--- name: scaffold-state-plugin description: > Use this skill when the user asks the coding agent to add a new state plugin to the claude-legal marketplace. Triggers include "add California plugin", "create a Texas court-docs plugin", "scaffold a new state", "add Florida", "I want to cover Arizona", "build the New York plugin", "new state — same as Oregon but for [STATE]", "port the WA plugin to [STATE]". Generates the complete 21-skill directory tree (mirroring wa-court-docs and or-court-docs), authors SKILL.md files for every role, lays down the reference-corpus scaffolding (court-rules, federal-debt-laws, ucc-model, -statutes-debt), copies the format-check and case-calendar scripts parameterized to the new state's holidays and format rule, registers the plugin in marketplace.json, and updates CLAUDE.md and README.md. The scaffolder declares dependencies on claude-legal-federal-laws and on document-skills from the anthropic-agent-skills marketplace (Anthropic's DOCX/PDF/PPTX/XLSX skills) in the new plugin.json and lays down symlinks at references/ federal-debt-laws and references/ucc-model pointing into the shared plugin — federal corpora are NOT duplicated per state. This is a **project-scoped skill** — it lives in .claude/ skills/ and runs against the marketplace repo as a whole. It is NOT a marketplace plugin. version: 0.6.0 --- # Scaffold a New State Plugin Use this skill when adding a new state plugin to the `claude-legal` marketplace. The skill codifies the pattern established by `wa-court-docs` and `or-court-docs` so the addition stays consistent across states. > **Project-scoped skill**. This skill lives in `.claude/skills/` > at the repo root. It runs against the marketplace as a whole. > It is NOT one of the marketplace's state plugins. ## When to invoke When the user asks to "add [state]", "create a plugin for [state]", "scaffold [state]", etc. Confirm with the user: 1. **State name and abbreviation** (e.g., "California" / "ca") 2. **Primary high-volume court** to get its own skill (e.g., "Los Angeles Superior Court" / `ca-lasc`) 3. **Secondary high-volume court** (optional; e.g., "San Francisco Superior Court" / `ca-sfsc`) 4. **Roll-up counties** for the long tail (typically the 10 most-populous, excluding the two flagship counties) 5. **State's pleading-format rule** (e.g., California Rules of Court Rule 2.100 et seq.) 6. **State's civil rules** (e.g., California Code of Civil Procedure — CCP) 7. **State's evidence rules** (e.g., California Evidence Code — CEC, codified at Cal. Evid. Code §§ 1–1605) 8. **State's statute code** (e.g., Cal. Civ. Code, Tex. Bus. & Com. Code) 9. **State's style manual** (e.g., California Style Manual) 10. **State legal holidays** (federal + state-specific; for the case-calendar script) 11. **State's analog to FDCPA** at the state level (e.g., California Rosenthal Act; Texas Finance Code Ch. 392) 12. **State's collection-agency registration regime** if any (e.g., California Debt Collection Licensing Act for debt buyers as of 2022) 13. **Family-court topology** — does the state have a separate Family Court trial court, or does it hear family matters in a Family Division of the general- jurisdiction trial court? Either way, the `-family-court` venue skill ships. Note the venue, the rule set, and whether jurisdiction is concurrent with the regular civil-trial court for any topic. 14. **State's family-law code** — identify the citation (e.g., the state's Domestic Relations Law / Family Code / UDMA enactment / equivalent) 15. **State's child-support guideline model** — income- shares (most states), percentage-of-payor-income, or Melson formula (rare). Note the statutory cap on combined parental income. 16. **State's property-distribution regime** — community- property (CA, TX, WA, AZ, NM, ID, LA, NV, WI) vs. equitable-distribution (everyone else). 17. **State's divorce grounds** — no-fault is now universal but waiting periods and any surviving fault grounds vary. If the user hasn't supplied all of these, ASK before scaffolding — the substance of every skill depends on getting these right. ## The pattern to mirror The **23-skill base** is the minimum a new state plugin should ship. Baseline coverage includes: - **All civil court rules** for every civil-trial-court layer in the state (the state's pleading-format rule, its civil-procedure rule set, and the local rules of the flagship counties) - **All civil practice** procedural skills (the 21-skill core: format, discovery, hearings, post-judgment, etc.) - **All civil substantive laws** in the statutes corpus (the state's procedure code + consolidated-laws articles covering evidence, fees, limitations, exemptions, garnishment, UCC Article 9, consumer-debt statutes) - **Family court rules** for the state's family-court venue - **Family practice** — the `-family-court` venue skill + the `-family-law` subject bundle - **Family law statutes** (the state's family-law code in the statutes corpus) States with complex civil-court systems can ship more than the 23-skill base — dedicated venue skills for separate lower-civil-court layers (housing court, district court, city court, justice court, etc.) and additional subject- matter bundles (personal injury, employment, commercial disputes, etc.) when the state's civil practice justifies them. Existing plugins in the marketplace ship between 21 and 35 skills depending on state complexity. The 23-skill base, parameterized by the items above: ``` plugins/-court-docs/ .claude-plugin/plugin.json scripts/ format-check.py # state format-rule compliance case-calendar.py # state-specific deadline arithmetic skills/ -statewide-format/ # format rule (e.g., CRC 2.100) -/ # primary high-volume court -/ # secondary high-volume court -county-courts/ # rest-of-state roll-up -pro-se/ # pro-se drafting framework adaptation -law-references/ # civil rules, evidence, citation, # fees, local rules, online sources, # legal-data-apis, key cases -discovery/ -hearings/ -post-judgment/ -first-30-days/ -fact-check/ -deadlines/ -draft-motion/ -draft-declaration/ -draft-note/ # or "draft-notice-of-hearing" # depending on terminology -draft-order/ -quality-check/ -schedule-hearing/ -file-packet/ -submit-order/ -family-court/ # Family Court venue skill — # custody / support / family # offense / paternity / abuse # and neglect. Even when the # state hears family matters # inside a Family Division of # Superior Court (rather than # a separate Family Court), # ship this as a dedicated skill # covering the division's rules, # intake, and pro-se forms. -consumer-debt/ # Subject bundle: FDCPA + state # UTPA-equivalent + collection- # agency law + chain of title -family-law/ # Subject bundle: divorce / # custody / support / parenting # plan / property distribution # / maintenance. Substantive # law of the state's family # code (UDMA-based, community- # property, equitable- # distribution — depends on # state). evals/ drafting/ formatting/ procedural/ subject-matter/ integration/ README.md ``` ## Workflow ### Step 1: Gather inputs Use `AskUserQuestion` to collect the 12 items above (in batches of 4 to avoid overwhelming). Record them. The agent can suggest defaults based on the state — but the user confirms. ### Step 2: Generate the scaffold Two options: #### Option A — Use the scaffold script Run the bundled scaffolder: ```bash python3 .claude/skills/scaffold-state-plugin/scripts/scaffold-state.py \ --state \ --name \ --format-rule "" \ --civil-rules "" \ --evidence "" \ --statute "" \ --primary-court ":" \ --secondary-court ":" \ --counties "" \ --citation-style-url "" ``` The script: - Creates `plugins/-court-docs/` and all 21 skill dirs - Generates a `plugin.json` from the provided metadata - Copies the OR `format-check.py` and `case-calendar.py` to the new plugin, parameterizing the format rule and the holidays - Writes stub `SKILL.md` files for each of the 21 skills with frontmatter (`name`, `description`, `version: 0.1.0`), a category-appropriate **NOT LEGAL ADVICE disclaimer** blockquote (drafting scaffolders identify the user as decision-maker; declaration scaffolders identify the user as declarant; order scaffolders flag that only a judge signs; pro-se skills add a consult-an-attorney prompt; subject-matter bundles flag fact-specificity), and a TODO list of sections to author. Authors expanding a stub MUST preserve the disclaimer block. - Generates reference-corpus skeletons (READMEs and `_manifest.json` for court-rules and `-statutes-debt`) - Updates `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` to register the new plugin - Stops short of authoring substantive content — that's the next step #### Option B — Manual scaffolding For maximum control, follow `references/checklist.md` step by step. Use `references/skill-templates/` as starting points for each role. ### Step 3: Author substantive content The scaffolder produces stubs. Each SKILL.md needs: - A full description with trigger phrases that match how a pro se filer would actually ask - Substantive body text covering the state's rules — **as a thin-skill** (see below) - References specific to the state (rule numbers, statute citations, case citations in the state's style manual format) - Composition notes pointing to other skills in the plugin > **Read [`references/thin-skill-architecture.md`](references/thin-skill-architecture.md) > before authoring SKILL.md bodies.