os-big-picture

1# os-big-picture
2 
3One file, `BIG-PICTURE.md`, where `os-whats-next` already looks for a backlog.
4It answers "where are we now" - not a plan, nothing in it a promise. Write it
5in the user's language; paths stay English.
6 
7**When to use it.** The user asks where the project stands, or there is no
8`BIG-PICTURE.md` yet → the full pass: describe, census, signals, backlog. A
9session report was just written → the fold-in: only the rows that session
10touched. Both re-measure, because a session that moves no row is the one after
11which the dates go quietly stale.
12 
13## Step 1 - find the file, and never clobber it
14 
15`BIG-PICTURE.md` in the project root, and it may already be somebody's own
16work. Everything this skill writes lives between `<!-- open-steps:begin -->`
17and `<!-- open-steps:end -->`; no markers → append at the end; no file → create
18it, and add it to this clone's ignore list, never to `.gitignore`:
19 
20```bash
21f=BIG-PICTURE.md; e="$(git rev-parse --git-dir)/info/exclude"
22git check-ignore -q "$f" || git ls-files --error-unmatch "$f" >/dev/null 2>&1 \
23  || grep -qxF "$f" "$e" 2>/dev/null || printf '%s\n' "$f" >> "$e"
24```
25 
26Each of the three is a reason to leave it alone. Say in one line that you did
27it; `git add -f BIG-PICTURE.md` shares it instead. Never read `Last worked on`
28or `Signal` back out of the file - only `Stage` and the queue carry forward.
29 
30## Step 2 - the census, measured by the script
31 
32```bash
33bash ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/census.sh .
34```
35…