feat(composer): discovery-phase plugin from "I want an app that..." to tracker-loaded stories
Plugin pairs with Symphony — Composer's output (issues in the project's
tracker) is Symphony's input. State-aware /composer command walks the
user through 11 phases: concept, users (with workflow probing for hidden
actors), requirements/NFR/IA, design system, interaction design, flows,
mocks, architecture, stories, roadmap, load. Each phase produces a
reviewable artifact in docs/planning/ (or, for design and interaction,
a project-local skill — see below).
Architecture is intentionally LAST, after the spec is complete. Mocks
are JSX/TSX regardless of final stack and pass a "text feasibility"
audit — every visible string is categorized (static/computed/authored),
computed strings are traced to source data, and any string implying an
unspecified feature halts the commit.
Design system and interaction design are produced as PROJECT-LOCAL
SKILLS in .claude/skills/<slug>-design-system/ and
.claude/skills/<slug>-interaction-design/, not as docs in
docs/planning/. Skills auto-load via description matching whenever UI
work happens; a reference doc gets read once and drifts out of context.
The mocks skill imports tokens directly from the design-system skill
for a single source of truth across mocks and (eventually) real code.
ui-system is currently a PLACEHOLDER — captures the minimum needed for
mocks to proceed with <TBD: ...> markers as a return-pass worklist.
Full interview specification is the next pass.
Council touchpoints baked in: PM/skeptic/end-user after requirements,
end-user/a11y after mocks, full architecture council after architecture,
plus auto-additions (legal-triage on regulated data, privacy-advocate
on PII, finance-controller on money flows).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-29 21:03:40 -05:00
# composer
Discovery-phase companion. Composer interviews you from "I want an app that…"
to a tree of stories in your issue tracker, producing reviewable artifacts in
`docs/planning/` along the way. Pairs with **Symphony ** — Composer's output
(stories in the tracker) is Symphony's input (work to dispatch).
Like Symphony, Composer is **tracker-agnostic ** . The project's `CLAUDE.md`
documents how to write to the tracker; Composer's load phase reads those
instructions.
## Phase order
| # | Phase | Artifact(s) | Skill |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Concept | `docs/planning/concept.md` | `composer` |
| 2 | Users & workflows | `docs/planning/users.md` | `composer` |
| 3 | Requirements | `docs/planning/{requirements,nfr,ia}.md` | `composer` |
| 4 | Design system | `.claude/skills/<slug>-design-system/` (project skill) | `ui-system` (placeholder) |
| 5 | Interaction design | `.claude/skills/<slug>-interaction-design/` (project skill) | `ui-system` (placeholder) |
| 6 | Flows | `docs/planning/flows.md` | `composer` |
| 7 | Mocks | `docs/planning/mocks/*.tsx` | `composer-mocks` |
| 8 | Architecture | `docs/planning/architecture.md` + `adr/NNNN-*.md` | `composer` |
| 9 | Stories | `docs/planning/stories.md` | `composer` |
| 10 | Roadmap | `docs/planning/roadmap.md` | `composer` |
| 11 | Load | (project's tracker) | `composer` |
**Phases 4 and 5 do not write to `docs/planning/` .** The design-system and
interaction-design artifacts are * project-local skills * in `.claude/skills/`
because they need to auto-load via description matching whenever UI work
is happening. A reference doc gets read once and drifts out of context as
the conversation grows; a skill loads on demand every time the trigger
matches. `docs/planning/` gets pointer files so the planning index stays
discoverable.
**Phase 7 imports tokens directly from the skill**, not from a copy:
```tsx
import { color, spacing, fontSize } from
"../../.claude/skills/<slug>-design-system/tokens";
```
Single source of truth across mocks, real components, themes, and any
future visual code in the project.
**Architecture is last on purpose.** It's a * response * to a complete spec,
not a setting picked at the start. Stack choices made before the design
system, interaction model, and mocks lock you into shapes that don't fit
the problem.
fix(composer,symphony): use \${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} for plugin-internal paths
Per plugin-structure spec, plugin-internal references in component
files (commands, agents, skills) must use \${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} so
they resolve correctly regardless of where the plugin is installed
(local repo, marketplace cache, npm-installed, etc.).
Updated:
- symphony/skills/symphony-init/SKILL.md: WORKFLOW.md template ref
- composer/skills/ui-system/SKILL.md: all six template refs in the
Write phase
- composer/skills/composer/SKILL.md: added a Templates section that
enumerates each phase's template path with \${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT},
plus the ADR template ref in phase 8
Composer's CLAUDE.md gains a clarifying note that templates/design-
system/SKILL.md and templates/interaction-design/SKILL.md are template
skeletons, not actual plugin skills — they're copied into a consuming
project's .claude/skills/ at install-time of the design system. Per
the auto-discovery rule (scans skills/ only), they are not loaded as
plugin skills.
