Trellis Bootstrap

One-time setup for Trellis - the AI workflow system that helps your AI assistant remember project context across sessions.

What is Trellis?

Trellis provides:

Structure - Store coding guidelines in .trellis/structure/ that AI follows
Memory - Track session history in .trellis/agent-traces/
Automation - Slash commands like /start, /parallel, /finish-work

Prerequisites Check

Before starting, verify:

# Check Node.js (required: v18+)
node --version

# Check npm
npm --version

If Node.js is not installed, ask the user to install it first.

Installation Steps

Step 1: Install Trellis CLI

npm install -g @mindfoldhq/trellis@latest

Verify installation:

trellis --version

Step 2: Get Developer Name

Ask the user for their name/username. This will be used for tracking their sessions.

Example question: "What name should I use for your developer profile? (e.g., your GitHub username)"

Step 3: Initialize in Project

Run in the project root:

trellis init -u <developer-name>

This creates:

.trellis/
├── workflow.md                # Start here
├── structure/                 # Development guidelines
│   ├── frontend/
│   └── backend/
├── agent-traces/<name>/       # Your session history
└── scripts/                   # Automation scripts

.claude/
├── commands/                  # 13 slash commands
├── agents/                    # 6 agent definitions
└── hooks/                     # Automation hooks

.cursor/
└── commands/                  # 12 slash commands

AGENTS.md                      # AI reads this first

Step 4: Verify Setup

# Check created files
ls -la .trellis/
ls -la .claude/commands/

Post-Setup Instructions

Tell the user:

Start using Trellis - Run /start at the beginning of each session
Add guidelines - Edit files in .trellis/structure/ to customize AI behavior
Track progress - Run /record-agent-flow at the end of sessions

Quick Reference

Command	When to Use
`/start`	Beginning of every session
`/parallel`	Complex features (multi-agent pipeline)
`/before-frontend-dev`	Before frontend coding
`/before-backend-dev`	Before backend coding
`/finish-work`	Before committing
`/record-agent-flow`	End of session

Success Criteria

Setup is complete when:

trellis --version shows version number
.trellis/ directory exists with workflow.md
.claude/commands/ contains slash command files
AGENTS.md exists in project root

After successful setup, this skill is no longer needed. The user should use /start to begin working with Trellis.

Note: This is a bootstrap skill. Once Trellis is initialized, use the built-in /start command instead of this skill.