git:20261104.96454ff to git:20261104.5d6a29a

# AGENTS.md

Guidance for any coding agent (Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, Cursor, and others) working in

this repo. This is the **canonical** agent guide; `CLAUDE.md` points here.

Keep your answers short and to the point.

## What this is

**Cotal** is a standard wire interface for software, especially AI agents, to coordinate in

real time.

The wire contract (subjects, message schemas, presence/discovery conventions) *is* the standard;

libraries are thin clients over it. Transport is **NATS + JetStream**; the reference

implementation is **TypeScript**.

**Thin waist, real substance, guarded core:**

- **Thin waist** — the normative wire contract (subjects, schemas, presence/discovery, delivery

semantics, the owner+actor auth grammar) is the standard.

- **Pluggable edges** — identity, transport, storage, secrets, discovery, payments are adapters over

existing building blocks. Compose, don't reinvent (e.g. any OIDC IdP plugs in via a thin

auth-callout adapter).

- **Not hollow** — the substance is the contract *and its guarantees*, the reference implementation,

and the local operator tooling; not a bare shim.

- **Guard the core** — keep adapters thin and swappable, and never let an adapter's or example's

concepts leak into `@cotal-ai/core` or the shared layers.

## Read these first

- [README.md](README.md): what Cotal is, for a general audience.

- [docs/README.md](docs/README.md): the docs index and reading path.

- [docs/what-is-cotal.mdx](docs/what-is-cotal.mdx) (*what* it does) →

[docs/architecture.mdx](docs/architecture.mdx) (*how*) →

[docs/connect-claude.mdx](docs/connect-claude.mdx) (the connector).

- [SPEC.md](SPEC.md): the **normative** wire contract. Where a client disagrees with the spec,

the spec wins. [spec/cotal-lang.md](spec/cotal-lang.md) is the normative reference for the

workflow language (SPEC §14); every `js` block in it is validated by `pnpm smoke:lang-surface`.

- `.internal/` (private submodule): working build-plans, research, and guidelines. Make sure it

is current before changing behavior.

## Commands

```bash

pnpm cotal <cmd> # run the CLI via tsx bin/cotal.ts (base + manager commands)

pnpm smoke # core smoke test

pnpm smoke:ci # security/protocol smoke suite (the CI gate); needs nats-server on PATH

pnpm smoke:ci:offline # the gate minus the suites that start a stack or drive real processes; prints what it excluded, and is not the gate

pnpm typecheck # tsc --noEmit across all packages

pnpm build # tsc build across all packages

pnpm check # every local check, :live suites included; runs every step and lists each failure at the end

```

ESM only (`"type": "module"`); `tsx` runs TS directly, but packages import each other from their

built `dist/`, so run `pnpm build` after `pnpm install` and after editing a package

([CLI usage](https://docs.cotal.ai/api-reference/cli-usage/#running-it)). Node &gt;= 22.10.

## Repository map

| Path | What it is |

| --------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| `packages/*` | The standard plus the local workstation layer. `@cotal-ai/core` is the wire protocol (generic; depends on nothing else in the repo); `@cotal-ai/workspace` is the machine-local operator and client-surface layer over `~/.cotal` and depends on core; `@cotal-ai/lang` is the cotal-lang workflow language and depends on nothing else here; `@cotal-ai/seat` is local PTY seat custody (one detached custodian per seat) and depends on nothing else here; `@cotal-ai/smoke-kit` is private test-only helpers for the smoke suites, never published and never imported by shipped code. |

| `extensions/*` | Pluggable adapters (connectors, runtimes). Peer-depend core; self-register on import. |

| `implementations/*` | Opinionated surfaces over core (CLI, manager, delivery daemon, the cotal-lang runtime host). Self-contained; never import each other. |

| `examples/*` | Use-cases / composition roots. Private, never published. Each self-documents in its README. |

| `bin/` | The `cotal` binary (the published `cotal-ai` package): the composition root. |

| `docs/` | Protocol documentation (start at `docs/README.md`). |

| `SPEC.md`, `spec/` | The normative wire spec, plus the generated `cotal.schema.json`. |

| `deploy/` | Containerized agent teams against an external broker. |

| `scripts/` | Maintenance scripts (schema generation, feedback admin). |

| `assets/`, `remotion/`, `presentation/` | README images, the animation project, and a slide deck. |

| `reserved/` | npm name placeholders (`cotal`, `cotal-mesh`). |

### The packages (one-way dependency tiers)

Dependencies flow one way: `examples → implementations → workspace → core ← (peer) extensions`

