New project docs

These are the current Howells project defaults:

• Patternmode as the starting point for UI: theme, motion tokens and pattern components
• native coding-assistant workflows and Matt Pocock's skills for general software development
• the independent skills collection for specialist work that should not live inside one product repo
• @howells/lint for pinned Oxlint/Oxfmt linting and formatting
• @howells/typescript-config for thin, explicit tsconfig presets
• @howells/envy for typed env parsing and deployment env checks
• @howells/ai for model choice, Mastra, and deliberately scoped MCP packages for AI-capable product and agent work
• Motif's SDK and agent-readable CLI for image generation, image editing, utility media tools, and creative automation
• conservative Turborepo defaults through the root turbo.json snippet

Defaults

• Default repo shape: pnpm monorepo, usually with apps/* and packages/*
• Default UI stack: Next.js App Router, React, Tailwind CSS v4, Base UI and the Patternmode theme, with Storybook only for complex shared UI; unified Radix is the deliberate opt-out
• Default linting and formatting: prefer the @howells/lint Oxlint/Oxfmt lane
• Default task runner: Turborepo with cache disabled until a repo proves it is deterministic
• Default data stack for product apps: Drizzle and Neon, with the narrowest typed API boundary that fits and React Query when client server-state exists
• Default AI-capable shape: model choice from @howells/ai over OpenRouter, image generation through Motif, product orchestration in packages/mastra, and a separate packages/mcp only for a standalone read-only server

Sections

• Principles
• Getting Started
• Stack Decisions
• Architecture Defaults
• Repo Archetypes
• Package Boundaries
• Deployment Defaults
• Neon
• Default Dependencies
• Config Snippets
• package.json: Scripts and Versions
• UI Projects
• Shared Package Candidates
• Agent Workflow
• Development Skills
• Checkout Coordination
• Agentic Development
• Launch Checklist

Agent skill

The Project Docs are the source of truth. The installable skill at skills/scaffold is a distribution surface that routes supported coding assistants through these docs without loading every reference at once.

What this standard optimises for

• Low config drift across active repos
• Fast project setup without re-deciding toolchain basics
• Correctness over cleverness
• Shared UI primitives without flattening project identity
• Short agent instructions that prevent ambiguity and drift
• Reusable skills that stay independent when they solve cross-repo agent problems