those remain `spec.constitution` territory when spec-kit is in play

When to use

• **After `team-setup` Mode 3**: the scaffold wrote a placeholder constitution — fill it with real principles
• **New team AI directives (cloned or existing)**: constitution is missing or still a placeholder
• **Amending principles**: the team wants to add, reword, or remove principles

When NOT to use

• **Project-level constitution**: use spec-kit's `spec.constitution` for `docs/adlc/memory/constitution.md` (legacy `.adlc/memory/constitution.md` fallback)
• **Constitution changes via CDR flow**: if a constitution change was proposed as a CDR, let `/team-levelup` handle it
• **team AI directives not configured**: run `/team-setup` first

Process

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You **MUST** consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

**Examples of User Input**:

• `"Focus on testing and security principles"` — steer proposals toward those domains
• `"Amend principle 3"` — jump straight to amending a specific principle
• `"Add a principle about AI code review"` — append a specific principle
• Empty input: full elicitation flow (create or amend, auto-detected)

Role & Context

You are acting as a **Team Governance Facilitator** — helping the team articulate its non-negotiable principles. Your role involves:

• Proposing principles grounded in the team's actual directives and practices (not generic boilerplate)
• Ensuring every principle is declarative, testable, and has a clear rationale
• Keeping the constitution concise — principles are rules, not essays

Outline

1. **Environment Setup** (Phase 0): Resolve paths, detect constitution state 2. **Load Team Context** (Phase 1): Read existing constitution + team directives to inform proposals 3. **Elicit Principles** (Phase 2): Interactive create/amend loop 4. **Governance Section** (Phase 3): Compose the lightweight governance paragraph 5. **Write Constitution** (Phase 4): Write the file with OKF v0.2 frontmatter 6. **Commit & Summary** (Phase 5): Offer commit, report results

Execution Steps

Phase 0: Environment Setup

Run the setup script from the skill's base directory:

scripts/bash/setup-team-constitution.sh

Parse JSON for `REPO_ROOT`, `TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES`, `CONSTITUTION_FILE`, `CONSTITUTION_STATE`, `TD_IS_GIT`, `TD_CLEAN`.

**If the setup script is unavailable or fails**, resolve manually:

1. `REPO_ROOT` — walk up from cwd to find `.adlc/`, or `git rev-parse --show-toplevel`, or `pwd`. 2. `TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES` — `TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES` env var, then `.adlc/init-options.json` → `team_ai_directives`, then `REPO_ROOT/team-ai-directives`. 3. `CONSTITUTION_FILE` — `{TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/context_modules/constitution.md` 4. `CONSTITUTION_STATE`:

• `missing` — file does not exist
• `placeholder` — file exists and contains "No team-wide principles defined yet"
• `populated` — file exists with real content

5. `TD_IS_GIT` — `git -C "$TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES" rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree` (exit 0 = true) 6. `TD_CLEAN` — `git -C "$TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES" status --porcelain` (empty = clean)

If `TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES` is not configured:

Team AI directives repository not configured.
Run: team-setup
Or set: export TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES=/path/to/team-ai-directives

Phase 1: Load Team Context

Read the following to inform principle proposals:

1. **Existing constitution** at `{CONSTITUTION_FILE}` (if `populated` — you will amend; if `placeholder`/`missing` — you will create) 2. **Team rules index**: `{TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/CDR.md` — accepted rule/persona/example descriptors reveal what the team already cares about 3. **Existing rules**: skim `{TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/context_modules/rules/` file names and headings 4. **AGENTS.md** at `{TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/AGENTS.md` — loading order and skill usage expectations

Principles must be **grounded in what you find** — e.g., if the rules directory is heavy on security modules, a "Security by Default" principle is evidence-based, not boilerplate. If the team AI directives is nearly empty, fall back to a small starter set and say so explicitly.

Phase 2: Elicit Principles

Create mode (`missing` or `placeholder`)

1. **Propose a starter set** (3–7 principles) based on Phase 1 findings. For each principle, present:

### Proposed Principle N: {Name}

**Statement**: {Declarative, testable rule — one or two sentences}

**Rationale**: {Why this principle exists; what failure it prevents}

**Grounding**: {What team context motivated this — or "starter sugges