Check runbooks before skills for multi-step procedures
When asked to run a named workflow or any complete multi-step procedure
(a PR review round, a release, a hotfix, a story lifecycle), look in
doc/llm/runbooks/ first — compass list --type runbook — before
reaching for Claude Code skills or individual recipes. Runbooks are the
project's named, repeatable compositions of recipes and skills; a
matching runbook supersedes any similarly-named skill.
Why: When asked to "run the PR review workflow", a session invoked the
generic Claude Code review skill instead of the project's Handle a PR
review round runbook, and had to be corrected twice ("we seem to be
ending up in skills rather than runbooks"). Skills are building blocks;
runbooks encode the full procedure including sync, decisions, replies,
thread resolution, and recording.
How to apply: On any request phrased as "run the X workflow", "do a
review round", "handle the release", or similar end-to-end procedure:
first run compass list --type runbook (or check the Runbooks
catalogue) and follow the matching runbook step by step. Fall back to
skills/recipes only when no runbook covers the procedure. Related:
Check recipes before searching for how to do something.