context

/archcore:context

Pull-mode project context. Surfaces the rules, decisions, specs, and patterns that apply to a code area before you change it — or recaps current focus when picking up work.

Not related to the AI context window or session state — this is about the .archcore/ knowledge base.

When to use

• "What rules apply to src/payments/?"
• "Before I refactor the auth module, show me what I should know"
• "Show me the decisions for src/api/"
• "Pick up where we left off"
• "What was I working on in payments?"
• "Where is the checkout work right now?"
• "Load project context"

Not context:

• Creating documentation → /archcore:capture, /archcore:decide, /archcore:standard
• Planning a feature → /archcore:plan
• Detecting stale docs → /archcore:actualize
• Health audit, counts, or status breakdown → /archcore:review (--deep for the full audit)

Routing table

Classify $ARGUMENTS into one mode:

Signal	Mode
Empty or whitespace only	pickup
Contains /, OR matches an existing repo directory	path
Otherwise	topic

Execution

Step 1: Classify

Determine mode from $ARGUMENTS per routing table.

Step 2: Query

Path mode:

Normalize the argument: trim whitespace, convert \ to /, strip trailing /.

Call mcp__archcore__search_documents(path_ref="<normalized>", limit=50, sort="relevance").

Topic mode:

Call mcp__archcore__search_documents(content="<argument>", limit=50, sort="relevance").

Topic search is strict substring — singular/plural and near-synonyms do not match. If the first call returns empty, retry once with a shorter or alternate phrasing of the same term before falling through to the empty state.

Pickup mode:

Call in parallel:

• mcp__archcore__search_documents(types=["plan", "idea"], status="draft", limit=10, sort="mtime")
• mcp__archcore__search_documents(types=["adr", "rule"], status="accepted", mtime_after="30d", limit=10, sort="mtime")

If the recent-accepted call returns empty, retry once with mtime_after="90d".

Step 3: Group

Path and topic modes — group results by type:

Section	Types included
Rules	rule
Decisions	adr
Specs	spec
Patterns	cpat
In Progress	plan or idea with status draft

Drop other types. Results are already sorted by search_documents (specificity → type priority → mtime); keep the top 5 per section.

Pickup mode — three fixed sections:

• In Progress — results from the drafts call
• Recent Decisions — adr results from the recent-accepted call
• Recent Rules — rule results from the recent-accepted call

Step 4: Guide routing

For each item in the Rules, Decisions, or Specs sections, inspect its incoming_relations. If a relation of type implements or related points from a guide, inline that guide as an indented bullet under the parent. Skip a guide that is already inlined under a sibling in the same section.

Step 5: Render

## Rules (N)
- **<title>** [rule · <status> · <match.kind>]
  `<path>`
  > <excerpt>
  - 📖 **<guide title>** [guide · <status>]

## Decisions (N)
- **<title>** [adr · <status> · <match.kind>]
  `<path>`
  > <excerpt>

## Specs (N)
...

## Patterns (N)
...

## In Progress (N)
⚠️  **<title>** [plan · draft]
  `<path>`
  > <excerpt>

_Classified as: <mode>._

Do NOT emit a section header if its group is empty. The classification footer is always emitted.

If all sections are empty, fall through to Step 6.

Step 6: Empty state

• Call mcp__archcore__list_documents(limit=1). If the knowledge base is empty → "No documents indexed yet. Run /archcore:capture or /archcore:decide to seed .archcore/."
• Otherwise → "No documents reference <scope>. Consider using @<scope> in a rule or ADR so future work in this area surfaces the context automatically."

Result

A grouped markdown surface of the rules, ADRs, specs, patterns, and in-progress work that applies to the requested scope — or a pickup summary of draft work + recent accepted decisions and rules when called with no argument. A classification footer identifies which mode was chosen.