Standardize Development with Context Artifacts

Context-Driven Development treats project context as a first-class artifact managed alongside code, using the Conductor framework's structured documents instead of ad-hoc prompts. Core principles: context precedes code, documentation lives and evolves with the project, each type of information has a single source of truth, and consistent context produces consistent AI behavior. Work follows a Context → Specification → Planning → Implementation workflow, where the context phase establishes or verifies artifacts before requirements, task breakdown, and execution proceed.

Use it when setting up new Conductor projects, onboarding team members to an existing one, maintaining consistency across AI-assisted sessions, deciding when to update context documents, or handling greenfield versus brownfield projects. Five artifacts each own a distinct concern: product.md (WHAT and WHY - vision, personas, features, KPIs), product-guidelines.md (HOW to communicate - brand voice, terminology, copy standards), tech-stack.md (WITH WHAT - languages, dependencies, infrastructure, tooling), workflow.md (HOW to work - methodology, git conventions, review/testing/QA gates), and tracks.md (WHAT'S HAPPENING - the work-unit registry), all organized as:

conductor/
├── index.md              # Navigation hub linking all artifacts
├── product.md            # Product vision and goals
├── product-guidelines.md # Communication standards
├── tech-stack.md         # Technology preferences
├── workflow.md           # Development practices
├── tracks.md             # Work unit registry
├── setup_state.json      # Resumable setup state
├── code_styleguides/     # Language-specific conventions
│   ├── python.md
│   ├── typescript.md
│   └── ...
└── tracks/
    └── <track-id>/
        ├── spec.md
        ├── plan.md
        ├── metadata.json
        └── index.md

/conductor:setup initializes context interactively for greenfield projects (defining standards before code exists) or, for brownfield projects, analyzes the existing codebase to pre-populate artifacts from discovered patterns for review and refinement. A validation checklist covers product, technical, workflow, and track context before starting any implementation, and a defined context lifecycle (creation, validation, evolution, synchronization, archival) keeps artifacts current - cross-referenced so a completed track updates product.md, a new dependency updates tech-stack.md, and a workflow change propagates to affected track plans.

The skill documents five anti-patterns to avoid - stale context, context sprawl across ad hoc locations, implicit undocumented knowledge, one-person context hoarding, and over-specification that becomes unmaintainable - plus integration points: pinning context files in the IDE, pre-commit hooks warning on dependency/context drift, and CI/CD checks verifying tech-stack.md matches real dependencies and tracks.md matches git branch state. Session continuity guidance covers starting a session (read index.md, check tracks.md, review the active track's plan.md), ending one (update progress, note blockers, commit with clear status), and handling interruptions (mark the task [~], commit work-in-progress, document undecided points).

Ten best practices anchor daily use: read context first, make small incremental updates rather than rewrites, link decisions back to context, version context alongside code, review it in code review, validate regularly, communicate significant changes, preserve history via git, question staleness when context feels wrong, and keep every item actionable.

Teams using Conductor for AI-assisted development who need a structured, synchronized context system - not scattered docs or re-explained context every session - to keep both the team and AI assistants aligned on product, tech stack, workflow, and active work. The payoff compounds as institutional memory: decisions and their rationale are preserved, context survives team turnover, and historical context informs future decisions rather than being re-litigated from scratch.