---
name: ki-work-design
ki-kind: process
ki-applicability: invocation-only
ki-depends-on: []
ki-optional-depends-on: [ki-decision-records, ki-delegation]
description: >
  Shape a new Project, theme or cross-cutting model before any work record exists, through a brief, independent
  reviews, one merged report, the owner's decisions and a piloted rollout, with every artefact committed in the
  work folder's `design/`, `+/_WORK/<id>/design/`. Use when the shape itself is undecided; use `ki-next` to capture or select known work, `ki-plan` to
  ready one record, `ki-design-inspiration` for website visual design, and `ki-design-system` for interface design work.
argument-hint: 'start <subject> | resume <id> | help'
---

# ki-work-design

**Kind:** process. Runs one design from an owner's proposal to approved decisions and a rollout of ordinary work records.

Read [the design-loop standard](references/standards-work-design.md) before acting. Start each artefact from its template: [brief](assets/brief.md), [review](assets/review.md), [merged report](assets/report.md) and [decisions](assets/decisions.md). [Source notes](references/sources.md) record the worked exemplar.

## When to use it

Use the loop when the owner has a proposal for something whose shape is still open and wrong choices would be costly to unwind: a new Project or theme, a model several skills or repositories must share, or a migration across the estate. Kris starts it by name, for example `/ki-work-design start techne`.

Do not use it for work that already has a clear shape. A finite change with a known goal goes straight to `ki-next` for capture and `ki-plan` for readiness; an open question with one obvious answer is a Discussion entry on its record.

## Contract

The loop has five stages - brief, independent reviews, merged report, decisions and rollout - each with the contract the standard defines. Reviews are independent and read-only, disputes are settled on cited evidence rather than by vote, and only the owner decides. Anything the evidence cannot settle goes to the owner as a tagged decision with lettered options and a recommendation.

Every artefact is committed as it is produced in the `design/` subfolder of the work folder whose concern it shapes, `+/_WORK/<id>/design/`, with one shared slug prefix; no `design/` folder sits under `Streams/`. The artefacts are temporary: each graduates when its decisions have durable homes and is deleted in the same change. A Decision Record under `ki-decision-records` follows only when a decision changes, refining an existing record in place where one owns the concern. Local state holds only runtime material such as agent prompts and status files.

The loop writes no work record, grants itself no authority and never chooses for the owner. Push, prune, release and acceptance follow only from a grant the decisions file quotes.

## Relationship boundary

- `ki-next` receives the rollout: it captures each record the decisions call for and selects the pilot.
- `ki-plan` readies each captured record against the decisions, which its Context cites.
- `ki-batch` runs a wave of independent Ready records under the decisions' authority grant; `ki-accept` closes single records under the same grant.
- `ki-decision-records`, when selected, owns the Decision Record's shape and identity.
- `ki-delegation`, when selected, supplies the packet for any high-risk reviewer or rollout handoff.
- The [Project registry standard](../ki-work/references/standards-project-registry.md) owns the flat Project or theme note, which never points into a work folder and links any resulting Decision Record.
- `ki-work-package` owns the work folder, its closed list, its tidy rules and its work file; `ki-coordination` says when the folder is tidied and whether an outcome is homed.

## Invocation

- `help`, `-h`, or `?` explains the loop without writing.
- `start <subject>` names the subject and the work whose folder holds its design, then writes and commits the brief.
- `resume <id>` reads the work folder's `design/` and continues at the first missing stage.

With no subject, no owning work or no owner's proposal, report the missing input and stop.