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# Agent workflow & collaboration — guide (generic tier)

Reference notes, design rationale, and negative results (8).

#### 1. Split agent-memory upkeep into capture / curate / defrag; enforce recall structurally
`generic` · **negative result**

Structure a self-improving agent memory loop as three separate on-request invocations -- capture (review one session into proposed learnings), curate (periodically prune/merge with the human), and defrag (structurally reorganize the relational map) -- not one monolithic step. Storing concept links is not enough for recall: agents won't spontaneously consult or update a concept-link index mid-conversation, so recall needs structural scaffolding that ENFORCES consultation (e.g. a separate pre-read pass that surfaces activated associations to the main agent and holds write access to keep the index current). When graduating lessons, cluster semantically (the same lesson worded differently across sessions counts as recurrence -- match on meaning, cite which sessions each cluster appeared in), check the graduation targets (best_practices files) FIRST so you don't re-promote something already practiced, and let the human make the final promote/keep-waiting/cull call rather than graduating autonomously.
  <sub>sources: metta/agent-plugins/kitchensink/skills/ks.agent-harness-design/SKILL.m, personal_labs/crewrift_lab/.claude/skills/lessons-review/SKILL.md</sub>

#### 2. Always-on prose is ignored; wire durable agent behavior into a mechanism it can't skip
`generic`

A methodology encoded as plain always-loaded CLAUDE.md prose gets filed as soft 'guidelines' that yield under task pressure and is effectively ignored. For durable behavior change, either compress it to a much shorter disposition-shifting framing, or wire it into a mechanism the agent cannot silently skip (a hook, a trigger-loaded skill, or a required ritual). Load procedural guidance on demand: factor a recurring procedure with stable mechanics into a skill (header always loaded, detail on invocation), and trigger it on a machine-detectable failure signal (e.g. a PostToolUse hook keyed off command output), since the agent cannot self-trigger on external events. Write trigger descriptions around the PHENOMENOLOGY of the moment ('when you notice yourself about to...'), not the problem category -- a category trigger is circular because it needs the very classification the skill would help make, so it fails to fire for an agent lacking the insight.
  <sub>sources: metta/agent-plugins/kitchensink/skills/ks.agent-harness-design/SKILL.m</sub>

#### 3. Skill mechanics and cross-agent distribution: scan paths, description always-on, shared plugin not symlink
`generic`

A skill is a <name>/ directory with SKILL.md (`name` + `description` frontmatter plus a markdown body); it only loads on a scan path (~/.claude/skills/ or an enabled plugin's skills/ dir), a file elsewhere is inert, and the `description` line is injected always-on as the discoverable menu entry while the body loads only on invocation -- put the always-on pointer in `description`, detail in the body. Different tools scan different dirs: Claude Code reads .claude/skills/, Codex reads .agents/skills/ (not .codex), Auggie reads both; invocation differs (/<name> for Claude Code and Auggie, $<name> or implicit description-match for Codex) -- verify against current tool docs. Keep one canonical SKILL.md and symlink to expose it elsewhere (never chain symlink-to-symlink; author cross-agent memory once in AGENTS.md and symlink CLAUDE.md to it), but a symlink only resolves on a machine with the source at the same path, so for team-wide distribution commit the REAL file into a shared plugin (e.g. kitchensink); in the metta monorepo, skills under agent-plugins/default/skills/ load via the enabled local marketplace plugin and reach teammates on next pull with no install step (the flat top-level skills dir is deprecated). A session-locator helper identifying the host agent should detect best-effort (env vars, then filesystem signals, then in-context fallback) and never raise on an unknown agent.
  <sub>sources: metta/agent-plugins/kitchensink/skills/ks.cross-agent-skill-layout/SKI</sub>

#### 4. One fact, one doc: separate DESIGN from PLAN and keep a single source of truth
`generic` · **negative result** · ⚠ _session-derived, unverified_

Guide-doc architecture that held up for an agent framework: contract-first (the formal observation/action/timing contract is the single most important doc, centralized), non-overlapping jurisdiction (every fact lives in exactly one document), and layered depth (orientation -> operational -> understanding -> architecture -> expertise) so a developer can stop at any layer and still have a working agent. Keep durable architecture (decisions, contracts, invariants) in a DESIGN doc separate from a PLAN doc holding the phased schedule/todos, and pare PLAN so it does not duplicate the architecture (the trace-event vocabulary lives authoritatively in DESIGN, PLAN points to it). Keeping both CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md in the same role caused them to drift and produce a stale version reference (one said V9, one V10) -- unify rather than parallel-maintain.
  <sub>sources: claude-code:f886e63d-1c92-4afd-bb2b-f4ff2cd9b788, opencode:ses_206fd87a6ffel8Y8ooSpgw4Aeo, opencode:ses_206bfd18dffe1hUfJBOccuaLDC</sub>