(`packages/*` is core + workspace; extensions peer-depend core only). `@cotal-ai/smoke-kit` sits

outside that flow entirely: it is a test-only devDependency of the packages whose smokes use it, and

no shipped file may import it.

Extensions, connectors, runtimes, and commands **self-register into the core `Registry` on

import**; a composition root just imports the surfaces it wants. An unknown agent type throws,

with no silent fallback.

- `**@cotal-ai/core**` (`packages/core`): endpoint, subjects, message types; the NATS client

layer plus the extension contracts (`Connector`, `Command`, `Runtime`) and the `Registry`

they self-register into. The wire standard — depends on nothing else in the repo.

- `**@cotal-ai/workspace**` (`packages/workspace`): the machine-local operator and client-surface

layer over `~/.cotal` — the mesh registry, target resolution, preflight, the `.cotal/` auth-path

helpers, the command-copy renderer, and what terminal surfaces share: the live space model

(`MeshView`, `openObserver`), the manager control calls (`@cotal-ai/workspace/control`), the

managed-launch request (`requestManagedLaunch`), the chat session (`@cotal-ai/workspace/chat`), and

the terminal attach (`@cotal-ai/workspace/attach`).

Depends on core; not part of the wire standard.

- `**@cotal-ai/smoke-kit**` (`packages/smoke-kit`): private test-only helpers shared by the smoke

suites — the broker ownership that kills a spawned `nats-server` when a suite is

*signalled* rather than only when it returns, and the spawn-site census behind

`pnpm smoke:broker-migration`, which walks `git ls-files` and fails when any suite starts a broker

the reaper cannot claim or the helper cannot kill. Never published and never imported by shipped code

(enforced by `pnpm smoke:core-boundary`); it has no `dist`, so there is no build step and no

compiled second copy that can disagree with the source.

- `**@cotal-ai/lang**` (`packages/lang`): the cotal-lang workflow language, as

[spec/cotal-lang.md](spec/cotal-lang.md) defines it: its grammar (one syntax table drives the

validator and the interpreter), the interpreter's sequential core and concurrency scopes, the step

journal, the effect interface a host implements, and the simulator and dry run that exercise a

program with no broker. Depends on nothing else in the repo; it knows about effects, not about NATS.

- `**@cotal-ai/seat**` (`packages/seat`): local PTY seat custody. A one-shot launcher starts one

detached custodian process per seat. The custodian owns the `node-pty` object, child relationship,

screen mirror, and exit observation. A manager worker adopts a proxy handle over a permissioned

Unix socket. Depends on nothing else in the repo; it knows about host processes, not about NATS.

Custody is Linux only; its host primitives for the daemon endpoint build on Linux, macOS and Windows. The built-in `pty` runtime does not

launch through it: the manager spawns pty seats in-process on every platform, and uses this

package only to adopt and reap seats that an earlier manager left under a custodian (on Linux;

elsewhere `adopt` throws).

- `**@cotal-ai/runtime**` (`implementations/runtime`): the host that runs a cotal-lang program on

the mesh: the mesh handler binding the effect interface onto the real planes, the durable step

journal, and the `RunDriver` the manager daemon hosts. Depends on core and lang.

- `**@cotal-ai/connector-core**` (`extensions/connector-core`): the shared MCP-bridge runtime:

the mesh agent, the `cotal_*` tool specs (incl. `cotal_spawn` / `cotal_persona` /

`cotal_personas` / `cotal_despawn`), and the hook relay. The adapters below are thin clients over it.

