author-feature

Author-feature — single-source authoring, verified

IMPORTANT: Start your response by telling the user:

Author-feature — I'll author a single-source master for this feature, grounding every claim in live code and running the gates as I go, then project it to the help kinds + docs pages. No LLM generation, no API credits.

This skill makes the driving session a disciplined author of a single-source master (content/features/<feature>.md). One master projects deterministically to 10 .help kinds + 4 docs/ pages — no generator, no API. The empirical result that motivates it: the session is a superior polish layer to an LLM pass and the only one that catches correctness bugs (PR #1188). The risk it manages: a master is a single point of failure, so verification is the spine — grep the symbol before you write it, run the audit before you commit, fix the master not the output.

This is judgment, not plumbing. It calls the deterministic tools (the in-repo projector, the audits); it never re-implements them and never emits prose for blind rubber-stamping.

The flow

locate/scaffold  →  author section-by-section (grounded in code)
                 →  verify continuously  →  project  →  preview  →  commit

Step 1 — locate or scaffold the master

The master lives at content/features/<feature>.md. If it exists, you're revising — open it. If not, create it by copying a canonical projected page for structure — e.g. content/features/security-audit.md — then replacing its content. Do not invent the layout; the projector expects a fixed section contract (below).

Frontmatter (required):

---
feature: <slug>
summary: <one line>
tags: [<tag>, <tag>]
source_globs:
  - src/attune/workflows/<feature>.py
nav:
  help: <slug>
  mkdocs:
    how-to: how-to/<slug>
    architecture: architecture/<slug>
    reference: reference/<slug>
---

Declare how-to / architecture / reference but not tutorial: the projector drops tutorial (a guided tutorial resists pure section projection — it stays hand-authored).

Then add a .help/features.yaml entry under features: with description, tags, and status: manual — and no files:. manual means projector-owned, so staleness/maintenance never overwrites it with LLM output.

Step 2 — author section by section, grounded in code

Write each section the projector expects (the section contract):

Heading	Holds
## Overview	what the feature is, 1–2 paragraphs
## Concepts	the model — ### subsections for each idea
## Quickstart	the shortest real path to using it
## Tasks	### task blocks with runnable CLI / Python
## Reference	API tables — classes, params, entry points
## Comparison	when to use this vs the alternatives
## Failure modes	risk areas + diagnosis order
## FAQ seeds	seed Q&A (the FAQ kind is projector-skipped today)
## Notes & tips	operational asides
## Design & extension	design decisions + extension points

Verification is the spine of this step (D2). Before you write a claim, find the truth:

• Before an API table — grep the __all__, the class, the enum, the tool schema. Never confabulate a symbol or a field.
  • grep -rn "class <Name>" src/attune/
  • grep -n "<Name>" src/attune/workflows/__init__.py (re-exports)
  • python -c "import inspect, attune.X as m; print(inspect.signature(m.Cls.__init__))"
• Before a CLI example — confirm the flag actually exists (attune <cmd> --help, or grep the argparse).
• Symbols re-exported at the package must be cited at the package, not the submodule — import_repair canonicalizes from attune.workflows.foo import Bar → from attune.workflows import Bar and the fact-check flags the un-canonical form. Write the package-level import.

Step 3 — verify continuously (fix the master, never the output)

Run the gates as you author, not at the end. A fact-check finding means fix the claim in the master — never "ship the warning."

# Dry-run the projection: fact-check + example check + plan, no writes.
python scripts/project_features.py <feature> --dry-run

# Authoritative import resolution (repo src on sys.path).
python scripts/audit_doc_imports.py --paths content/features/<feature>.md

The dry-run runs the in-repo projector (attune.authoring.projector.validate_master_file + project_feature) and prints fact-check findings + runnable-example problems alongside the planned outputs. Resolve every error-severity finding before building.

Step 4 — project for real, then sync the served bundle

python scripts/project_features.py <feature>     # writes 10 .help kinds + 4 docs pages
python scripts/sync_help_bundle.py               # copy templates → served bundle

sync_help_bundle.py is required — it copies the projected templates into plugin/help/generated/ (the bundle that reaches pip users; .help/templates is only the source). Skipping it fails tests/unit/help/test_help_bundle_sync.py ("N bundle file(s) out of sync"). The mkdocs build job auto-wires the new hub via docs/hooks/feature_nav.py — no manual mkdocs.yml nav edit.

Step 5 — preview, then verify green, then commit

Show the projected hub + pages to the user before staging (the "show generated output sooner" discipline), then confirm the gates:

python scripts/audit_doc_imports.py
python scripts/audit_docs_wiring.py
pytest tests/unit/help

Gotchas (these bit #1188)

• ENV — make attune importable. The projector is in-repo (attune.authoring, pure — no jinja/anthropic), so from a worktree the robust invocation is PYTHONPATH=src python scripts/project_features.py <feature> — it puts the worktree's own src/ ahead of the editable mapping. (The audits already do this themselves.) If you skip PYTHONPATH=src, a bare python resolving via the editable mapping can miss worktree-only modules.
• Trust the audit, not a bare python -c. From a worktree a bare python -c "from attune.X import …" can falsely ModuleNotFoundError (the editable MAPPING points at main's possibly-older src/) WHILE scripts/audit_doc_imports.py (which puts the worktree src/ on sys.path) correctly reports all imports resolve. The audit is authoritative.
• Zero API credits. The whole flow is deterministic projection + hand-authored prose. If you find yourself reaching for attune-author generate or any LLM-polish path, stop — that path is retired; the session is the author.

What this skill does NOT do

• It does not generate prose for blind approval — you author with verification, grounded in code.
• It does not call any LLM-generation or polish path.
• It does not re-implement the projector, the audits, or the (future) scaffolder — it calls them.

Acceptance (self-demonstration)

The skill is "done" for a feature when a fresh session, given only this skill, authors a master that projects byte-clean and passes doc-import-audit + the bundle sync on the first real attempt — the #1188 outcome, reproduced without out-of-band knowledge. Registered ≠ working: dogfood the real flow; the green projection is the receipt.