version: "1.0.0" name: mica-context description: Use a repository's MICA contract before changing it. Resolve the README entrypoint and manifest, emit the selected archive and playbook context, apply repository-specific memory to the requested task, and report what was actually loaded. Use when a target repository declares MICA or the user asks to use or adopt MICA.

MICA Context

MICA provides one consistent use protocol, not one mandatory memory layout. Preserve the target repository's filenames, paths, profiles, and playbook style.

Use Existing MICA

1. Read the target repository's README and locate its MICA:INVOKE

directive. Resolve exactly the manifest it names; do not guess a root-level mica.yaml when the repository declares another path.

1. Select the requested profile. If none was requested and the manifest has

profiles, use its default profile. Do not add extra always layers to a profile that did not select them.

1. Run the target's context command when it provides one. Otherwise use the

matching MICA runtime:

``text python <MICA_ROOT>/tools/mica_runtime.py <TARGET_REPO> --format context ``

1. Stop if context emission fails. A validator result, file list, or CLOSED

summary is not a substitute for the emitted content.

1. Read the emitted archive as retained repository memory and the emitted

playbook as repository-specific operating instructions. Identify the decisions, invariants, and procedures relevant to the current request before changing an artifact.

1. Perform the requested work under the target playbook. If current code or

direct evidence conflicts with memory, report the conflict instead of silently choosing either side.

1. Report the selected profile, emitted surfaces, relevant memory applied, and

verification actually run. Distinguish resolved, emitted, and recorded; none alone proves that a model understood or obeyed context.

Adapt, Do Not Normalize

• Do not rename or replace a repository's archive and playbook merely to match

MICA examples.

• Do not infer that one archive schema, directory, or playbook organization is

universal. The manifest owns each repository's composition.

• Do not load operator-only material into agent context.
• Do not add flow, recall, handoff, trace, deployment, or SDLC machinery unless

the repository or user explicitly requires it.

• Do not turn transient output or an unreviewed note into durable memory.

Adopt MICA When Explicitly Requested

Use templates/minimal-package/ only as a scaffold. Rewrite its archive and playbook from current repository evidence, set paths in the manifest, and add the README directive. Existing repositories may keep different paths and formats when the runtime can resolve and emit them truthfully.

Never invent project decisions, incidents, invariants, or verification commands to complete a template.