Document skills-vault project boundaries

AGENTS.md

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Work in this repository should focus on:
 - keeping a lightweight registry of available Skills
 
 Do not migrate existing CCPE System content into this repository.
+Do not pre-register speculative Skill candidates. Skills should come from real business-system needs or recurring local workflow automation.
 
 ## Boundary With CCPE
 
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@ If an automation Skill becomes a dependency of a CCPE runtime, agent, or committ
 - Preserve behavior during first migration; refactor only after baseline behavior is captured.
 - Add tests for transformations, file rewrites, parsing behavior, and safety checks when practical.
 - Do not write secrets, tokens, machine-specific credentials, or generated cache files into the repository.
+- Do not treat business systems such as `video-workbench` as direct consumers of this repository. They should use installed Skills from `.agents/skills`; this repository owns source copies.
 
 ## Expected Skill Directory
 

PROJECTS.md

@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+# skills-vault Project Overview
+
+`skills-vault` is the source vault for automation-oriented Skills in the five-repository working system.
+
+It owns implementation source for reusable, installable, testable automation Skills. It does not own business workflows, expert agents, CCPE runtimes, or project-specific production records.
+
+## Position In The Five Repositories
+
+```text
+knowledge-vault   = long-term knowledge, discussions, rule discovery
+writing-workbench = article projects after a writing project is already established
+ccpe-system       = agents, runtimes, model cards, protocols, architecture registration
+video-workbench   = video and multimodal production projects
+skills-vault      = automation Skill implementation source
+```
+
+The core boundary is:
+
+```text
+Business systems raise real automation needs.
+skills-vault stores reusable automation Skill source.
+.agents/skills is the local runtime installation surface.
+ccpe-system records architecture dependencies only when needed.
+```
+
+## Demand Sources
+
+New Skills should come from real work, not speculative candidate lists.
+
+There are two valid demand sources.
+
+### Business System Support
+
+A business system may reveal a repeated automation need while running a real workflow.
+
+Examples of business systems:
+
+- `video-workbench`
+- `writing-workbench`
+- `knowledge-vault`
+- `ccpe-system`
+
+The business system owns its project workflow, decision records, source materials, and outputs. `skills-vault` only owns a reusable automation Skill if the need becomes stable enough to implement, test, install, and reuse.
+
+For example, `video-workbench` may need voice generation during production. The installed Skill used by that workflow lives under:
+
+```text
+C:\Users\wangq\.agents\skills
+```
+
+The source copy, if maintained here, lives under:
+
+```text
+skills-vault\skills\<skill-name>
+```
+
+`video-workbench` is a demand source, not a direct submodule or runtime consumer of the development repository.
+
+### Local Workflow Automation
+
+A Skill may also come from a recurring local friction point discovered during daily work.
+
+Example:
+
+```text
+fix-title
+```
+
+This class of Skill should still satisfy the same gate: clear input, clear output, bounded side effects, and practical verification.
+
+## What Belongs Here
+
+Use `skills-vault` for automation Skills that are:
+
+- repeatable
+- bounded
+- installable
+- testable or manually verifiable
+- useful across more than one session or workflow
+- focused on execution rather than business judgment
+
+Typical examples include file transformations, format repair, batch generation, export helpers, validation helpers, and local CLI wrappers.
+
+## What Does Not Belong Here
+
+Do not put these in `skills-vault`:
+
+- deep writing workflows
+- article premise or outline judgment
+- expert reviewer personas
+- CCPE agents, committees, or runtimes
+- model cards or model indexes
+- speculative Skill candidates without a real workflow source
+- project-specific production artifacts
+
+## Registry Policy
+
+`registry/skills-index.md` tracks real Skills already managed by this repository.
+
+Do not use the registry as a speculative backlog. A Skill should be registered only after a real demand has produced concrete Skill source maintained by this repository.
+
+## Installation Boundary
+
+This repository is not the runtime install surface.
+
+```text
+Source of truth:      C:\Users\wangq\Documents\Codex\skills-vault\skills
+Installed runtime:    C:\Users\wangq\.agents\skills
+Architecture records: C:\Users\wangq\Documents\Codex\ccpe-system
+```
+
+Business systems should normally use installed Skills from `.agents/skills`, not import directly from this development repository.
+
+## Working Rule
+
+When a new automation need appears, first ask:
+
+```text
+Is this a real repeated action from a workflow, or just a possible future idea?
+```
+
+Only real repeated actions should become Skill work in this repository.

