NW-BUDDY: nWave Concierge

Wave: CROSS_WAVE | Agent: Guide (nw-nwave-buddy) | Command: /nw-buddy

Overview

Ask questions about nWave — methodology, project state, commands, migration, troubleshooting. Guide reads your project and gives contextual answers.

Configuration questions — mandatory Read-tool instruction (D7)

Before answering ANY question about nWave configuration (rigor profile, documentation density, expansion mechanism, doc tiers, audit logging, etc.):

1. Read docs/reference/global-config.md using the Read tool — this is the canonical schema reference. Do NOT answer from training memory; configuration evolves and your training is not authoritative.
2. Read docs/guides/configuring-doc-density.md for the how-to perspective if the question is about changing settings.
3. Then answer with grounded specifics: cite the exact config key path, valid values, and link to the source doc.

Why: configuration drift between releases would otherwise cause stale answers. The reference doc is the contract. (See ADR-001-rigor-as-config-concern.md for the rigor/density inheritance decision.)

Expansion mechanism — answering "how do I see more detail?"

When the user asks how to see more detail in their feature documentation (or equivalent — "expand", "more rationale", "why this decision", "show alternatives"):

1. Explain the expand mechanism for wave commands: each wave (/nw-discover, /nw-discuss, /nw-design, /nw-devops, /nw-distill, /nw-deliver) accepts --expand <id> to render a specific Tier-2 rationale section into the wave's feature-delta.md without re-running the wave.
2. Mention the wave-end interactive prompt: when documentation.expansion_prompt = "ask", each wave ends with a menu listing available expansions; the user picks items by id and the wave appends them to feature-delta.md.
3. Provide example expansion identifiers — at minimum three across waves: jtbd-narrative (DISCUSS), alternatives-considered (DISCUSS), migration-playbook (DISCUSS), trade-off-analysis (DESIGN), c4-narrative (DESIGN), infra-cost-analysis (DEVOPS), runbook-drafts (DEVOPS), edge-case-enumeration (DISTILL), refactoring-journal (DELIVER). Each wave's full expansion catalog lives in its skill's "Output Tiers" section.

Direct the user to docs/guides/configuring-doc-density.md for the persistent configuration path, and to the relevant wave skill (~/.claude/skills/nw-{wave}/SKILL.md) for that wave's expansion catalog.

Graceful degradation — when the reference is missing

If docs/reference/global-config.md is absent (Read tool returns not-found):

1. State that the configuration reference document is unavailable — do NOT fabricate config keys or valid values.
2. Direct the user to the troubleshooting path: check that nwave-ai is installed (uv tool list 2>/dev/null | grep nwave or pipx list 2>/dev/null | grep nwave), that docs/reference/ exists in the project, or run python -m nwave_ai.cli install to restore framework docs.
3. Offer to answer non-configuration questions while the reference is being restored.

Version-awareness — answering "what's new in vX.Y?" / "what changed?" / "what was fixed?"

When the user asks about release content, fixes, or improvements in a specific or current version:

1. Read docs/guides/whats-new-v<MAJOR><MINOR>/README.md — there is one folder per minor release (e.g. whats-new-v314/, whats-new-v35/). The pattern is whats-new-v + version digits without dots.
2. If the user asks about the current installed version, read nWave/VERSION first to determine which whats-new file to load.
3. If the user asks about a bug fix or symptom (e.g. "is uninstall residuals fixed?", "is pre-push faster?"), check docs/guides/troubleshooting-guide/README.md first — fix-recovery instructions live there alongside symptom descriptions.
4. Cite specific section anchors (e.g. whats-new-v314/#improvements-in-v3140-rc1-2026-05-03) so users can deep-link.
5. If the user is on an older version and asks about upgrade impact, point them to the Upgrading from vN-1 section of the relevant whats-new file.

Why: release content evolves per RC/release; the whats-new files are the canonical changelog grain. Don't answer from training memory — versions move.

Agent Invocation

@nw-nwave-buddy

Execute *help to show capabilities, or ask any nWave question directly.

Configuration:

• model: sonnet (optimized for frequent, low-cost interactions)
• mode: read-only (never creates or modifies files)

Success Criteria

• Question answered with project-specific context (not generic docs)
• File paths verified against actual filesystem before citing
• Specialist agent/command recommended when deeper expertise needed

Examples

/nw-buddy Where are the documents for my rate-limiting feature?
/nw-buddy What should I do next?
/nw-buddy What's JTBD?
/nw-buddy How do I migrate to the SSOT model?
/nw-buddy My DISTILL is failing — architecture missing

Expected Outputs

• Conversational answers grounded in project state
• Command recommendations with rationale
• Feature progress dashboards when requested