** The dominant lesson > from the WA expansion is that skills should describe > procedural frameworks + chapter pointers, and current > statutory text + dollar thresholds + day counts + section > subsections should live in the references corpus — not > embedded in skill bodies. Quarterly puller refreshes then > update canonical law without requiring SKILL.md edits. > The thin-skill doc has a category-by-category catalog of > citation-drift hazards and a refactor playbook. Use `references/skill-templates/` as the starting point for each role. Each template has: - The frontmatter shape (name, description triggers, version) - The body structure (sections, headings, conventions) - Placeholders for state-specific content (`{{STATE_NAME}}`, `{{FORMAT_RULE}}`, etc.) - Cross-references to the relevant references files ### Step 4: Build reference content For each skill, the `references/` directory holds the deep dive. Each `-law-references` skill needs: - `civil-rules.md` — state's civil-procedure rules summarized (must cover both general-civil rules AND family-court rules) - `evidence-rules.md` — state's evidence code summarized - `fees-and-costs.md` — state's fee-shifting framework - `local-rules.md` — high-volume courts' local rules - `citation-format.md` — state style-manual conventions - `key-cases.md` — general-civil + family-law precedents - `online-sources.md` — canonical URLs (the WebFetch catalog) - `legal-data-apis.md` — programmatic-access index - `court-rules/` — **verbatim rule text for both civil and family court rules**. Baseline coverage: - State pleading-format rule - State civil-procedure rule set - State evidence code (where codified as a rule rather than a statute) - **State family-court rule set** — verify this exists as a distinct rule body; check for it even when family law sits in a Family Division of the general-jurisdiction court - Sealing of court records rule (statewide) - Costs and sanctions rule (statewide) - Rules of Professional Conduct - Sub-trial-court rule sets where applicable (state- specific lower civil courts, district courts, city courts, justice / town / village courts, special civil parts, etc.) - `federal-debt-laws/` *(symlink)* — points into the shared `claude-legal-federal-laws/references/federal-debt-laws/` plugin via `../../../../claude-legal-federal-laws/...`. Do NOT create a real directory here. The scaffold script lays this symlink down automatically; if you author the plugin by hand, declare `"dependencies": ["claude-legal-federal-laws", {"name": "document-skills", "marketplace": "anthropic-agent-skills"}]` in plugin.json and run `ln -s` for the symlink. - `ucc-model/` *(symlink)* — same shared plugin; same symlink target convention. Same dependency. - `-statutes-debt/` — **state's civil-practice + consumer-debt + family-law statute chapters**. The directory name retains the legacy `debt` slug for path stability across earlier plugins, but the scope is full civil + family practice. Baseline coverage: - **Civil procedure** — state's procedure code - **Evidence** — state's evidence code where statutory - **Limitations** — state's SOL chapter - **Garnishment + exemptions** — state's enforcement + exemption chapter - **UCC** — state's enactment of Articles 2, 3, 9 - **Consumer protection** — state's UTPA analog - **Debt collection** — state's mini-FDCPA - **Real Property + summary proceedings** — for L&T cases - **Family law** — state's family-law code - **Family Court / domestic-relations procedure** — where the state codifies it separately from the family-law substantive code - **General Construction / holidays** — for the case- calendar script ### Step 5: Build the two baseline subject-matter bundles The plugin ships with **two baseline subject-matter bundles**: `-consumer-debt` and `-family-law`. Both follow the OR + CO precedent for bundle structure. #### 5.A — `-consumer-debt` The substantive centerpiece for consumer-debt defense. Mirror the OR pattern: - `SKILL.md` — overview with 5 fact-pattern triage - `references/fdcpa.md` — state-specific framing / cites to the FDCPA verbatim text. The verbatim text itself lives in `-law-references/references/federal-debt-laws/FDCPA.md` (symlinked into the shared plugin), so cross-reference it with a relative path rather than duplicating content. - `references/reg-f.md` — same: state-specific framing; verbatim Reg F text lives in the shared plugin via the symlink. - `references/-utpa-or-equiv.md` — state UTPA analog (Rosenthal Act for CA; Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ch. 17 for TX; etc.) - `references/-collection-agency-law.md` — state registration / licensing regime if any - `references/chain-of-title.md` — chain-of-title doctrine (largely state-agnostic; adapt for state-specific authentication law) - `references/evidence-debt-buyer.md` — state evidence-rule analog of OEC 803(6) / 902(11) foundation - `references/-statutes-of-limitations.md` — state SOLs for debt and consumer claims (e.g., CA: 4 years on written contract under CCP § 337; TX: 4 years on