Phase: initialize

Router: research-workflow --phase initialize. This file holds the phase body for the single research-workflow router skill (../SKILL.md). Do not promote it to a standalone skill.

When to Use

• Starting a new product development project
• Beginning a research initiative that needs traceable evidence
• Creating a workspace for explicit decision-making

Prerequisites

• User must provide a project brief (text description of what they're building)
• Optionally: custom path for ledger workspace (default: ./ledger/)

Workflow Steps

<required> 1. Parse the brief into structured components 2. Validate brief completeness (goals, constraints identifiable) 3. Create directory structure 4. Generate BRIEF.md 5. Generate PILLARS.md with default configuration 6. Confirm initialization complete </required>

Brief Validation

Extract from the user's input:

| Component | Description | Required | | ---------------- | ----------------------------------- | ----------- | | Core idea | What is being built (1-2 sentences) | Yes | | Target users | Who will use this | Yes | | Key goals | What success looks like | Required | | Constraints | What's explicitly out of scope | Recommended | | Context | Any domain-specific information | Optional |

Directory Structure

mkdir -p ledger/{00-brief,01-pillars}
mkdir -p ledger/02-evidence/{market,users,tech,competitors,design,legal,ops,economics}
mkdir -p ledger/{03-synthesis,04-decisions,05-risks,06-prd,07-architecture,08-plan,09-brand,10-gtm-ops}

Output

## Ledger Initialized

**Path:** ./ledger/
**Brief:** [2-3 sentence summary]

**Pillar Priorities:**
1. [High priority pillars]
2. [Medium priority pillars]
3. [Lower priority pillars]

**Next step:** Run research workflow with --phase evidence

See also: ../brief-template.md, ../pillar-definitions.md.