Project Engineering Strategy

A Codex skill for teams or solo developers who want engineering work to stay stable across sessions, branches, issues, and handoffs instead of drifting into chat-only execution.

Why Use It

This skill is for repositories where "just continue from the last chat" is not reliable enough.

It pushes Codex toward a more disciplined workflow:

• read the current handoff, checklist, and recent test evidence before editing
• fix models, contracts, runtime behavior, and event chains before polishing UI
• resolve the adopted WBS/tracker fact source instead of assuming GitHub is mandatory
• separate self-test evidence from human acceptance
• scale evidence from editorial (L0) through phase/release (L3) instead of generating a full acceptance package for every edit
• keep requirement facts (what must be achieved) separate from software design facts (how it will be realized)
• keep software design descriptions organized by stable design viewpoints instead of chat questions, live status, or mixed chapter types
• verify As-Built design objects against exact code symbols and repository-relative paths while marking To-Be and Delta mappings honestly
• treat worktrees as valid edit/test/commit locations while keeping preview and integrated-delivery claims distinct
• never infer commit, push, release, deployment, or tracker-write authority from repository visibility or acceptance

Before vs After

A fresh Codex session on a real repository tends to fail in predictable ways.

Without This Skill

• Codex starts editing from recent chat memory instead of checking the actual handoff
• UI polish starts before models, contracts, or runtime behavior are verified
• self-test results and human acceptance get blended together
• implementation moves ahead while issue, project, or doc state drifts

With This Skill

• Codex identifies the current handoff, acceptance state, and recent test evidence before editing
• execution starts from models, contracts, runtime behavior, and event chains before UI cleanup
• self-test evidence is reported separately from human acceptance
• repo docs, tracker state, and execution context stay aligned in the same round

That is the core shift: less chat-only continuity, more project-level continuity.

Good Fit

Use this repo if you want Codex to act more like a project engineer and less like a stateless patch generator.

It is especially useful when your project has:

• multiple sessions over days or weeks
• handoff docs or acceptance checklists
• GitHub, GitLab, another hierarchical tracker, or a local WBS as the adopted execution source
• branch or worktree-based isolation
• explicit self-test and human acceptance stages
• software design descriptions that need a reusable structure, deeper module/interface/class design, or a controlled structural reset

Example Prompts

• Use project-engineering-strategy. This repo needs a stable Codex workflow across sessions.
• Before editing anything, tell me which handoff, acceptance, and self-test artifacts you expect in this project.
• This project uses GitLab and a local WBS. Resolve which one owns hierarchy before updating either.
• Treat this typo-only change as L0; verify the diff without creating a release-sized evidence package.
• Work in the current feature worktree, preserve main-checkout WIP, and do not commit or push without authorization.
• Audit this software design description, separate design from runtime evidence, and map it to the reusable design-description structure before rewriting it.
• Audit this As-Built design against the declared implementation, verify its Chapter 6 symbols and paths, and report any naming mismatch without inventing behavior.

Install

Manual install:

git clone https://github.com/wgwtest/project-engineering-strategy.git
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
cp -R project-engineering-strategy/project-engineering-strategy ~/.codex/skills/project-engineering-strategy

For local development with easy upgrades:

git clone https://github.com/wgwtest/project-engineering-strategy.git
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
ln -s "$(pwd)/project-engineering-strategy/project-engineering-strategy" ~/.codex/skills/project-engineering-strategy

Restart Codex after installing or updating the skill.

Installer-style inputs:

• repo: wgwtest/project-engineering-strategy
• path: project-engineering-strategy

Repository Layout

• project-engineering-strategy/: installable skill package
• project-engineering-strategy/scripts/validate_strategy.py: deterministic package governance checks
• README.md: landing page for humans
• .github/: templates for issues and pull requests

The installable skill lives in a subdirectory so the repository root can hold public-facing files without polluting the package itself.

Related Repos

• novel-writing: fiction planning, drafting, and revision
• novel-project-strategy: longform fiction workflow and recovery

Contributing

If you want to improve the skill, start with CONTRIBUTING.md. Precise examples, better trigger wording, and clearer real-world usage prompts are more valuable than generic advice.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.