Removed empty composer/agents/ directory (composer has no agents;
workers are owned by symphony).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-29 22:02:03 -05:00
## Note on templates
`templates/design-system/SKILL.md` and `templates/interaction-design/SKILL.md`
are **templates ** , not actual skills of this plugin. The plugin's auto-loaded
skills live in `skills/` (`composer` , `composer-mocks` , `ui-system` ); the
templates under `templates/` are skeletons that the `ui-system` skill copies
into a * consuming project's * `.claude/skills/<slug>-design-system/` and
`.claude/skills/<slug>-interaction-design/` directories.
Per Claude Code's plugin auto-discovery, only `SKILL.md` files under `skills/`
are loaded as plugin skills — `templates/` is a regular subdirectory and is
ignored by discovery.
feat(composer): discovery-phase plugin from "I want an app that..." to tracker-loaded stories
Plugin pairs with Symphony — Composer's output (issues in the project's
tracker) is Symphony's input. State-aware /composer command walks the
user through 11 phases: concept, users (with workflow probing for hidden
actors), requirements/NFR/IA, design system, interaction design, flows,
mocks, architecture, stories, roadmap, load. Each phase produces a
reviewable artifact in docs/planning/ (or, for design and interaction,
a project-local skill — see below).
Architecture is intentionally LAST, after the spec is complete. Mocks
are JSX/TSX regardless of final stack and pass a "text feasibility"
audit — every visible string is categorized (static/computed/authored),
computed strings are traced to source data, and any string implying an
unspecified feature halts the commit.
Design system and interaction design are produced as PROJECT-LOCAL
SKILLS in .claude/skills/<slug>-design-system/ and
.claude/skills/<slug>-interaction-design/, not as docs in
docs/planning/. Skills auto-load via description matching whenever UI
work happens; a reference doc gets read once and drifts out of context.
The mocks skill imports tokens directly from the design-system skill
for a single source of truth across mocks and (eventually) real code.
ui-system is currently a PLACEHOLDER — captures the minimum needed for
mocks to proceed with <TBD: ...> markers as a return-pass worklist.
Full interview specification is the next pass.
Council touchpoints baked in: PM/skeptic/end-user after requirements,
end-user/a11y after mocks, full architecture council after architecture,
plus auto-additions (legal-triage on regulated data, privacy-advocate
on PII, finance-controller on money flows).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-29 21:03:40 -05:00
## Layout
- `commands/composer.md` — main entry, state-aware. Continues from the first
missing artifact in `docs/planning/` .
- `commands/composer-review.md` — summon a council on the current artifact.
- `commands/composer-mock.md` — generate or revise a mock for a named flow.
- `commands/composer-load.md` — push stories to the project's tracker.
- `commands/composer-status.md` — show what's done, missing, and stale.
- `skills/composer/SKILL.md` — orchestrator: phase detection + interview.
- `skills/composer-mocks/SKILL.md` — JSX/TSX mock generation + text feasibility audit.
- `skills/ui-system/SKILL.md` — design + interaction system interview * (placeholder; to be fleshed out) * .
- `templates/*` — starter skeletons for each artifact.
## Council touchpoints
Composer auto-suggests councils at phase boundaries; users can also invoke
`/composer-review` at any time.
| After phase | Default council |
|---|---|
| Requirements | Lena (PM), Vera (skeptic), Marge (end-user) |
| Mocks | Marge (end-user), Maya (a11y) |
| Architecture | Tomás (architect), Gerald (sr engineer), Priya (DBA), Aisha (DevOps) |
| Pre-load | Marcus (eng manager), Vera (skeptic) — sanity-check scope honesty |
Composer scans content and adds:
- **Femi (legal-triage)** when it spots regulated jurisdictions, third-party data flows, or licensing questions
- **Camila (privacy-advocate)** when it spots PII, multi-user data, or DNA/health data
- **Ingrid (finance-controller)** when it spots money flows, billing, refunds, or subscriptions
## Three things Composer doesn't do
1. **Invent users. ** The interview probes for hidden actors (agents, integrations, future-self) by asking about workflows, not by drafting speculative personas.
2. **Lie in mocks. ** Every visible string in a mock is annotated as static / computed / authored, with the source data and transform named. Strings that imply unspecified features get flagged before the mock is committed.
3. **Push to the tracker without confirmation. ** Always shows a dry run before creating issues.
## Handoff to Symphony
After load, the project has stories in its tracker. Run `/symphony-init` to
set up the orchestrator that will execute them.