- `**@cotal-ai/connector-claude-code**` (`extensions/connector-claude-code`): the Claude Code

adapter (installed plugin + `claude/channel` push).

- `**@cotal-ai/connector-opencode**` (`extensions/connector-opencode`): the OpenCode adapter

(native in-process plugin injected via `OPENCODE_CONFIG_CONTENT`).

- `**@cotal-ai/connector-hermes**` (`extensions/connector-hermes`): the Hermes (Nous Research)

adapter; includes a Python sidecar.

- `**@cotal-ai/connector-codex**` (`extensions/connector-codex`): the OpenAI Codex adapter: a

host-mode peer that drives `codex app-server`, with Codex's own TUI attached and the `cotal_*`

tools served on a loopback MCP endpoint.

- `**@cotal-ai/connector-jcode**` (`extensions/connector-jcode`): the Jcode adapter: a host-mode

peer driven through Jcode's Harness API bridge.

- `**@cotal-ai/pi**` (`extensions/pi`): the pi adapter — a pi extension (loaded into the

user's own pi, no bundled runtime) that embeds `MeshAgent` in the session's process and

drives it off the inbox with true mid-turn steering; also covers agents built on pi's SDK.

See [docs/connect-pi.mdx](docs/connect-pi.mdx).

- `**@cotal-ai/cmux**` (`extensions/cmux`): the cmux integration: a driver over the cmux CLI

plus a self-registering `cmux` Runtime and `TerminalLayout` provider.

- `**@cotal-ai/tmux**` (`extensions/tmux`): the tmux integration: a driver over the tmux CLI

plus a self-registering `tmux` Runtime and `TerminalLayout` provider.

- `**@cotal-ai/orca**` (`extensions/orca`): the Orca integration: a driver over the public Orca

CLI plus a self-registering `orca` Runtime provider.

- `**@cotal-ai/herdr**` (`extensions/herdr`): the Herdr integration: a driver over the herdr CLI

plus a self-registering `herdr` Runtime provider that spawns agents into panes of a dedicated

Herdr session (they survive the manager's terminal going away).

- `**@cotal-ai/cli**` (`implementations/cli`): the mesh CLI: `up`, `join`, `console`,

`spawn`, `mint`, `status`, `doctor`, `channels`, `history`, `ext` (operator-installed command extensions).

- `**@cotal-ai/web**` (`implementations/web`): the browser dashboard as a `cotal ext`-installable

extension package — it peer-depends on core + workspace (linked to the binary's copies at add

time) and self-registers its command.

- `**@cotal-ai/tui**` (`implementations/tui`): the terminal app, one full-screen workspace that

lists this machine's spaces and opens one read-only. Built on OpenCode's Solid and OpenTUI

components, vendored under `vendor/opencode/` and held to their recorded hashes by

`scripts/check-vendor.mjs`. Private, needs Node 26.4 or newer, and depends on core and workspace.

The `cotal` binary does not start it yet.

- `**@cotal-ai/linear**` (`implementations/linear`): serves the official Linear MCP server as a

registered endpoint that agents call with `cotal_describe` and `cotal_invoke`, plus the

`cotal linear` operator command. A `cotal ext`-installable package that peer-depends on core +

workspace.

- `**@cotal-ai/manager**` (`implementations/manager`): the agent supervisor: spawns and manages

nodes via a pluggable Runtime (`pty` built-in; `tmux`, `cmux`, `orca`, and `herdr` via extensions), with `spawn --detach`/`stop`/`ps`/`attach`

(attach streams over a mesh session) and a credentialed local HTTP console.

- `**@cotal-ai/delivery**` (`implementations/delivery`): the server-side Plane-3 delivery daemon

— the durable backstop (fan-out writer + trusted reader + membership/ACL authority), a scoped,

least-privilege NATS client co-located with the broker. Self-registers the `deliver` command.