debt) - `references/key-cases.md` — state and federal precedents - `references/recent-decisions.md` — recent appellate decisions to track - `references/fees-consumer-debt.md` — fee mechanics - `references/rfp-debt-buyer.md` — RFP bank targeting chain of title - `references/rfa-debt-buyer.md` — RFA bank - `references/interrogatories-debt-buyer.md` — if the state has interrogatories (Oregon doesn't!); otherwise mirror the OR notes - `references/meet-and-confer-debt-buyer.md` — state-flavored meet-and-confer templates - `references/online-sources-consumer-debt.md` — state- specific URLs - `references/ucc-article-9.md` — state UCC Article 9 enactment - `references/examples/` — 6 synthetic example filings (answer, declaration, motion to compel, M&C, proposed order, certificate of service) #### 5.B — `-family-law` The substantive bundle for divorce / annulment / legal separation / custody / child support / maintenance. Use the `family-law-template.md` skill template as the starting shape: - `SKILL.md` — overview with state-specific family-law framework. Cover: divorce grounds + waiting period; property distribution regime (community vs. equitable); child-support guideline model + statutory cap; custody / parenting-time framework + best-interests standard; maintenance / spousal support; modification thresholds; common-law marriage status; UCCJEA + UIFSA jurisdictional framework. - `references/dissolution.md` — divorce mechanics; petition + response + service; mandatory financial disclosures; waiting period; default vs. contested - `references/annulment.md` — declaration-of-invalidity grounds (varies materially by state — fraud, duress, bigamy, age, incapacity, prohibited relationship) - `references/legal-separation.md` — where available - `references/property-distribution.md` — community-property presumptions or equitable-distribution factors; valuation of marital business interests; commingling doctrines - `references/child-support.md` — guideline calculation; income imputation rules; deviation grounds; cap on combined-income; modification threshold (percentage change required to trigger review; state-specific) - `references/parenting-plan.md` — decision-making allocation; parenting time (overnights); relocation notice + standard for permission - `references/maintenance.md` — duration formulas; income- based formulas where applicable; modification + termination triggers - `references/family-offense.md` — Order of Protection framework; qualifying-relationship + qualifying-offense catalog; duration; firearm-surrender mechanics - `references/uccjea.md` — Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act implementation in state; home-state jurisdiction analysis - `references/uifsa.md` — Uniform Interstate Family Support Act implementation in state - `references/common-law-marriage.md` — for the handful of states that still recognize it (note the test the state applies; otherwise note that the state honors marriages valid where contracted) - `references/forms.md` — state-specific divorce / custody / child-support forms (the state's pro-se form catalog) - `references/examples/` — 4-6 synthetic example filings: petition for dissolution, sworn financial statement, parenting-plan / custody motion, child-support modification motion ### Step 6: Scripts The `format-check.py` and `case-calendar.py` scripts are parameterized variants of the WA/OR versions: - `format-check.py` checks paper size (Letter or Legal), margins, fonts, color, line spacing, and footer pagination — adjust the substantive rule reference in the report output (e.g., "CRC 2.100 Format Check:" instead of "UTCR 2.010 Format Check:") - `case-calendar.py` encodes the state's legal-holiday list (state-specific holidays beyond federal) and the state's rules of time computation (FRCP 6 / state analog) and the state's named rules (answer-due, RFP-response, SOL-by-claim-type, etc.) ### Step 7: Evals Mirror the OR eval categories: - `drafting/` — 4 evals (motion, declaration, notice/note, proposed order) - `formatting/` — 4 evals (statewide-format, primary court local rules, pro se, quality-check) - `procedural/` — 8 evals (law-references civil, law- references evidence, deadlines, discovery M&C, discovery no-interrog (if applicable), fact-check, first-30-days, hearings, file-packet) - `subject-matter/` — 6 evals on the consumer-debt bundle (fact-pattern triage, SOL, UTPA-equivalent, chain of title, collection-agency-law capacity, fees recovery) - `integration/` — 2 evals (end-to-end debt-defense answer; end-to-end motion-to-compel packet) > **Apply the thin-skill principle to eval acceptance > criteria too** — see `references/thin-skill-architecture.md`. > User-stated hypothetical facts in eval prompts ("I make > $80,000 a year") are OK; embedded current law values in > acceptance criteria (`[ ] $80k is below the $116,594.96 > threshold`) are not. Rewrite criteria to require the agent > to **read current values from the references corpus** > rather than hard-coding figures that drift annually. ### Step 8: Update marketplace docs - `marketplace.json`: register the new plugin; bump `metadata.version` - `CLAUDE.md`: add the new skills index table; add the state's reference-corpora section; update the "Common commands" with the new plugin's scripts - `README.md`: add the new plugin's description; update the install command; update the WA-vs-OR-vs-new-state comparison table ### Step 9: Lint and commit Run `python3 scripts/lint-skills.py` — must pass on every new SKILL.md. Commit with a substantive message describing what shipped. Push to the user's designated branch. ## Important rules ### CRITICAL: Thin-skill architecture — keep the law in references **SKILL.md bodies and eval acceptance criteria describe procedural frameworks + chapter pointers. Current statutory text, dollar thresholds, day counts, exact subsection numbers, damages multipliers, and other values that drift live ONLY in the references corpus.** This is the dominant lesson from the WA expansion: every embedded statutory specific is a maintenance debt that a future amendment silently breaks. The quarterly puller refreshes the corpus without requiring any SKILL.md edits — and that property is what makes the marketplace scale. **What to keep in a skill body**: chapter-level pointers ("WPLA at RCW 7.72 — see `references/wa-rcw-debt/ RCW-7_72.md` for current text"); qualitative framework descriptions ("Washington is a pure-comparative-fault state"); decision trees + procedural workflows; stable historical reform attributions (1986 Reform Act, 2019 SB 5600, etc.); composition pointers to other skills; stable case-law citations. **What to REMOVE from a skill body**: specific dollar thresholds with year tags ("$116,594.96 / 2024"); specific SOL day counts ("6 years on written contract"); specific notice period day counts ("14-day pay-or-vacate"); specific employer-coverage / income thresholds ("8+ employees"); specific damages multipliers in body text; specific subsection-level cites of cause-of-action elements ("RCW 7.72.060(3) provides..."); specific motion-day timing ("9 court days before hearing"); specific hearing- window day counts; MAR jurisdictional caps; revision-motion windows. **The same applies to eval acceptance criteria**. User- stated hypothetical facts in eval prompts ("I make $80,000 a year") are OK — those are scenario context. Embedded current law values in acceptance criteria (`[ ] $80k is below the $116,594.96 threshold`) are not — those will be stale next year. See [`references/thin-skill-architecture.md`](references/thin-skill-architecture.md) for: the full principle, what to keep vs. remove, a refactor playbook for existing thick skills, a category-by-category citation-drift hazard catalog, and the cross-state-port benefit. ### Marketplace-universal layout conventions Three layout conventions are **universal across every state plugin** in `claude-legal`, regardless of whether the state's format rule itself mandates them. The new state's `-statewide-format` skill must adopt all three by default — the goal is that any document produced by the marketplace looks like a `claude-legal` document, not a patchwork of per-state defaults. 1. **Line-numbered pleading paper (default ON)** — apply continuous line numbering down the left margin of every generated motion, memorandum, declaration / affidavit, notice, and proposed order. Exhibits and attachments are exempt. Some states require it (CA — CRC 2.108(b)); some states make it convention (WA, OR); some states do not adopt it as local convention (CO, IN, NY, OH); but the marketplace ships it ON everywhere because (a) it never produces a non-compliant filing and (b) it enables page+line pinpoint citation that the court and opposing counsel routinely use. The technical recipe is identical in every state plugin: ```javascript import { LineNumberRestartFormat } from "docx"; sections: [{ properties: { page: { /* size + margins */ }, lineNumbers: { countBy: 1, restart: LineNumberRestartFormat.NEW_PAGE, }, }, }] ``` Do NOT set `start: 1` explicitly — it renders off by one in LibreOffice (used as the headless PDF renderer). Omit `start`; it defaults to 1 in OOXML. In states with paragraph-numbering mechanics (e.g., NY CPLR 3014; IN T.R. 10(B)), paragraph numbering is a distinct content mechanic and stays ON in addition to line numbering. 2. **Footer with title + Page X of Y (default ON)** — every generated document carries a footer on every page with a short document identifier on the left and `Page X of Y` on the right (using Word's `PAGE` and `NUMPAGES` fields, not static numbers). The footer runs continuously from page 1 through the last exhibit page — never restart or suppress. 