Slock Epic Protocol

Maintain the bridge between Slock runtime agents and a federated epic repo. The protocol is repo-owned; Slock is the wake-up, social, and task surface.

Use This For

• Creating or changing slock_agent_registry.
• Mapping one Slock agent to one concrete leaf repo.
• Installing or checking generated Slock repo symlinks (always) and epic symlinks (when epic_symlink_name is set on the registry — see references/protocol.md).
• Keeping Slock MEMORY.md pointer-only.
• Migrating durable Slock notes into repo docs, skills, or .work.
• Adding repo-local Claude/Codex skill discovery for mapped agents.
• Designing cross-repo handoffs where target repo inbox/work is canonical.

Do Not Use For

• Sending Slock messages, claiming Slock tasks, or reading Slock history for an ordinary work request.
• Generic epic-wrapper setup with no Slock agent map.
• Generic skill authoring. Use skill-builder.
• Generic .work/ operation. Use work-cli.
• General repo convention bootstrap. Use convention-engineering.

First Pass

1. Classify the task: design, bootstrap, audit, repair, or migrate.
2. Identify canonical surface:
   • single repo: repo descriptor
   • multi-repo product: epic descriptor
3. Inspect before editing:
   • descriptor map
   • leaf descriptors
   • Taskfile/check scripts
   • Slock agent dirs if local projection work is requested
   • repo-local skill roots
4. State the dependency direction: Slock points to repo; repo does not depend on Slock runtime state.
5. Apply the smallest repo-owned change and name the verification command.

Core Invariants

• One mapped Slock agent owns exactly one leaf repo.
• The descriptor owns the map; Slock memory and symlinks are generated projections.
• MEMORY.md is pointer-only. Durable rules live in the repo.
• Default work model is per_leaf_tracked: every leaf owns its own .work/.
• Cross-repo refs are qualified: <prefix>#IN-NNNN or <prefix>#W-NNNN.
• Handoffs create target repo inbox/work state; Slock only notifies.
• Repo-local skills live under the leaf runtime roots actually used by agents.
• Runtime tokens, session logs, raw channel exports, and copied Slock memory are never canonical repo data.

Workflow By Mode

Design

Use references/protocol.md to choose surfaces, ownership boundaries, work model, and runtime skill discovery. Produce a concrete target tree and registry shape.

Bootstrap

Use references/bootstrap.md to add descriptor fields, leaf domain claims, Taskfile commands, target-owned install/check scripts, and generated Slock projection rules.

Audit

Use references/audit-migration.md to compare descriptor, leaf repos, Slock agent dirs, memory files, notes, and skill roots. Lead with drift and risks.

Repair

Repair repo-owned state first: descriptors, checks, skills, docs, and work handoff records. Regenerate Slock MEMORY.md and symlinks only from the descriptor.

Migrate

Move durable rules from Slock notes/memory into the owning repo surface. Leave historical logs local unless the user explicitly asks to archive them in a repo-owned record.

Approval Points

Ask before:

• deleting or rewriting historical Slock notes/
• replacing a non-symlink path inside a Slock agent dir
• introducing two-way sync between Slock and repo
• changing agent ownership, repo names, handles, or work prefixes
• committing local Slock runtime material

Verification

Use references/verification.md. A good change names and runs the relevant gate, usually:

task verify
task slock:check

If the task changes this skill's behavior, update MAINTENANCE.md in the same change. For prior failures, add a regression case entry there; do not create a separate eval/ folder.

References