# Writing guides with an AI agent > The polestar-guide-pack skill: the ground rules and workflow an AI agent follows to write, fix and build a pack's guides. Page: https://polestar.guide/docs/authors/agent-workflow (Polestar docs > Guide authors) A community addon is built from a pack: a folder with a `pack.json` and `.guide` text files. Polestar's tools check the guides against the game's data, play them to the end without the game, and build the addon. The `polestar` command comes from a Polestar clone (`npm link` in it); without it, run `node /tools/polestar.js ` instead. Run every command from the pack's folder. The guide format, every line of it: [references/guide-format.md](https://github.com/fitzforge/polestar/blob/next/skills/polestar-guide-pack/references/guide-format.md). Read it before writing a guide. ## Ground rules - **An id or a coordinate is a guess until `find`, `lint` and `playtest` confirm it.** Look up every quest, NPC, object and item id, every inn and flight point name and every guide id with `polestar find` before you write it. Never write one from memory: ids in this game differ from other versions of it. When `find` has no match, say so to the author instead of inventing a value. - **Leave out what the data fills in.** `accept 7` is enough: the compiler adds the title, the quest giver and the coordinates. Type coordinates only for `goto` and `explore`, or for a place the data does not know. - **Routes a player can do alone.** A leveling guide never requires an elite, a dungeon or a group quest: lint stops required elite work. Group content goes in as an `optional` goal with the tip ` is elite: grouping up is advised.` - **The author's own material only.** Write from the author's notes, routes they played (`polestar record`) or guides they wrote. Never copy text, step lists or routes from guides you did not write, Polestar's own guides included: hand over to them with `next` instead. - **Pack naming.** `pack.json`'s `title` is the pack's own name (`Joe's Routes`), one that cannot be taken for Polestar's own addons. The build titles the addon "Polestar Community: Joe's Routes" and groups it under Polestar in the game's AddOns list; the addon page should say the same: a community addon for Polestar, by its author. Every guide id starts with the pack id and a slash (`joe-routes/westfall`). ## Workflow 1. **Start the pack** (skip when `pack.json` exists). The folder must be empty or missing: ```sh polestar new joe-routes --id joe-routes --title "Joe's Routes" --author Joe --yes cd joe-routes ``` It writes `pack.json`, `guides/example.guide` (a guide that lints and plays: replace it), README, LICENSE and editor and CI files. `polestar doctor` checks Node, Lua and the reference data when a command fails for want of them. 2. **Look up every id and place**, as JSON: ```sh polestar find "Kobold Camp Cleanup" --kind quest --json # the quest, its giver, turn-in and objectives polestar find 7 --kind quest --json # a quest by id polestar find "Kobold Vermin" --kind npc --json # an NPC or mob polestar find --kind inn --faction Alliance # names sethome and hearth take polestar find --kind flight --faction Alliance # names getfp and fly take polestar find westfall --kind guide --race Human # Polestar guides to hand over to with next ``` A number matches every kind with that id (`find 783` prints quest 783, NPC 783 and item 783): add `--kind`. Each result's `line` is a guide line ready to paste. A quest's `objectives` list each objective's `index` (the `n` of `quest .`, numbered as the quest log lists them) and the `id` of the mob, item or object it needs: use that id in the `kill`, `collect` or `interact`, not one found by name (a name search for "Mottled Boar" also returns Dire and Elder Mottled Boars). 3. **Write the guide** in `guides/.guide` with the ids found. Keep a step to one place or one batch of work. A step is done when every goal in it that is not `optional` is. 4. **Lint until it reports no errors and no warnings:** ```sh polestar lint --format json ``` Each diagnostic has `file`, `line`, `severity`, `message` and often a `hint` saying how to fix it. `"ok": true` only means no errors: a wrong objective number (`quest 788.2` for a quest with one objective) is a warning, and playtest still passes. Fix every warning too, or tell the author why one stays (new Forever content the data does not know yet). Aim for `"errors": 0, "warnings": 0`; run lint again after every change. 5. **Playtest until every guide plays to the end:** ```sh polestar playtest polestar playtest --filter westfall --class Mage # one guide, one class ``` Every line must read `ok`. A `stuck ... at step N` line names the goal the simulated character could not finish: a wrong id, an objective number, a goal for a quest it never got, a place it cannot reach. Fix it and run lint and playtest again. 6. **Try it and build it.** `polestar play` opens the real addon in a browser with the pack loaded; `polestar install` copies the pack into the game, and `polestar dev` rebuilds it there on every save. When lint and playtest pass: ```sh polestar pack # writes dist/-.zip ``` Raise `version` in `pack.json` for each release. **One small guide** (a quest chain, an item, a mount, an errand; at most 60 steps) can go out as an import string instead, a line players paste on Polestar's Import page (`/polestar import`) with nothing to install: ```sh polestar export guides/cozy-sleeping-bag.guide > cozy.txt ``` `export` lints the pack first and refuses a guide with errors; the string carries the guide and the pack's `license`. Raise the guide's own `version` header with each new string: it decides Import or Update in the game. A `next` must lead to one of Polestar's guides or to a guide the player imports first. A route or a set of guides stays a community addon (`polestar pack`). ## Example A short guide, every id from `polestar find`, that lints clean and plays to the end (write your pack id in place of `joe-routes`): ``` guide joe-routes/northshire title Northshire Valley faction Alliance race Human levels 1-4 zone Elwynn Forest step Deputy Willem accept 783 -- He stands at the abbey gate turnin 783 accept 7 step Kobold camp tip Pull one kobold at a time. kill 6 x10 quest 7.1 step Back to the abbey turnin 7 ``` `quest 7.1` ties the kills to the quest's first objective, so the guide window counts them from the quest log. A `kill` without it is a check-off the player ticks by hand. ## When something is unclear - `polestar help ` lists every option of a command. - Polestar's docs in the clone: `docs/GUIDE_PACKS.md` (what a pack is and how to publish one), `docs/GUIDE_FORMAT.md` (the full format and every lint check), `docs/GUIDE_CHEATSHEET.md` (every line on one page), `docs/PACKS.md` (the pack handbook, with every lint message and its fix) and `docs/PACK_FORMAT.md` (pack.json and the built addon). --- Next page: [Overview](https://polestar.guide/docs/contributors.md) · Every docs page: https://polestar.guide/llms.txt · All docs in one file: https://polestar.guide/llms-full.txt