3. **Two-section pattern for page-1 top margin (where the state's rule sets a larger top margin on page 1)** — when the state's rule sets a different top margin on page 1 than on subsequent pages (e.g., WA GR 14's 3-inch top margin on page 1, CA CRC 2.110's 2.5-inch top margin), either use two sections OR add a leading paragraph of `spacing: { before: ... }` to push page-1 content down. When using two sections, ANY section-level property (notably `lineNumbers`) must be set on BOTH sections — otherwise line numbering stops at the section break. When authoring the new state's `-statewide-format` SKILL.md, include a "Line numbering (pleading paper)" section with the recipe above and explicit "Apply it **by default**" language. Do not frame the convention as opt-in. See any existing state's `-statewide-format/SKILL.md` for the canonical layout (CO / IN / NY / OH adopted the default-ON form most recently and are the cleanest models). ### CRITICAL: No cross-state references inside the plugin Plugins install **one state at a time**. End users will not have WA + OR + CA + CO + IN installed alongside the new state's plugin. Comparisons to other states inside SKILL.md bodies, eval bodies, plugin.json descriptions, or reference READMEs are pure noise to the end user and **must be removed before the plugin ships**. What this means in practice when authoring the new plugin: - **Don't frame state-specific quirks comparatively.** Write the rule directly. ❌ "Unlike State-X's no-interrogatories rule, this state allows 25 interrogatories." ✓ "This state allows 25 interrogatories under [cite]." - **Don't reference sibling-state SKILL.md files.** The new plugin's `README.md`, `evals/README.md`, and reference- corpus READMEs must not say "see `xx-court-docs/evals/`" or "mirrors `yy-court-docs/skills/yy-law-references/...`". The end user will not have those plugins installed. - **Don't import another state's terminology.** Each state has its own pleading and motion vocabulary; don't carry over labels from a state whose practice you happen to know. - **Don't use "the same as State-X's [rule]" framing.** Cite the state's own rule directly. **Internal cross-references between skills in the SAME plugin are fine** and encouraged — e.g., `-discovery` referencing `-statewide-format` is exactly what the marketplace runtime expects. **Final scaffold step**: run a cross-state-reference grep before committing. Anything that turns up needs either deletion or rewording into a state-only statement: ```bash # In the new plugin's directory: grep -rnE "\b(Washington|Oregon|California|Colorado|Indiana|New York)\b\ |wa-court-docs|or-court-docs|ca-court-docs|co-court-docs|in-court-docs|ny-court-docs\ |like (Oregon|California|Colorado|Indiana|Washington|New York)\ |unlike (Oregon|California|Colorado|Indiana|Washington|New York)\ |federal/(WA|OR|CA|CO|IN|NY)" plugins/-court-docs/ \ --include="*.md" --include="*.json" ``` **False-positive watch:** the scan will hit: - **"Washington's Birthday"** as the legal name of the federal holiday — that's the actual statute language in most states' General Construction or Government Codes, **not** a cross-state comparison. Keep it. - **`in-person`** as a hyphenated phrase — matches the `\bin-` pattern when looking for `in-court-docs` references. Keep it. - **`co-parents`, `co-counsel`, `co-defendant`** — match the `\bco-` pattern. Keep them. - **Verbatim statutory text from the state's own consolidated laws** — many states' General Construction laws name federal holidays after the figures they honor; that's literal statute, not a cross-state reference. Distinguish state-as-comparison from state-as-statute-author before deleting. ### Verify URL slugs, locationIds, and Part numbers against the live source **Don't rely on memory or example data for state-specific identifiers.** Past authorship has produced silent puller failures from each of these patterns: - **Adjacent rule-Part numbers get conflated** — it is easy to label a Part with the wrong subject matter when several Parts in the same numbering range cover related but distinct courts. Always verify each Part's title against the live index. - **Title vs. Article numbering confusion** — some state consolidated laws use Title numbers (T5, T17); others use Article numbers (A5, A17). Don't infer the format from a secondary source — probe the API or HTML for the canonical identifier shape. - **Hyphenated vs. unhyphenated sub-articles** — sub- articles like `A22-A` vs. `A22A` (or any equivalent hyphenation choice) often only resolve in one form. Probe the actual identifier the API accepts. - **Topic-to-law assignment is not always intuitive** — a topic that seems like it should be in one statute (e.g., child support in a