- `**@cotal-ai/auth**` (`implementations/auth`): per-user auth: owner-token derivation,

user-token validation for the NATS auth callout, and the auth service. Self-registers the

`auth-service`, `actor`, `agent-bearer`, `login`, and `logout` commands. Depends on core, lang,

and workspace.

An example only *configures and orchestrates* (roles, config, space name, runbook, optional

driver) and picks which extensions to register. It never adds message kinds, subjects, or

endpoint methods; those go into `core`, generalized.

**Core primitives:** endpoint, agent node, space, channel, direct message, presence, history.

**Delivery modes:** multicast / unicast / anycast.

## Conventions

- **Never fix an issue you could not reproduce.** Reproduce the failure (live, not just in

reasoning or a unit simulation) before writing a fix; the repro is also the only proof the

fix works. If you can't reproduce it, report that and stop, don't ship a guess.

- **Prove fixes against unchanged pre-fix code.** Run the real reproducer or regression test against

that implementation before editing it, then run it against the fix. If a baseline is needed later,

use a separate checkout at the pre-fix commit and install and build its dependencies before testing.

Name the expected failure: a setup error or unrelated early failure is not proof. If the test builds

its inputs by hand, also show that a real entry point reaches that code.

- **Mutation and fix-reversion proofs require an explicit request.** Do not run them otherwise,

including in delegated work, reviews or checks that execute mutations indirectly. Mutation configs

(`*/mutations/*.json`) and `pnpm mutation-proof` are optional tools, not a delivery gate. A change

does not need to add, update or re-pin them.

- **Every package's `typecheck` also runs a `tsconfig.smoke.json` over its smoke tree.** A new

package with smoke files adds the same pair, because a smoke file that is typechecked by nothing

runs green over real type errors.

- **Keep the code clean and minimal.** No bloat, no overcomplication.

- **Do only what is asked**, not more, not less. Do not add features or abstractions that are

not explicitly requested or clearly needed.

- **Keep docs short and human**, and **keep them updated in the same change** as the behavior:

when behavior changes, update the affected pages under [docs/](docs/README.md) (and

[SPEC.md](SPEC.md) for wire changes) so they never drift from the code. Use direct sentences:

no em dashes, filler words such as `exactly` or `fold`, list-style headings, or slogan-shaped

"this, not that" contrasts. `pnpm check:docs-voice` enforces the mechanical parts. An operator

string a page quotes must be one the source still emits, with a substituted value written as a

placeholder such as `<id>`; `pnpm check:docs-literals` checks that.

A published page's relative link to `SPEC.md` or a top-level `docs/*.md` page must name a page

the group map in `website/scripts/sync-docs.mjs` publishes. Any other relative link, a design note

under `docs/design/` included, must name a file that exists and goes to GitHub. A `#anchor` on a

link to a published page, the same page included, must name a heading there or an explicit

`<a id>`. The docs index links the same Markdown and MDX pages and `SPEC.md` that the group map publishes.

`pnpm check:docs-site` runs that sync and fails otherwise.

`docs/` describes the **protocol** only; each example documents itself in its own

`examples/*/README.md`.

- **A doc comment sits directly above what it documents.** TypeScript attaches only the nearest

`/** */` block to a declaration, so a block followed by another block documents nothing and its

contract shows nowhere on hover. Move the block with its declaration, or merge or delete it.

`pnpm check:doc-comments` refuses that shape in shipped source. Every doc block must close and

must not contain another literal `/**`, including in examples: block comments do not nest, so a

missing close can swallow the next block. Write an example opener as `&#47;**` instead.

- **Docs reach agents through a build artifact, so just edit the page.** `cotal_docs` serves a

version-exact bundle of `docs/`, `SPEC.md` and `spec/`. It is generated by

`@cotal-ai/connector-core`'s own `build` and `typecheck`, and the generated file is gitignored.

There is nothing to regenerate by hand and nothing to commit: edit the page and the next build

carries it. It used to be committed, and two branches that regenerated the same region of it

conflicted in a file no human wrote while their pages merged cleanly.

- **No fallbacks.** Throw if something is not supported in the current environment or config,

rather than silently degrading.

