Skill Commands

This is the complete reference for Lineup's skill commands. For a conceptual overview, see Skills.

Overview

Skills are slash commands provided by the Lineup plugin. Each skill is a SKILL.md file in the plugin's skills/ directory. The lineup: namespace prefix comes from the plugin name in .claude-plugin/plugin.json.

Command	Skill file	Purpose
/lineup:kick-off	skills/kick-off/SKILL.md	Run the agentic pipeline or a tactic
/lineup:configure	skills/configure/SKILL.md	Customize agent settings interactively
/lineup:explain	skills/explain/SKILL.md	Get a structured codebase explanation
/lineup:playbook	skills/playbook/SKILL.md	Create, edit, import, or delete tactics

/lineup:kick-off

The main entry point for all Lineup workflows.

Syntax

/lineup:kick-off [task-description | tactic-name]

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
task-description	No	Free-text description of the work to do
tactic-name	No	Name of a tactic to execute (kebab-case, matches a .yaml filename)

If no argument is provided, the skill enters menu mode.

Behavior

With a task description: The orchestrator evaluates the description, selects a pipeline tier based on complexity, and runs the appropriate stages.

/lineup:kick-off Refactor the authentication module to use JWT tokens

With a tactic name: The orchestrator looks for the named tactic in .lineup/tactics/ (project) and the plugin's tactics/ directory (built-in). If found, it runs the tactic's stage sequence. If not found, it reports the error and lists available tactics.

/lineup:kick-off brownfield-docs

With no arguments (menu mode): If tactics exist (project or built-in), the orchestrator presents a selection menu showing each tactic's name and description, plus options for the default pipeline and custom input. If no tactics exist, it prompts for a task description.

/lineup:kick-off

Pipeline stages

When running the default pipeline, kick-off executes up to 7 stages:

Stage	Name	Agent	User interaction
1	Clarify	Orchestrator	Answers structured questions
2	Research	Researcher	None (wait for findings)
3	Clarification Gate	Orchestrator	Answers follow-up questions
4	Plan	Architect	Must approve before implementation
5	Implement	Developer	None (wait for changes)
6	Verify	Reviewer	Reviews the report
7	Document (optional)	Documenter	Opts in or skips

Stages may be skipped depending on the selected tier. See Pipeline Tiers.

Tactic execution

When a tactic is selected, its stage list replaces the default pipeline entirely. The orchestrator:

1. Prompts for variable values (if the tactic defines variables)
2. Executes each stage in order, respecting optional and gate controls
3. Passes context between stages (upstream output feeds downstream)
4. Presents verification criteria after all stages complete

Stage labels use the tactic's count: a 3-stage tactic shows "Stage 1/3", "Stage 2/3", "Stage 3/3".

Rules

• The orchestrator never implements code itself -- it delegates to the developer agent
• The orchestrator never does deep exploration -- it delegates to the researcher agent
• User approval is always required before moving from Plan to Implement
• AskUserQuestion is used for all user decisions in Clarify, Clarification Gate, and Document stages

/lineup:configure

Interactive agent configurator.

Syntax

/lineup:configure

Arguments

None. The skill is fully interactive.

Behavior

The configurator walks through five steps:

Step	What happens
1. Read	Reads all agent files and displays current frontmatter as a summary table
2. Ask	Presents configuration categories (model, tools, memory, reset) and collects choices
3. Preview	Shows the final frontmatter for each agent that will change
4. Apply	Writes override YAML files to ~/.claude/lineup/agents/
5. Confirm	Reports what changed (which agents, which fields, old and new values)

Configuration categories

Category	Options
Model	Keep defaults, set one for all agents, set per-agent
Tools	Replace tools, add tools, remove tools, no changes
Memory	Keep defaults, set one for all agents, set per-agent
Reset	Restore all agents to factory defaults

What it modifies

Writes override files to ~/.claude/lineup/agents/ containing only the fields you changed (model, tools, memory). Never modifies agent .md files.

