Practitioner Handbook

Audience: Engineering orgs adopting AI-assisted delivery (UI, platform, and full-stack)
Goal: Depth over inventory — how to work day-to-day, not a dump of every file in the repo
Version: 1.1 | Updated: 2026-07-29

Purpose

This handbook is the operating manual for teams that ship with AI. Libraries (skills, agents, MCPs, cookbooks) live elsewhere. Here you learn when to reach for which tool, how to keep humans in control, and how to stop wasting tokens and review cycles.

How to use this handbook

New to the site? Read How to browse once (kit → workflow → SDLC tools → patterns → assure).
Org leaders: start with AI migration bible path (pilot → harness → gate → SoA).
Individuals: read Skills vs prompts vs agents once as the shared vocabulary.
Map your stage on the AI SDLC stage tooling map.
Run your next feature through Context → Planning → HITL → Coding → PR review → Evals.
Wire hooks and MCP only after the workflow is clear.
Use cookbooks and patterns as specialist references, not as day-one browsing.

Chapters

Chapter	You will be able to
How to browse	Follow the site in a logical order without thrashing
AI migration bible path	Sequence org pilot → team harness → production gate → SoA
External standards map	Navigate OWASP LLM/Agentic, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, SLSA without certification theater
Skills vs prompts vs agents	Stop treating every XML blob as a “skill”
How to give context	Build packages agents can actually use
How to set up planning	Enforce plan-before-code without ceremony theater
Human in the loop	Place approvals where risk is real
PR review with AI	Run severity-calibrated reviews that humans still own
Evals as quality gates	Block merges on model regressions
Hooks in practice	Fail closed before bad artifacts leave the laptop
MCP when and how	Add tools without turning agents into confused deputies
Containing token waste	Cut cost and noise without starving quality
AIDLC roles & evolving delivery	Staff the new jobs AI-DLC creates

Repo map (start here on disk)

Concern	Canonical path
Behavioral contract	`CLAUDE.md`
Planner pattern	`content/patterns/planner-pattern/README.md`
Implementation plan prompt	`content/08-ai-sdlc/prompts/implementation-plan.prompt.md`
Skills	`content/03-skill-engineering/`
Agents	`content/04-agent-engineering/`
Hooks	`content/04-agent-engineering/hooks/`
MCPs	`content/mcps/`
Eval gate workflow	`.github/workflows/eval-gate.yml`
React cookbook (UI depth)	`content/cookbook/react/README.md`
Normative controls	`content/standard/`

Design rule for this handbook

If a page is only a list of links, it does not belong here. Push catalogs to Skills, MCPs, Cookbook, and Patterns. Keep this folder for teachable practice.

Checklist — handbook readiness for an org

Engineers can name the difference between prompt, skill, agent, hook, and MCP
Every multi-file change has a plan approval recorded
PR review uses severity + verification, not “LGTM from the bot”
Eval gate exists for user-visible model behavior
Token budgets are measured, not vibed
Roles for AI-DLC (plan approver, review owner, eval owner) are named

Changelog

2026-07-29: Linked AI migration bible path as the org-adoption spine.
2026-07-16: Introduced practitioner handbook spine and curated navigation.