Phase 0: Setup

Declarative phase skill. Invoked by the prd-taskmaster orchestrator when current_phase is null or SETUP. Never called directly by a user.

Entry gate

1. Call mcp__plugin_prd_go__check_gate(phase="SETUP", evidence={}) for diagnostics.

   check_gate is an EXIT gate: it verifies you have the evidence to advance, not to enter. On first entry you have no evidence yet (Step 4 below produces validate_setup.ready=true), so a gate_passed: false result here is EXPECTED, the state machine's legal transitions (None → SETUP) already guarantee only legal entry.

   • First entry (no evidence yet): note the result and continue with the Procedure.
   • Re-entry: if the gate reports violations, report them and stop, it protects against re-running a completed phase or skipping ahead.

   Enforce the gate when you ADVANCE (after the procedure), not on entry.

Procedure (5 steps, abort on hard failure)

Step 1: Backend detection

Run backend detection:

python3 script.py backend-detect

The native engine is the sole generator and needs no external binary, a keyless host CLI (claude / codex / gemini) on PATH, or a provider API key, is sufficient (see Chunk 7's atlas setup wizard). The task-master binary is no longer required or supported; backend-detect reports its presence purely as informational. Continue with the resolved (native) backend.

Step 2: Project init

Check whether the current project has a .taskmaster/ directory (the engine still reads/writes the .taskmaster/ file format for tasks and config).

If missing, run backend op init:

python3 script.py init-project

This initialises the native project state and the .taskmaster/ file format. If .taskmaster/ is present, continue.

Step 2.5: Customisation bootstrap (REQUIRED, closes execute-task deadlock)