Validation

• Models must be haiku, sonnet, or opus
• Memory must be user, project, or local
• Tools are comma-space separated strings
• A preview is always shown before changes are written
• User confirmation is required before applying

Default values (used by Reset)

Agent	Model	Memory	Tools
researcher	haiku	user	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, WebFetch, WebSearch
architect	opus	user	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, Write
developer	opus	user	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, Edit, Write, Bash, NotebookEdit
reviewer	opus	user	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, Bash
documenter	opus	user	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, Write, WebFetch
teacher	opus	user	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, WebFetch, WebSearch

/lineup:explain

Structured codebase explanation via the built-in explain tactic.

Syntax

/lineup:explain <question>

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
question	Yes	A question about a project component, pattern, or decision

Behavior

This skill is an alias. It invokes /lineup:kick-off explain with the user's question as the task description. The kick-off skill resolves the built-in explain tactic and executes its two stages:

1. Research: A researcher agent explores the codebase, focusing on the topic the user asked about
2. Explain: A teacher agent produces a structured explanation based on the research findings

Output

A YAML document following the templates/teacher.yaml schema, containing:

• Learning objectives
• Prerequisites
• Structured explanation with code examples from the actual codebase
• Suggestions for further exploration

The output is ephemeral -- it appears in the conversation and is not written to any file.

What questions work best

Questions about specific components, patterns, data flows, and architectural decisions produce the best results. See Use Explain for examples of effective questions.

Override

Create .lineup/tactics/explain.yaml in your project to override the built-in explain tactic with a custom workflow.

/lineup:playbook

Interactive tactic management wizard.

Syntax

/lineup:playbook

Arguments

None. The skill is fully interactive.

Behavior

The playbook skill walks through up to eight steps depending on the mode selected:

Step	What happens
1. Discover	Reads tactic schema, example templates, project tactics, and built-in tactics
2. Mode	Presents mode selection: Create, Import, Edit, Delete
3. Name/desc	Collects tactic name (kebab-case) and description
4. Stage builder	Guides through building an ordered list of stages
5. Verification	Collects human-readable verification criteria
6. Variables	Defines variables with cross-reference validation
7. Validate	Runs schema and semantic validation, shows YAML preview
8. Write	Writes the tactic to .lineup/tactics/<name>.yaml

Steps 3-7 are skipped or adapted depending on the mode.

Modes

Mode	Steps used	Description
Create	3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	Build a new tactic from scratch
Import	Selection + optional 3-7, 8	Copy an example template, optionally customize
Edit	Selection + targeted 3-7, 8	Modify an existing project tactic
Delete	Selection, confirmation	Remove a project tactic

Stage types and conventional agents

The stage builder presents these type-agent pairings as defaults:

Type	Default agent
clarify	researcher
research	researcher
clarification-gate	architect
plan	architect
implement	developer
verify	reviewer
document	documenter
explain	teacher

Any agent can be paired with any stage type -- these are conventions, not constraints.

Common stage patterns

The stage builder offers five pre-built patterns as starting points:

Pattern	Stages
Research-first	research, plan, implement, verify
Quick fix	plan, implement, verify
Documentation pass	research, plan, document
Full pipeline with controls	research (optional), plan (gate: approval), implement, verify, document (optional)
Investigation only	research, explain

Validation

Schema validation (blocks write):

• Name is kebab-case, 3-50 characters, matches filename
• Description is non-empty
• At least one stage exists
• Stage types and agent names are valid
• Variable names are snake_case
• All ${variable_name} references resolve to defined variables

Semantic validation (warns only):

• verify stage without verification criteria
• Verification criteria without a verify stage
• implement stage without a preceding plan stage
• plan stage without gate: approval
• Unused defined variables
• implement as the first stage

What it modifies

Writes, renames, or deletes files in .lineup/tactics/ only. Never modifies plugin example files (examples/tactics/) or built-in tactics (tactics/).

Rules

• Preview and explicit confirmation are required before every write
• Example tactics and built-in tactics are read-only
• Rename in edit mode writes the new file before deleting the old one
• YAML formatting matches the example tactics exactly (header comments, pipe-blocks, field order)
• AskUserQuestion is used for all decisions