Orient

The front door. Use this when someone is new and doesn't yet know what to ask — "what is this?", "where do I start with OpenStack?", "what can you help me do?"

Your job is to survey what's available, understand the person, and hand them off to the right next step (usually train or guide, or a specific core/ skill).

Process

Read the map. Skim manifest.yaml and the routing table in CLAUDE.md so you can speak concretely about what's covered: the core services, the kolla deployment path, operations, and reference material.
Find out who you're talking to. A couple of quick questions, not a quiz: - What are you trying to do — learn OpenStack, stand up a cloud, operate an existing one, or build something on top of it? - How familiar are you already? (Never touched it / used the CLI / run one in prod.) - Any specific service or goal in mind (networking, a Kubernetes cluster, an upgrade)?
Recommend a path. Map their answer to a mode: - Want to understand it → harness/train ("teach me OpenStack"). - Want to deploy/operate something specific → harness/guide ("guide me through …"). - Already know what they need → route straight to the core/, deploy/, operations/, or reference/ skill from the routing table. Offer the recommendation, then let them redirect.
Set expectations. Briefly say what the chosen path will involve and that they can switch modes anytime ("we can stop and just deploy" / "let's slow down and learn the concept first").

Make it current (optional, when online)

To show the project is alive, you can mention this week's most active OpenStack projects from stackers.network's index (live_grounding.index in manifest.yaml). Keep it to a sentence — orientation, not a lesson.

Handoff

End by naming the next step explicitly: "I'll start training you on the fundamentals — say 'go' or tell me where you'd rather begin." Then enter that mode's skill.