README.md

@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ This repository owns the implementation source for automation Skills:
 
 It does not own CCPE agents, committees, runtimes, model cards, or existing CCPE System assets.
 
+See [PROJECTS.md](PROJECTS.md) for the project overview and cross-repository boundaries.
+
 ## Relationship To CCPE System
 
 `C:\Users\wangq\Documents\Codex\ccpe-system` remains the system architecture workspace for:
@@ -85,6 +87,17 @@ citation-checker
 report-exporter
 ```
 
+## Demand Sources
+
+New Skills should come from real workflow needs, not speculative candidate lists.
+
+Valid sources are:
+
+- business systems such as `video-workbench`, `writing-workbench`, `knowledge-vault`, or `ccpe-system`
+- local workflow automation discovered during day-to-day work, such as `fix-title`
+
+Business systems use installed Skills from `C:\Users\wangq\.agents\skills`. This repository owns the source copy only when the automation has become stable enough to maintain as a reusable Skill.
+
 ## Remote
 
 Canonical remote:

docs/architecture.md

@@ -6,6 +6,13 @@
 
 The repository is intentionally lightweight. It should make Skills easy to find, inspect, test, migrate, and install without turning the repository into an agent framework.
 
+New Skill work should originate from real workflow demand:
+
+- a business system such as `video-workbench`, `writing-workbench`, `knowledge-vault`, or `ccpe-system`
+- recurring local workflow automation discovered during day-to-day work
+
+Do not use this repository as a speculative backlog of possible Skills.
+
 ## Primary Units
 
 ### Skill Source
@@ -31,6 +38,8 @@ It should answer:
 - Are they installed locally?
 - Do they have any CCPE registration?
 
+The registry tracks real Skills managed by this repository. It should not be used to pre-register candidate Skills that do not yet come from a real workflow.
+
 ### Templates
 
 `templates/skill/` contains a baseline structure for migrated or newly created Skills.
@@ -65,6 +74,8 @@ C:\Users\wangq\.agents\skills
 
 Future sync scripts may copy selected Skill directories from `skills-vault/skills/` into that install directory.
 
+Business systems should normally use installed Skills from `.agents/skills`, not import directly from this development repository. For example, `video-workbench` may raise a need that leads to a Skill source here, but its workflow should call the installed Skill.
+
 ## Design Principle
 
 Keep source ownership simple:

docs/ccpe-relationship.md

@@ -49,6 +49,8 @@ Use `ccpe-system` for:
 
 CCPE may reference a Skill from this repository, but should not duplicate the Skill source.
 
+Business projects may also create demand for a Skill, but they should not become owners of the Skill source. If a workflow in `video-workbench`, `writing-workbench`, or another project needs a stable automation action, the reusable implementation can live in `skills-vault` and the business project can use the installed copy from `.agents/skills`.
+
 ## When To Register A Skill In CCPE
 
 Do not register every small utility.

docs/installation.md

@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ Status: tested, installable, or installed
 Install Policy: default
 ```
 
-Conditional, optional, disabled, candidate, deprecated, and archived Skills are skipped during full installation.
+Conditional, optional, disabled, deprecated, and archived Skills are skipped during full installation.
 
 ## Updating An Existing Installed Skill
 

docs/migration-guide.md

@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ If the source is CCPE content, do not migrate it.
    registry/skills-index.md
    ```
 
+   Register only real migrated or maintained Skill source. Do not use the registry as a backlog for speculative candidates.
+
 7. If needed, install or sync the Skill into:
 
    ```text
@@ -63,7 +65,6 @@ If the source is CCPE content, do not migrate it.
 Use these status values in the registry:
 
 ```text
-candidate
 migrated
 tested
 installed