witt3rd/dotagent/inhabit

Inhabit — the on-ramp

A static repo is bytes until it has a charter (AGENTS.md), lived experience (skills/), a ledger (.agent/log/), and a voice (scripts/agent). Inhabiting is that moment. The script does it; this skill is when and how to run it.

upgrade maintains an already-inhabited repo. This skill establishes.

When

• A git repo has no .agent/ and should be operated by a caretaker.
• "Inhabit this", "make this repo alive", "install dotagent here."

Do not inhabit a directory that is not a git repo. Do not re-derive the file copies by hand — run the script.

The command

From the dotagent clone (not from PATH; there is no inhabit binary):

<path-to-dotagent>/inhabit.sh --repo <path> --identity <name> --yes

Defaults: --repo is cwd, --identity is the directory name. --yes skips prompts. --dry-run prints the plan.

Idempotent for tooling: existing scripts/agent, .agent/, skills dirs are kept. The charter is not "kept yours." Never git add -A; it stages only the scaffold paths.

Takeover — own the charter

Inhabit is not complete when the script exits. The incoming caretaker owns `AGENTS.md`. Authority follows the charter. An agent that leaves a prior AGENTS.md in place has not moved in.

1. Read what is there. Existing AGENTS.md and any real README.md are

harvest, not a keep-out.

1. Rewrite `AGENTS.md` as this repo's charter (see agentsmd): goals →

merits → concepts → mechanisms. The mechanisms must name the loop: agent state, agent inbox, agent handoff.

1. README.md that still has its own prose: harvest, then README.md →

symlink to AGENTS.md.

1. `agent check` must pass. It fails if AGENTS.md is missing or does not

name the loop.

The script writes a starter only when no AGENTS.md exists. It never rewrites an existing one — you do. Until takeover, the script says so and inhabit is incomplete.

What "alive" means

After inhabit and takeover, any agent handed the repo cold:

scripts/agent state
scripts/agent inbox
scripts/agent check   # must exit 0

Span of control is law (dotagent AGENTS.md): other trees get a send, not a cd and edit.

Wake is not inhabit

Inhabit gives the mind. It does not choose how the repo is woken.

• Pull: a human or agent opens the repo and runs state + inbox. Always

works. No --dispatch required.

• Git-hook push: --dispatch + --launcher. Optional. BYOA.
• This host (roger): waking enrolled repos is acp-tempo

(acp-tempo send --to <identity>). That is a separate enroll in fleet-ops acp_tempo.identities. Inhabit does not write that table. Skip --dispatch unless you still want a hook wake alongside Temporal.

Verify

• [ ] scripts/agent check exits 0
• [ ] .agent/log/ exists
• [ ] .agent/HANDOFF.md and .agent/STATE.md are absent (taboo leftovers;

inhabit deletes them; agent check fails if they remain)

• [ ] AGENTS.md is owned (names agent state + agent inbox + agent handoff)
• [ ] existing AGENTS.md/README harvested, not left as a parallel charter
• [ ] skills/caretaker and skills/signalling present (unless --minimal)
• [ ] scaffold committed (inhabit: <identity> becomes an active intelligence)

Sibling skills

• `upgrade` — bring an already-inhabited repo to the latest tooling.
• `caretaker` — the loop that runs once the repo is alive.
• `signalling` — the ledger inhabit scaffolds.