# Projects: binding a directory, and starting one

Part of the using-scribe skill. Read it when a working directory maps to no
project, or when a new project is about to be created.

## Binding a directory to a project

**A directory does not have to be a git repo to have a project.** A repo is
bound by its remote (`list_repo_bindings` shows the bindings). Anything else —
a notes folder, a server's config directory, a scratch directory — is bound by
a `.scribe` file naming the project:

    {"instance": "https://scribe.example.com", "project_id": 2, "project": "Homelab"}

`instance` is what makes the id trustworthy. An id means nothing on its own —
it is a different project on every Scribe — so a marker that has travelled to
another instance is ignored rather than followed to the wrong project. A bare
`2` also works when writing the file by hand. When work plainly belongs to a
project and the directory names none, offer to write the marker;
`list_projects` has the id.

## Starting a project: decide what it inherits

A project's inheritance is a **decision, not a default**. Before
`create_project`, ask the operator the two inception questions and pass the
answers — never create a project bare by default:

- which **design system** its UI is built from (`list_design_systems`; or
  none) → `design_system_id=<id | -1>`
- whether to **seed the standard starter Systems** so records can be tagged
  from day one → `seed_systems=true|false`

Rules are not an inception question: a global rule already applies to every
project, and a project's own rules are written on it as they come up.

If `enter_project` returns an `inception` key, the project was never decided
(it inherits its defaults silently): raise that ask once, with the defaults it
carries, then `decide_project_inception(project_id, …)`. Existing projects
were stamped "legacy" and do not ask; any project can be re-decided. The
design-system and Systems tools still work one at a time — inception is the
moment they are decided together, and the record of why.