Kickoff — bootstrap this project (ACTIVE)

This is the bootstrap phase — it runs once, before the mode loop (CONTRIBUTING.md → The Kickoff). It ships already open; you don't open it, you work it. It's the one phase that writes the strategy shelf instead of orienting against it, and the one time all ground is open (system + product), because it's creating the ground the touch bands later protect. Treat it as a guided conversation — answer the prompts and let the system explain its options as you go.

Full step-by-step: the root KICKOFF.md (one home, many references — this board is the checklist, not the guide). Each item below maps to a KICKOFF.md step.

Items

• Point this copy at your own repo, before the first commit — git remote -v: the template's repo → repoint origin at a private repo of your own; no git → git init and connect one, or stay local for now; your own repo → nothing to do. Every session ends with a push, so this comes first (KICKOFF.md → First run).
• Answer the seeded Open Questions (planning/Open Questions & Assumptions Log.md) — who's the user, what's out of scope, the smallest thesis-proving thing, the riskiest assumption. Each answer becomes a decision, a strategy edit, or a queued phase; then delete the question.
• Fill the strategy shelf — strategy/Vision.md (bedrock) + Scope & Constraints.md; flip both status: draft → active and set their summary:.
• Choose the stack — fill CLAUDE.md's ## Stack + ## Design & Code Conventions blocks.
• Name the project, everywhere — lib/project.ts covers every in-app surface in one edit; package.json, the git repo, the folder, and the deploy project are each their own. Set them together (implementation/shipping.md).
• Decide where the record lives — or defer, deliberately — one gated deployment · two deployments · local-only. Tradeoffs in implementation/shipping.md; the choice (including "not yet") goes in decisions.md.
• Make the identity yours (web projects) — re-skin the tokens in app/globals.css, then the mark in components/ui/Mark.tsx (app/icon.svg and app/opengraph-image.tsx carry the same shape; neither can read a stylesheet). Token names are load-bearing; values are yours. No mark yet? Defer it as a Future Consideration with your own trigger — deliberately, not as an unowned placeholder.
• Meet the styleguide (web projects) — open localhost:3000/system/styleguide: what it derives from app/globals.css and your shared components, what is yours to change, and the under check after a re-skin. Nothing to fill in; anything you want later is a Future Consideration with your own trigger.
• Set the ROADMAP + queue the first product phase — the Goal line, Where We Are, and one queued row with a one-line thesis and a seed in planning/queued/.
• Log the kickoff decisions in decisions.md (the stack choice, the vision as first drafted).

Close items

• Hand off for verification — present the filled shelf (Vision + Scope active, ROADMAP set, first product phase queued) for the PO's read.
• last-reviewed stamped on every doc filled/reviewed during kickoff.
• Replace README.md with your project's own — the template's pitch + quickstart have done their job.
• Delete KICKOFF.md and CHANGELOG.md — KICKOFF.md's durable notes already live in their homes (implementation/shipping.md, implementation/system-surface.md, implementation/component-patterns.md, app/globals.css, your CLAUDE.md Stack block), and the changelog is the template's, read at its own repo where docs/upstream.md points. The template leaves no onboarding behind.
• Distill + delete this board, then open the first product phase from the roadmap. The mode loop starts here.