state's Domestic Relations Law) may actually live in a different code (e.g., Family Court Act). Verify which law owns each topic. - **CMS migrations change URL patterns** — court-rules publishing sites migrate frequently. Legacy URLs may redirect to an index page rather than the actual rule content. Discover the actual URL slug at fetch time rather than assuming the pattern that worked yesterday. The right pattern: probe the live API or HTML index for the state's source-of-truth identifiers before populating the puller's target catalog. See [`references/puller-design-lessons.md`](references/puller-design-lessons.md) for the full discipline. ### Do NOT search-and-replace WA or OR A state plugin is more than a search-and-replace from Washington or Oregon. The substantive rules differ: - **SOL on contract debt** varies by state (4 years in CA/TX/FL; 6 years in OR/WA; 3 years in NY for credit card) - **Format rule** is different in every state (GR 14 in WA, UTCR 2.010 in OR, CRC 2.100 in CA, TRCP 21a in TX) - **Civil rules code** is different (CR/CRLJ in WA, ORCP in OR, CCP in CA, TRCP in TX) - **Evidence rules** are different (ER court rule in WA, OEC statutory in OR, CEC statutory in CA) - **Citation style** is different (Bluebook variant in WA, Oregon Style Manual in OR, California Style Manual in CA) - **Consumer-protection statute** is different (WA CPA, OR UTPA, CA Rosenthal Act, TX DTPA) - **Collection-agency registration** varies (mandatory in OR with ORS 697; California adopted CDCLA in 2022; many states have no equivalent) Always research the state's specific law. **Use WebFetch against the state's authoritative sources** before writing substantive content. ### Trigger phrases must be state-specific Every skill's `description:` includes trigger phrases. Update them to match how a litigant in that state would actually phrase a question. A California pro se filer says "Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 437c" for summary judgment, not "ORCP 47". ### Use the state's terminology - Oregon: "Notice of Hearing" - Washington: "Note for Motion Docket" - California: "Notice of Motion" (CCP § 1010) - Texas: "Notice of Hearing" - Florida: "Notice of Hearing" Don't import another state's terminology. ### Quirks deserve prominent flags Every state has procedural quirks that trip practitioners from other states. Surface them in the skill descriptions: - Oregon: no written interrogatories under ORCP - California: CCP § 437c summary judgment timing differs from FRCP 56 - Texas: TRCP 169 expedited-actions rules; "level 1" / "level 2" / "level 3" discovery control plans - Florida: Rule 1.510 summary judgment was amended in 2021 to align with federal standard - New York: "verified" pleadings vs. "unverified" — distinct treatment under CPLR ### Pre-1.0 versions only The marketplace is pre-1.0. New plugins ship at 0.1.0; new skills ship at 0.1.0. Reserve 1.0+ for when the plugin shape has stabilized. ### One plugin per state Don't sub-divide. A high-volume court can get its own skill within the state plugin; a long-tail county is in the roll-up. There are 3,000+ U.S. counties — per-county plugins don't scale. ## References - `references/thin-skill-architecture.md` — **READ FIRST** before authoring any SKILL.md body. The "keep the law in references, not in skills" principle that drives current authorship: what to keep vs. remove, refactor playbook for thick skills, citation-drift hazard catalog, and the cross-state-port benefit - `references/checklist.md` — step-by-step checklist for the manual path, including the pre-commit cross-state-reference scan and post-commit verification phases - `references/skill-templates/` — canonical SKILL.md templates for each of the 21 base roles, with placeholders for state- specific content - `references/state-research-protocol.md` — how to research a new state's procedural rules from authoritative sources - `references/cross-state-quirks.md` — known procedural quirks across the most-populous states, useful for the initial-research phase (**do not import these comparisons into the new plugin's bodies** — they go in the developer's understanding, not the end-user-facing skill text) - `references/puller-design-lessons.md` — technical patterns for writing the state's `pull__*.py` scripts: curl_cffi + Chrome TLS impersonation for Cloudflare bypass, API-key conditional patterns, prefetch-and-slice, literal- `\n` decoding, regression protection (`_file_is_stub`), index-parser nested-tag handling, distinguishing dispositioned-redirect from parse-failure on zero-section results, the never-silent-stub rule, periodic CHAPTERS pruning for repealed chapters, and workflow-yaml integration - `references/scaffold-script.md` — usage notes for `scripts/scaffold-state.py` - `scripts/scaffold-state.py` — the scaffolder