/archcore:context

Pull-mode project context. Surfaces the rules, decisions, specs, and patterns that apply to a code area before you change it — or recaps current focus when picking up work.

Not related to the AI context window or session state — this is about the .archcore/ knowledge base.

When to use

• "What rules apply to src/payments/?"
• "Before I refactor the auth module, show me what I should know"
• "Show me the decisions for src/api/"
• "Pick up where we left off"
• "What was I working on in payments?"
• "Where is the checkout work right now?"
• "Load project context"

Not context:

• Creating documentation → /archcore:capture, /archcore:decide
• Planning a feature → /archcore:plan
• Detecting stale docs → /archcore:audit --drift
• Health audit, counts, or status breakdown → /archcore:audit (--deep for the full audit)

Routing table

Classify $ARGUMENTS into one mode:

Signal	Mode
Empty or whitespace only	pickup
Contains /, OR matches an existing repo directory	path
Otherwise	topic

Execution

Step 1: Classify

Determine mode from $ARGUMENTS per routing table.

Step 2: Query

Path mode:

Normalize the argument: trim whitespace, convert \ to /, strip trailing /.

Call mcp__archcore__search_documents(path_ref="<normalized>", limit=50, sort="relevance").

Topic mode:

Call mcp__archcore__search_documents(content="<argument>", limit=50, sort="relevance").

Topic search is strict substring — singular/plural and near-synonyms do not match. If the first call returns empty, retry once with a shorter or alternate phrasing of the same term before falling through to the empty state.

Pickup mode:

Call in parallel:

• mcp__archcore__search_documents(types=["plan", "idea"], status="draft", limit=10, sort="mtime")
• mcp__archcore__search_documents(types=["adr", "rule"], status="accepted", mtime_after="30d", limit=10, sort="mtime")

If the recent-accepted call returns empty, retry once with mtime_after="90d".

Step 3: Group

Path and topic modes — group results by type:

Section	Types included
Rules	rule
Decisions	adr
Specs	spec
Patterns	cpat
Reference	doc, rfc, orphan guide (any guide not inlined by Step 4)
In Progress	plan or idea with status draft

Drop remaining types — accepted plan/idea, task-type, and vision/requirements (prd, mrd, brd, urd, brs, strs, syrs, srs). Results are already sorted by search_documents (specificity → type priority → mtime); keep the top 5 per section. Inside Reference the same sort applies, so rfc (typeRank 3) outranks guide (6) and doc (17) when specificity ties.

Pickup mode — three fixed sections:

• In Progress — results from the drafts call
• Recent Decisions — adr results from the recent-accepted call
• Recent Rules — rule results from the recent-accepted call

Step 4: Guide routing

For each item in the Rules, Decisions, or Specs sections, inspect its incoming_relations. If a relation of type implements or related points from a guide, inline that guide as an indented bullet under the parent. Skip a guide that is already inlined under a sibling in the same section. Track the set of guide paths inlined this way — any guide present in the search results but not in this set is an "orphan guide" and is routed to the Reference section in Step 3 instead of being dropped.

Step 5: Render

## Rules (N)
- **<title>** [rule · <status> · <match.kind>]
  `<path>`
  > <excerpt>
  - 📖 **<guide title>** [guide · <status>]

## Decisions (N)
- **<title>** [adr · <status> · <match.kind>]
  `<path>`
  > <excerpt>

## Specs (N)
...

## Patterns (N)
...

## Reference (N)
- **<title>** [<type> · <status> · <match.kind>]
  `<path>`
  > <excerpt>

## In Progress (N)
⚠️  **<title>** [plan · draft]
  `<path>`
  > <excerpt>

_Classified as: <mode>._

Do NOT emit a section header if its group is empty. The classification footer is always emitted.

If all sections are empty, fall through to Step 6.

Step 6: Empty state

• Call mcp__archcore__list_documents(limit=1). If the knowledge base is empty → "No documents indexed yet. Run /archcore:capture or /archcore:decide to seed .archcore/."
• Otherwise → "No documents reference <scope>. Consider using @<scope> in a rule or ADR so future work in this area surfaces the context automatically."

Result

A grouped markdown surface of the rules, ADRs, specs, patterns, reference docs (doc, rfc, orphan guide), and in-progress work that applies to the requested scope — or a pickup summary of draft work + recent accepted decisions and rules when called with no argument. A classification footer identifies which mode was chosen.