AGENTS.md — dev-lead workflow adapter

What this file is. A drop-in entry point that lets any file-reading coding agent (codex and opencode read AGENTS.md natively; agy and others can be pointed at it) participate in the dev-lead cross-model workflow without Claude Code installed. Copy it into your project root — or merge the sections below into your existing AGENTS.md — and fix the one path in the next section.

Where the skills live

The dev-lead skill suite is checked out at:

DEV_LEAD_ROOT=~/path/to/dev-lead        # ← EDIT THIS

All references below are relative to that root. If your CLI supports adding external directories (agy --add-dir, opencode external-directory allow-list), grant it read access to $DEV_LEAD_ROOT.

Reading order

1. docs/methodology.md — the rules that govern every role. Read it once per session before doing anything else (if you have never seen a run's shape, docs/workflow.md first, as methodology itself says: it maps the phases the rules refer to). Non-negotiables: the cross-family review rule, frozen review targets, merge-base spans, evidence gates, mutation-proofing, the merge gate (the person's approval by default; see §9 for the merge_gate.mode = lead setting and what it does NOT change).
2. The skill for your role in this run (see below).
3. That family's runtime reference (skills/<family>-adversarial-review/references/<family>-runtime.md) — operational traps, all incident-tested. Do not re-learn them the hard way.

Which role are you?

You are the LEAD if a human asked you to orchestrate a whole feature/fix. Read skills/dev-lead/SKILL.md and follow its phases. Before accepting the role, pass its host capability gate: you must be able to run the repo's test suite and mutation checks yourself, natively. Delegate implementation via the skills/<family>-implement/ skills (for a Claude delegate, skills/claude-implement/SKILL.md — claude -p headless); take reviews via the skills/<family>-adversarial-review/ skills. The reviewer must never share the implementer's model family — including yours, when you implemented.

You are a DELEGATE if another agent dispatched you with a task file. Follow the task prompt. The standing rules apply even if the prompt forgot to state them: work only inside the worktree you were given, commit locally at most, never push, no AI-authorship trailers, no recursive delegation (do not invoke other CLIs or review scripts), and report honestly — what you ran, what passed, what you could not do.

You are a REVIEWER if you were handed a diff/commit range and a claims list. Falsify, don't confirm. Every verdict needs quoted evidence (file:line + the code that decides it); NOT REACHED is acceptable, HOLDS-without-a-quote is not. Read-only: no edits, no fixes, no test runs unless your harness machine-permits them — name the command you would run and the result that would confirm the finding, and let the lead run it.

Standing rules (apply to every role, every run)

• Delegates never push. Report the commit hash; the lead pushes.
• A person approves the result; the lead lands it. Present the verdict and the diff; on approval the lead merges, pushes to the ref this project's contract names, and reports it — no second ask. With the roster's merge_gate.mode = lead, a fully green verdict is that approval; anything not green, and any stricter project contract, still goes to the person.
• Cross-family review is mandatory before anything merges. Two families for HIGH-risk changes.
• Nothing is trusted on self-report — the lead re-runs tests and verifies every finding. Expect it; report accordingly.
• Keep a run log as events happen. If your run fails or returns nothing, leave the worktree intact — partial state is diagnosis evidence.

Substituting your own process management

The skills describe launches in terms of "the host's background mechanism" (Claude Code's task tracking, in the original environment). If your harness has no equivalent, use plain shell job control with output redirected to files, and poll process liveness — the skills' patience calibrations (5–40 minutes of silence being normal, per family) apply unchanged. Codex review runs codex exec everywhere; codex implement additionally has a raw-CLI fallback documented in its runtime file for machines without the Claude Code companion plugin.