Vibe Squad Root Instructions

Vibe Squad is markdown-first:

Operator -> Chrono -> gpt-codex | claude | gemini | grok -> specialists

The gemini lane name is historical: it dispatches through the agy CLI, which covers Gemini and Google's other products under OAuth. The separate API-key gemini CLI is retired and nothing here invokes it. Do not "fix" a gemini reference by pointing it at that binary.

Chrono is the only controller and the only operator-facing voice. Model leads execute scoped markdown task packets. Source namespaces under departments/ locate specialist/role markdown only; they do not determine model choice.

Canonical Sources

• Routing: shared/specialist-runtime-map.tsv
• Dispatch protocol: shared/protocol.md
• Runtime rules: shared/routing.md
• Mode workflows: shared/modes/*.md
• Specialist behavior: departments/*/specialists/*.md and shared/specialists/*.md
• Model lead prompts: model-lanes/*
• Durable memory: private markdown vault via chrono-vault (record/recall); see plugins/chrono-vault/README.md
• Tool/skill triggers (when to reach for what): docs/standards/tool-trigger-map.md
• Operator-facing output (boxes carry the content; prose stays short): docs/standards/operator-facing-output-standard.md — internal-only; withheld from the public export, with no public equivalent shipped

Generated adapters, stale handoffs, old specs, and runtime logs are not source of truth. The chrono-vault record/recall loop is the durable cross-session learning store; the legacy in-repo KG SQLite and the recall LIKE-stub it replaced are retired. The chrono-kg MCP namespace remains live as a compatibility alias backed by those canonical Markdown-vault operations; it does not revive SQLite.

Versions — three numbering systems, all real

Confusing these is the single most common source of "is this doc out of date?" in this repo.

• V2.0.0 is the current release version. Git tags run v1.1.0 through v1.1.6; v1.1.7 onward are tagged by Chrono on the PUBLISHED public commit as each release is cut, so they are disjoint from private main — git merge-base --is-ancestor v1.1.8 HEAD correctly returns false. The next patch would be V2.0.1. This is the version of the system as a product. Release v2.x is unrelated to the V3/V4 architecture generations.
• V3 / V4 are architecture generations, not old release numbers. Git tags v3-final and v4-baseline-2026-08-07. The dispatcher still runs a live V3 compatibility bridge, so shared/protocol.md saying "the staged V4 boundary" is current, not stale. Renaming these to V1.1.1 would destroy a real distinction.
• contract/v1, dispatch-preflight/v1 and friends are schema identifiers that code parses. Never touch them.

Bounty mode's internal v2 → v3 (shared/modes/bounty.md) is a fourth, mode-local axis describing why that mode dropped its gates. Also not a release number.

Hard Rules

1. No mode or external action starts without explicit operator consent.
2. Chrono chooses mode, specialist, write scope, model, and review gate.
3. source_namespace chooses the specialist (role) markdown location, not the mailbox — every task is transported through the canonical mailbox root (departments/coding); to_model chooses the model/CLI that runs it. (Home: shared/protocol.md § board-native transport, enforced by dispatch_context_builder.py CANONICAL_MAILBOX_ROOT.)
4. Model leads do not talk to the operator directly.
5. Reviewers are read-only unless Chrono serializes a later write packet.
6. These held categories require explicit operator approval as policy: cleanup, credential_change, delete, live_outreach, malware_detonation, offensive_execution, paid_media, production_mutation, and public_release. production_mutation means mutating a live production system that is not itself a public release (operator-ratified 2026-07-13). Ordinary workers are not given declared authority for these held categories: the supervisor denies that authority at admission rather than asking at action time. This admission check does not itself constrain later tool calls; deletion has a separate Git-integration gate. scripts/python/tests/test_held_action_gate.py pins this policy list to the controller constant and the canonical shared/lane-policy.tsv vocabulary. See shared/protocol.md § Held-category authority and logical scopes for the enforced boundary.
7. Write shared state atomically with temp + fsync/sync + rename.
8. Verify before claiming done. No fabricated citations or unverifiable provider claims. Vendor-provided benchmark numbers may be cited as vendor claims, but may not be used as planning assumptions until reproduced on at least one Vibe Squad-controlled benchmark or explicitly labeled unverified.
9. Capability is proven by a live probe, never by a config file. Declared (capability source) ≠ delivered (generated adapter) ≠ actual (what the runtime exposes) — only actual counts. Before any routing/architecture decision that rests on what a lane or specialist can do, dispatch a bounded probe that reports the literal command and its literal result. Agreement between documents that share an origin is not corroboration. A capability is not available until a real board dispatch demonstrates it (2026-07-30: three config sources agreed a lane had no shell; the probe found shell plus 42 working tools).
10. One fact, one home. When you copy a file, or restate a fact that already lives somewhere, either delete the original in the same change or record which copy wins and what keeps the copies in agreement. An unenforced copy is not a backup — it is a second answer that ages independently, and the next reader cannot tell which one is true. A duplicate is legitimate only when a validator enforces the identity and a named file states the winner. Duplication accumulates from caution, not carelessness — a backup before an edit, a mirror before a cutover, a tracked copy so a worker could read it — which is why it hides (2026-08-10: nine plan files, four claiming to describe current work and three of those wrong; a standard copied to a reachable path with the unreachable original left tracked).

Session Resume

There is a single resume contract, and it is Chrono's to execute — no board worker runs it. At session start Chrono regenerates, then reads the bounded capsule _state/chrono/resume.md (one step, never separated) as the primary source. The capsule itemises live and deferred work with a loud marker for any status the partition does not know, so nothing owed is ever silently absent (canary-tested). A capsule read without regenerating is stale by construction; never bulk-read the multi-MB _state/active-tasks.json monolith — the capsule extracts the live slice, and chrono/current.md is an archive, not a resume source.

• Operational steps (regenerate command, read order, direct-query filter): chrono/CLAUDE.md § Start Of Session.
• How the contract was settled, and what its two rejections cost: chrono/resume-contract-decision-record.md.

docs/handoffs/, old plans/specs, and _state/*report* files are historical unless current state references them.