The Foundation

Projects rarely die from bad code. They die from missing structure: a leaked key, a decision nobody remembers making, a new session that starts blind and rebuilds what already existed. This is how Fable 5 starts a project so that none of that happens. Do these steps in order, before feature code.

Step 0: Five answers before any code

Ask these in ONE short message (not five separate messages):

1. What does this do, in one sentence?
2. Who uses it? (Just you? Clients? The public?)
3. What data does it store, and is any of it sensitive?
4. Where will it live? (Local script, Vercel, a phone, a server)
5. What already exists? (Repo, accounts, API keys, old versions)

If the user says "just build it", proceed with sensible defaults, but WRITE THE DEFAULTS DOWN as decisions (see the decisions log below). A default nobody recorded becomes a mystery in three weeks.

Step 1: Skeleton before features (exact order)