The tightest three

Use this when

You ran the quickstart and want to understand the thinking behind the three commands — when to use each, what happens under the hood, and how they compose.

Skip this when

You are here to install and run. Head back to the quickstart for the numbered steps.

Why three, not thirty

bassclef ships around 40 skills. Most of them serve a specific job inside a longer flow — writing a chronicle, checking a hook wiring, running a security review. Three of them carry the load-bearing promise: from idea to a pull request that holds up in review.

The three are /riff, /launch, and /build. Each one takes the output of the previous one. Together they turn a paragraph you type into a pull request your reviewer can act on.

The other 37 skills exist to sharpen the three. You can adopt bassclef using only the three for weeks before you need anything else. That is the design.

/riff — sketch before you decide

Job: turn a paragraph into three clickable mocks so you can pick a direction before writing code.

Input: a paragraph describing what you want. One or two sentences is enough. Three is plenty.

Output: three HTML mocks at docs/prototypes/<slug>/variant-{a,b,c}/ plus a gallery page at docs/prototypes/<slug>/index.html. Each mock is drafted through a different design lens — one might lean information-dense, another might lean signature-simple, another might lean playful.

When to run: any time you are about to build something visual and you do not already have a specific mockup in hand. The 15-minute cost of /riff saves the hour of building the wrong thing.

When to skip: you already have a figma or a sketch. Jump straight to /launch --spec.

/launch — pick one; get a plan

Job: turn one chosen mock into a buildable plan.

Input: the mock you picked from /riff (or a spec you drafted yourself).

Output: a spec at docs/specs/<slug>.md, INVEST-shaped user stories, a GRASP decomposition (which classes get which responsibilities), and a migration plan (branch shape, feature flag, cutover checklist).

When to run: after /riff, or any time you have a change idea and want the design work done before implementation starts.

When to skip: you are fixing a bug or making a one-line change. Use /quick-fix or /auto-fix instead — those skip the spec ceremony for narrow scope.

/build — ship what the plan says

Job: turn the plan from /launch into a merged pull request.

Input: the spec + user stories from /launch.

Output: commits per user story, /verify runs per commit, a Reviewer sign-off comment on the PR body, and an open pull request on your branch.

When to run: after /launch, when the spec looks right and you want the code.

When to skip: you are shipping something inside the blast-radius floor — auth, schema, security, tenant boundary. /build refuses those by design. Handle them via manual review or /auto-fix with operator gates.

How they compose

Each command's output is the next command's input. If you break the chain — for instance, edit the spec heavily after /launch finished but before /build starts — that is fine. /build reads the spec as authoritative. The chain is designed to accept human edits between steps.

You can also run any of the three on its own:

• /riff alone gives you a gallery to pick from without commitment.
• /launch alone (with --spec docs/specs/existing.md) gives you the plan around an existing spec.
• /build alone (against a spec you wrote by hand) skips the sketch-and-plan phases.

Where the other 37 skills fit

Around the three, bassclef ships skills that:

• Sharpen writing (/kiss, /state-a-problem, /value-prop, /journal)
• Validate work (/verify, /architect-review, /pattern-review)
• Diagnose failures (/diagnose, /quick-fix, /auto-fix)
• Manage sessions (/longrun, /session-end, /sprint, /whereami)
• Discover the framework (/skills, /luminary, /hooks, /howdoi)

You add these as you need them. Start with the three. Add the next skill when you notice you keep doing something by hand that the skill would automate.

What to try next

• Run the quickstart if you have not yet
• Browse the Skills catalog to see what else ships
• Read the failure-mode playbook before you rely on bassclef in production