- **Keep the customer update path clean and secure.** Upgrading (`npm i -g cotal-ai@<new>`) must

bring every installed extension and connector to a current, core-matched version, or fail loud. It

must never leave a customer silently on stale exts, on a skewed core/ext pair, or on an unverified

download. Any change to install, `setup`/seed, or `ext` resolution must preserve this.

- **Use native NATS/JetStream features** first, rather than re-implementing them.

- **Do not switch branches** without being prompted. To work independently, use a git worktree.

- **Favor the long-term trustworthy, maintainable choice**, even when it costs more upfront.

Avoid shortcuts that add technical debt or fragility.

- **Look at the relevant docs**, make sure `.internal` is current, and follow its guidelines

when making changes.

- **Track plan status.** `.internal/plans/STATUS.md` is the single source of truth for whether each

plan is executed — check it before acting on a plan. When you start, advance, finish, block, or

supersede a plan, update its row there in the same change; add a `planned` row for any new plan.

**Commit the plan file and its STATUS row together as their own `.internal` commit** (a

`plans: …` message) as you make the change — never leave plan/STATUS edits uncommitted in the

shared submodule working tree, where another agent's commit could sweep in your half-done work.

## Closing out a lane

A lane is one piece of delegated work: its worktree, its workers, and what it built. The agent

that spawned the lane cleans it up when the lane finishes. A scheduled cleanup job is only a

backstop.

1. **Keep what must survive.** Commit and push the source, and keep compact proof of the required

checks: the tested head, the logs, and their hashes. Keeping proof does not keep every build or

dependency copy.

2. **Retire the lane's workers.** A worker is ready only when it is terminal and quiescent, with no

live jobs, transfers, or unresolved ownership. A quiet worker can still be in a live, blocked turn.

Confirm the lane owns it, stop only that worker through a native control that targets it alone,

such as despawn, and confirm it exited. Never stop a manager as cleanup.

3. **Remove the disposable copies.** Delete the lane's dependency installs, build outputs, test

stores, downloads, and the finished worktree. Remove a directory only while holding a barrier that

keeps new owners and new processes out of it, from the final check through the deletion. A

one-time check that nothing runs there is not enough, because a process can enter after it.

4. **Record the result.** Note the bytes reclaimed. For anything that stays, such as evidence or

unfinished work, record who owns its cleanup and the condition that releases it.

Never delete anything live, held, shared, foreign, or of unknown ownership, any credential, an

unpushed commit, or an unmerged branch. Do not clean by age alone. The rule covers only what the

lane can show it owns.

## Git and public messages

- **Our contribution style.** Maintainer-prepared commits and PRs use plain Conventional

Commits without AI/tool credits, generator footers or trailers. Other contributors may acknowledge

their agents; this is not a repository-wide ban or merge requirement.

- **Maintainer messages must not self-advertise.** Our commits, PRs, issues and mesh channel posts

should read as a human contributor wrote them. Do not name or promote the agent or tool that

produced them.

## Changesets and PR text

- **Changesets.** Packages are 0.x, so a breaking change is a **minor**. The `fixed` group versions every package in lockstep, so one changeset

bumps them all; list every package with a first-party change and write one clear summary.

Verify the plan with `pnpm changeset status` before committing.

- **PR title** is a plain Conventional Commit subject (`!` marks a breaking change). **PR body**

states the full scope of the work, not just the headline.

- **Never cite an internal references from the plan or campaign** in a PR or commit.

## Research and web tools

- **Research online first.** Before implementing a feature (NATS/JetStream APIs, MCP SDK,

A2A/SLIM conventions), verify current behavior against real docs rather than memory.

- **Searching the web** (open-ended queries, finding docs): prefer the Tavily MCP

(`tavily_search` / `tavily_research`); it returns higher-signal results than built-in search.

- **Fetching a known URL:** use the built-in `WebFetch`; do not route those through Tavily.

You are strictly forbidden from changing the current worktree into another branch, if you need another branch you MUST use git worktree (not the main one).