coulomb-research/AGENTS.md

coulomb-research — Agent Instructions

Repo Identity

Purpose: A self-improving research network where humans and artificial intelligences create, criticize, test, and reuse knowledge.

Domain: communication Repo slug: coulomb-research Topic ID: 36c7421b-c537-4723-bf75-42a3ebc6a1dc Workplan prefix: CR-WP-

---

State Hub Integration

The Custodian State Hub tracks work across all domains. Codex uses HTTP REST and the statehub CLI by default. MCP is opt-in because the current Codex MCP bridge adds severe call latency; the full administrative MCP surface remains available to clients that need it.

Context	URL
Local workstation	http://127.0.0.1:8000
Remote via tunnel	http://127.0.0.1:18000
Optional local edge relay	http://127.0.0.1:18080

When an operator has enabled the edge relay, set API_BASE to the relay URL. Queueable writes return an explicit queued receipt if the central hub is unreachable. Treat that as pending local evidence, then ask the operator to run statehub outbox status/replay after connectivity returns.

Codex workspace-write sandboxes need network access enabled to reach the host's loopback listener. Bootstrap this once with make -C ~/state-hub configure-codex and restart Codex. The canonical REST health endpoint is /state/health, not /health. If a sandboxed loopback probe fails, retry it with escalated execution before declaring State Hub unavailable; a managed Codex permission profile may still enforce isolated networking. Experimental MCP can be enabled explicitly with make -C ~/state-hub configure-codex WITH_MCP=1.

Orient at session start

# Offline brief — works without hub connection
cat .custodian-brief.md

# Active workplans for this domain
curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:8000/workplans/?topic_id=36c7421b-c537-4723-bf75-42a3ebc6a1dc&status=active" \
  | python3 -m json.tool

# Check inbox
curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:8000/messages/?to_agent=coulomb-research&unread_only=true" \
  | python3 -m json.tool

Mark a message read:

curl -s -X PATCH "http://127.0.0.1:8000/messages/<id>/read" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{}'

Log progress (required at session close)

curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/progress/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "summary": "what was done",
    "event_type": "note",
    "author": "codex",
    "workplan_id": "<uuid>",
    "task_id": "<uuid>"
  }'

Omit workplan_id / task_id when not applicable.

Update task status

curl -s -X PATCH "http://127.0.0.1:8000/tasks/<task_id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"status": "progress"}'
# values: wait | todo | progress | done | cancel

Flag a task for human review

curl -s -X PATCH "http://127.0.0.1:8000/tasks/<task_id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"needs_human": true, "intervention_note": "reason"}'

---

Session Protocol

Start:

1. cat .custodian-brief.md — domain goal and open workplans (offline-safe)
2. Check inbox: GET /messages/?to_agent=coulomb-research&unread_only=true; mark read
3. Scan workplans: ls workplans/ — note status: ready, active, or blocked files and open tasks
4. Check human-needed tasks: GET /tasks/?needs_human=true

During work:

• Update task statuses in workplan files as tasks progress
• Record significant decisions via POST /decisions/

Close:

1. Update workplan file task statuses to reflect progress
2. If finishing a workplan: hand off residuals as live work records first (intake with origin: residual + origin_ref: <WP-id>, or a next workplan / decision / engagement). Do not park leftovers only in prose or SCOPE.md. Canon: the-custodian/canon/standards/work-record-types_v0.1.md § Residuals.
3. Log: POST /progress/ with a summary of what changed (name handoff ids)
4. After workplan file changes, run:

   uv run --project ~/repo-manager rmgr sync --path . --push
   

   This assigns only missing deterministic identifiers, verifies the pushed Forgejo commit and primary/railliance01, then requests one central reconciliation. A queued receipt is pending evidence; rerun after connectivity returns. Use statehub fix-consistency for a separate deep audit.

---

---

Workplan Convention (ADR-001)

Work items originate as files in this repo — not in the hub. The hub is a read/cache/index layer that rebuilds from files.

File location: workplans/CR-WP-NNNN-<slug>.md

Archived location: finished workplans may move to workplans/archived/YYMMDD-CR-WP-NNNN-<slug>.md. The YYMMDD prefix is the completion/archive date; the frontmatter id does not change.

Ad Hoc Tasks: small opportunistic fixes discovered during a session use workplans/ADHOC-YYYY-MM-DD.md, workplan id CR-WP-ADHOC-YYYY-MM-DD, and task ids CR-WP-ADHOC-YYYY-MM-DD-T01, etc. CR-WP includes its final -WP token. Unqualified historic ADHOC-* ids are grandfathered and must not be copied into new records. Use this only for low-risk work completed directly; create a normal workplan for anything needing analysis, design, approval, dependencies, or multiple phases.

Frontmatter:

---
id: CR-WP-NNNN
type: workplan
title: "..."
domain: communication
repo: coulomb-research
status: proposed | ready | active | blocked | backlog | finished | archived
owner: codex
topic_slug: ...
created: "YYYY-MM-DD"
updated: "YYYY-MM-DD"
state_hub_workstream_id: "<uuid>"   # deterministic UUIDv5; managed by Repo Manager
---

Use proposed for a new draft, ready after review against current repo state, and finished after implementation. stalled and needs_review are derived health labels, not frontmatter statuses.

Terminology: workplan is the fleet term; workstream appears only in legacy API/MCP/frontmatter bridges until STATE-WP-0069 retires them — see the-custodian/canon/standards/workplan-terminology-fleet_v0.1.md.

Task block format (one per ## section):

## Task Title

` ` `task
id: CR-WP-NNNN-T01
status: wait | todo | progress | done | cancel
priority: high | medium | low
state_hub_task_id: "<uuid>"         # deterministic UUIDv5; managed by Repo Manager
` ` `

Task description text.

Status progression: todo → progress → done; use wait for waiting/blocked work and cancel for stopped work.

Residuals when finishing: actionable leftovers become live work records before status: finished — usually an intake (origin: residual, origin_ref: CR-WP-NNNN) or a spawned workplan. Residual is a role, not a kind. Fleet list lives on State Hub, not in SCOPE.md.

To create a new workplan:

1. Write the file following the format above
2. Run uv run --project ~/repo-manager rmgr sync --path . --push.
3. Run statehub fix-consistency only when a separate deep audit is needed.

Repository Workflow

This is a documentation and research seed, with no application source, dependency manifest, runtime, build, automated test suite, or lint configuration yet. Install, test, lint, build, and run commands are therefore not applicable. Do not invent a package manager or platform to complete documentation work.

• Read INTENT.md, SCOPE.md, and seed/CoulombResearchMilestonePlan.md.
• Keep design proposals in seed/; treat history/ as source history.
• Validate edits with git diff --check, review Markdown links and fenced YAML, and inspect work records with uv run --project ~/repo-manager rmgr observe --path ..
• Commit workplan changes before uv run --project ~/repo-manager rmgr sync --path . --push.
• Use statehub fix-consistency --repo coulomb-research --json for a deep audit; it can generate and commit indexes and other integration files.
• Workplan IDs use CR-WP-NNNN; paper IDs such as CR-000 are a separate namespace.
• UUIDs derive from work-record IDs. An ID change requires new UUIDs and explicit retirement of the old projection; record the migration in the workplan.
• The first implementation is M0 in CR-WP-0002. Later milestones remain design proposals until their artifacts justify implementation.