# Agent Startup And Context Ingestion

> Use when designing or auditing how an agent becomes useful after launch — AGENTS.md overlays, role files, skills, rig specs, workflow specs, startup checklists, refocus messages, "rig context" surface. Covers the 4 failure modes that make startup context fail (old rig spec misses current operating mode; current agents never told about new guidance; startup file as dumping ground; orchestrator tra…

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-mvschwarz-openrig-agent-startup-and-context-ingestion`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [mvschwarz](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/mvschwarz)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Upstream author:** [mvschwarz](https://github.com/mvschwarz)
- **Source:** https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig/tree/main/packages/daemon/assets/plugins/openrig-core/skills/agent-startup-and-context-ingestion
- **Website:** https://openrig.dev

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-mvschwarz-openrig-agent-startup-and-context-ingestion
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Agent Startup and Context Ingestion

How an agent becomes useful after launch: **AGENTS.md overlays, role
files, skills, rig specs, workflow specs, startup checklists, refocus
messages**, and any future "rig context" command or skill-librarian
surface.

It is the current concrete startup path inside the broader
context-engineering-and-retrieval primitive. Startup gets a seat into
the right initial shape; context engineering is the larger question of
how a seat gets the right context for the work it is doing right now.

**Most coordination failures are not tool failures; they are context
failures.** Agents need to know their role, operating mode, coordination
convention, boundaries, and current product intent. If startup context
is scattered or stale, agents execute the wrong thing very efficiently.

## Use this when

- Authoring a new agent's startup files (role / culture / startup-context)
- Refreshing a seat that's been running on stale guidance
- Auditing whether agents got the current operating mode (not just what's in old files)
- Designing the orchestrator → next-agent context-transmission shape
- Building a startup map for OpenRig-building rigs

## Don't use this when

- The agent is being created via Agent Starter — the starter's manifest carries startup context
- The work is artifact-backed mental-model rebuild from a packet — that's `claude-compaction-restore`
- The intent is to ship reusable startup content as a skill — write the skill against the agentskills.io specification, not as inline startup prose

## Failure modes (4)

1. **A new agent starts from an old rig spec and misses the current operating mode.** Specs go stale; current state must be visible at startup, not just historical config.
2. **Guidance is written to a file that future agents read, but current agents are never told.** File edits don't propagate to running sessions. Cultural rollout (broadcast + fleet-changes-feed) is needed alongside file edits.
3. **A startup file becomes a dumping ground and loses the map-to-canonical-sources role.** Startup should point AT canonical sources; it shouldn't TRY to be one.
4. **The orchestrator transmits implementation instructions without preserving product intent.** Instructions decay; intent travels.

## Proof standard

Startup proof should:

1. **Launch or refresh** a seat
2. **Inspect** what it actually read
3. **Verify** it can state the current role, mode, active constraints, and next handoff convention **in its own words**

## Cross-runtime startup paths (5; do not collapse)

When a seat's startup is artifact-backed mental-model rebuild (active-work
reentry case, distinct from reusable Agent Starters / priming packs):

- See the **cross-runtime restore/reentry packet standard v0**
- Source-trust ranking applies: **`rig whoami` > target rigspec > bounded latest transcript > full transcript > touched-files > `restore-summary.json`**

## Memory surfaces consumed at startup

The primary surfaces a startup ingestion path reads:

- AGENTS / role / CULTURE / startup overlays (the per-seat identity layer)
- startup replay context (what the agent did before the current boot)
- restore / reentry packets and Agent Starters (cross-runtime startup path)

Authority-rank + read-vs-write posture governs which surfaces a
startup-ingestion path can write vs only read; treat overlays as
write-restricted unless your role explicitly authors them.

## Startup files vs skills (the distinction)

Per `agent-startup-guide.md` (product reference doc) and the team handbook:

| Startup files | Skills |
|---|---|
| Rig-specific, role-specific identity | Reusable SOPs / methodology / knowledge |
| Tell agent WHO it is, WHAT it's working on, HOW this team operates | Tell agent HOW to do something (transferable across rigs) |
| Examples: `role.md`, `CULTURE.md`, `startup/context.md` | Examples: `openrig-user`, `test-driven-development`, `dogfood` |
| Authored per-rig | Authored once, used everywhere |

Don't put skill content in startup files. Don't put identity content
in skills. The 7-layer additive startup model (agent / profile / rig /
culture / pod / member / operator) handles the layering.

## See also

- `forming-an-openrig-mental-model` skill — orientation for new agents
- `claude-compaction-restore` skill — restore-time startup ingestion after compaction
- `seat-continuity-and-handover` skill — packet shape that survives seat resets
- https://agentskills.io/specification — the cross-runtime skill standard (what skill content should and shouldn't be)

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [mvschwarz](https://github.com/mvschwarz)
- **Source:** [mvschwarz/openrig](https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig)
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Homepage:** https://openrig.dev

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-mvschwarz-openrig-agent-startup-and-context-ingestion
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/mvschwarz
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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