#### 5. Respect permission denials by checkpointing and surfacing to the human; a stuck sub-agent may be blocked by an earlier instance
`generic` · **negative result** · ⚠ _session-derived, unverified_

The auto-mode permission classifier blocks operations outside the declared task scope or risking irreversible loss, and these blocks are generally the right call: it blocked listing a sibling project tree as scope escalation, blocked `git stash` of the agent's own uncommitted changes as risking loss, and blocked an `rm -rf` of shared cache outside the repo (~/.nimby/pkgs/...). Keep file operations within the stated target tree, checkpoint via commit instead of stash, require explicit human confirm before mass-deleting shared cache outside the repo, and surface the need rather than working around the denial. Separately, a long-lived external subprocess agent (e.g. a `codex exec` call) can silently hang alive for 25+ minutes with near-zero CPU and no output because an earlier instance of the same binary is holding a per-user resource -- when a delegated external agent produces nothing for many minutes, kill the stuck call, check for other instances of the same binary, and retry a minimal call to confirm the environment before re-running the real one.
  <sub>sources: claude-code:1c7117ad-9bee-4658-8937-e92adbc1a6ae, claude-code:b2b2f1e5-537c-4acf-abfb-4490b0abc27a, claude-code:ca5e32ea-3dad-42a9-8991-0f07d28b1060, claude-code:cd2e0b52-b541-4e03-9fd3-798db4591603</sub>

#### 6. Convert a placeholder into a named 'default' rather than keeping template plus default
`generic` · ⚠ _session-derived, unverified_

When asked for a 'default' artifact, prefer converting an empty placeholder/template INTO a single named 'default' (a simple usable instance) rather than keeping a separate template plus a default. Collapse a placeholder-plus-default pair into one named, usable thing. (Observed: James preferred turning an empty grader template directory into a named 'default' generic interestingness scorer.)
  <sub>sources: codex:019e66c3-638e-7e70-afdf-8f6df9299f6a</sub>

#### 7. Decompose a large bot state object into named, single-owner sub-records
`generic`

Decompose a large multi-responsibility state object (e.g. an ~80-field god object) into ~10 named sub-records, each owned by one module, with leaf procedures taking explicit sub-records and only orchestrators taking the whole mutable object. Keep the module import graph a strict lower-to-higher tree. This localizes ownership, avoids multi-thousand-line monoliths, and makes behavior easier to read, test, and trace. Route new state into the matching module rather than into the top-level object directly. (Example sub-records from a game bot: Perception, Motion, Tasks, Goal, Identity, Evidence, plus memory split into spatial/declarative/temporal modules behind one facade.)
  <sub>sources: bitworld/among_them/players/mod_talks/DESIGN.md, bitworld/among_them/players/modulabot/DESIGN.md, opencode:ses_224322057ffexj7SYlcfVA0zgy, opencode:ses_1f6fd3cbeffesP62asFzIp32PQ (+1)</sub>

#### 8. Name modes/states by what the code does; don't abstract before a second case exists
`generic` · **negative result**

Choose mode/state names by what the code actually does, not by intent: collapsing aligner behavior into a single 'PatrollingMode' was the wrong split because the mode was really doing outward expansion, so trace review separated ExpandingMode (outward quadrant sweep with local capture and restocking) from FrontierPatrollingMode (boundary patrol, neutral repair, paired scrambler-raid staging), with mode-stability hysteresis to prevent churn. Do not introduce a policy registry or extract a policy object before a second policy actually needs it; keep boolean strategy flags (e.g. aggressive_imposter) as injected constructor config and abstract only when a real second case arrives. Cancel a planned mechanical rename (e.g. an FFI symbol prefix change) when it is high-churn but produces no behavior change -- keeping a legacy prefix costs nothing and avoids needless diff noise. The same logical constant can legitimately live in two layers with two purposes (a kill-strike range as a local action-layer button-press threshold AND an exported tuning constant for the hunting mode's kill-confirmation check); documenting them as one constant hides the coupling.
  <sub>sources: archive/cogames_playground/bulbacog/designs/ALIGNER_SPIRAL.md, players_checkouts/players_2/players/crewrift/crewborg/docs/designs/con, bitworld/among_them/players/mod_talks/DESIGN.md, opencode:ses_206fd87a6ffel8Y8ooSpgw4Aeo</sub>
