Lofn Story — Codex-backed narrator pipeline

⚖️ AUTHORITY (2026-07-01): the .claude/skills/ twin of this skill is the CANONICAL policy source; this Codex mirror binds to it and to .agents/skills/lofn/EXECUTION.md §8 (Policy Deltas — golden-output quarantine, no-skip/NON-CANONICAL, itemized packet, per-pair variation angles, judge separation, the publish bar, gate mid-bands). On any disagreement, the .claude file wins.

Produces narrative pieces at Lofn competition grade — distinctive voice, world-building, and emotional architecture, not generic AI prose. Depth lives in skills/story/; Codex is the engine (hybrid execution per .agents/skills/lofn/EXECUTION.md).

Before you start

1. Confirm a Phase-0/1 packet exists (core_seed.md, 04_metaprompt.md, 05_pair_assignments.md, 06_narrator_handoff.md with the ICB / Panel Ledger, filled CREATIVE_CONTEXT.md). No packet → run lofn first.
2. Read skills/story/OVERALL_PROMPT_TEMPLATE.md for the CREATIVE CONTEXT carrier and the story phase routing.
3. Honor length intent from the brief — flash piece vs. full short story vs. script — and the human-subject ethics (vault/HUMAN_SUBJECT_STANDARD.md): draw themes from the world, invent the people.

Execution (hybrid)

Coordinator 00–05 inline, then 6 pairs as parallel subagents for 06–10. At every agent start inject the full startup packet from EXECUTION.md §3 — CREATIVE_CONTEXT.md verbatim, the handoff/assignment files, the current step contract, and the prior artifact where applicable. Default: 6 concept×medium pairs, each yielding distinct variations → rank → top picks. (Down-scale variations for long-form prose if the user wants one polished piece — confirm if unsure.)

Coordinator steps (inline)

Step	File	Artifact
00	skills/story/steps/00_Generate_Story_Aesthetics_And_Genres.md	step00_aesthetics_and_genres.md
01	skills/story/steps/01_Generate_Story_Essence_And_Facets.md	step01_essence_and_facets.md
02	skills/story/steps/02_Generate_Story_Concepts.md	step02_concepts.md (12 concepts)
03	skills/story/steps/03_Generate_Story_Artist_And_Critique.md	step03_artist_and_critique.md
04	skills/story/steps/04_Generate_Story_Medium.md	step04_medium.md (form/voice/POV)
05	skills/story/steps/05_Generate_Story_Refine_Medium.md	step05_refine_medium.md → 6 pairs

Per-pair steps (parallel subagents, one chain per pair)

Step	File	Per-pair artifact
06	skills/story/steps/06_Generate_Story_Facets.md	pair_{NN}_step06_facets.md
07	skills/story/steps/07_Generate_Story_Story_Guides.md	pair_{NN}_step07_story_guides.md (beats)
08	skills/story/steps/08_Generate_Story_Generation.md	pair_{NN}_step08_generation.md (draft prose)
09	skills/story/steps/09_Generate_Story_Artist_Refined.md	pair_{NN}_step09_artist_refined.md
10	skills/story/steps/10_Generate_Story_Revision_Synthesis.md	pair_{NN}_step10_revision_synthesis.md

The story contract (hard gate)

Lead with seed/world, end with the checklist.

• Guides direct; prose executes. Step-07 guides are compact beats (≈35–50 lines: voice, POV, world rules, the turn, the ache). Final prose (08–10) earns its length (≈150–300 lines, scaled to the request) — don't pad the guide into a draft.
• Distinct voice per pair — the 6 pairs use 6 different narrative architectures (POV, tense, structure: epistolary, second-person, fragmented, nested-frame, oral-telling, prose-poetry continuity). Uniformity is a repair.
• Show the world before the thesis — body/place/sensory pressure establishes authority before any idea; one precise concrete detail unlocks universal resonance (the specificity paradox).
• Personality fidelity — prove which personality narrated it (diction, obsessions, signature move); the Hyper-Skeptics' Somatic Gate asks "could any competent writer have produced this, or is it unmistakably this voice?"
• One bold choice per piece. No generic AI cadence; no shallow cultural pastiche.

QA & delivery

Run lofn-qa (structural + soul gate: voice distinctiveness, emotional architecture, world legibility, no thread loss). Rank by: voice strength → emotional landing → world coherence → originality → fit to the request. Save each selected piece per skills/lofn-core/OUTPUT.md (type: story); INDEX last.