doc

Doc

Write or update the documentation the caller needs, grounded in the current

repository and its accepted intent. A small explanation needs no interview,

coverage ledger or separate report. Select only the mode relevant to the task.

Modes

| Need | Scope and reference |

|---|---|

| Explain an API, command, code-map or architecture | Inspect its consumers and source; use [code/API guidance](references/default-mode.md) or [architecture guidance](references/architecture-report.md) when useful. |

| Create or improve a README | Lead with the user's problem and a working first-use path; preserve useful depth. See [README craft](references/readme-craft.md). |

| Audit or scaffold OSS documentation | Compare existing docs with the requested pack. Create missing files; revise existing files only within the authorized request. See [OSS pack](references/oss-pack.md). |

| Initialize missing entry documents | Create only explicitly requested missing files; report existing paths as skipped. See [setup examples](references/bootstrap/examples.md). |

| Preserve a session for another context | Write the compact factual handoff described below to the caller's authorized destination. |

These are optional task shapes, not successive phases. Detailed references

supply techniques and formats; they do not add interviews, approval checkpoints,

reports or files beyond the accepted request. Existing authorization to revise

specified documents is sufficient.

Grounded writing

1. Identify the audience, question and existing document owner. Reuse accepted

intent; ask only for missing content that materially changes the document.

1. Read the relevant declarations and verify them against code, configuration,

command help or executable behavior. Use the caller's domain terminology.

For a larger surface, retain enough source references to disclose what was

inspected and what remains unknown; do not imply whole-repository coverage.

1. Make the smallest useful edit. Explain non-obvious rules, ordering and tradeoffs

when they help the reader; a reference page need not manufacture a lesson.

Preserve operator policy and history outside the authorized scope.

1. Check links, examples and the repository's applicable documentation build or

validator. Remove empty claims and redundant prose; [prose guidance](references/de-slopify.md)

can help when the requested output is substantial.

1. Return changed paths and check results, plus unresolved factual gaps. Write a

separate report only when the caller requests one or an existing consumer

requires it.

For AgentOps itself, read docs/contracts/ubiquitous-language.md: the product

is the operations layer for agentic engineering. Preserve the distinction

between that layer and caller-owned execution, work tracking and delivery.

Missing-document setup

Create only the requested missing documents, such as PRODUCT.md, GOALS.md

or AGENTS.md; a collision is skipped, not overwritten by setup. Verify the

created paths and report created, skipped and failed writes. Setup does not

install tools, run ao session bootstrap, initialize Git or trackers, start a

runtime, add hooks, or infer a repository workflow.

Standalone verdict storage at .agents/ao/verdicts/sha256/ is created only when

explicitly requested. New CDLC proof uses the caller-selected protected external

non-Git evidence root; a missing route permits no checkout fallback. Preserve

existing evidence and use the repository's actual source owners.

Session handoff

A requested handoff records end-state facts another context can verify:

• accepted goal, completed artifacts and exact evidence paths;
• commands and observed results, unresolved acceptance, findings and causal gaps;
• useful repository/content identity, observed native stop state and measured

remaining allowance or explicit unknowns; record whether the helper for a

current HOLD incident was used when that fact matters to continuation;

• permitted dispatch/startup association and observed runtime/session/context

identities, with separately evidenced parent/resume links and source bounds;

• caller-supplied continuation, when present.

Follow [session associations](../cass/references/SESSION_FORMATS.md#work-to-session-associations)

for those identities. End-state notes cannot replace missing startup evidence.

Do not invent IDs, infer a paused goal from a report saying HOLD, assign a whole

multi-work session to one task, or reset budgets and helper incidents through

compaction. Preserve informative failures and withdrawn claims.

Check source, recipient/model and destination authorization before copying

metadata. An opaque locator grants no access. New CDLC handoffs require the

selected protected external non-Git destination; preserve legacy evidence and

report missing routing without creating a fallback file. Otherwise use the

caller's named location and read it back after writing.

Existing JSON under .agents/handoff/ remains read-only evidence.

ao session handoff writes .agents/ao/handoff/; ao session rehydrate searches

both and selects the newest lexical ID, preferring the canonical directory for

an identical filename. Those commands do not establish startup associations or

external storage authorization. Return the exact path to Markdown consumers.

Writing a handoff changes no tracker, Git, runtime or verdict state. The native

caller continues owning the authorized outcome; this documentation mode does

not select work or decide continuation for it.

Reference menu

Load these only for the document being written. They supply examples and

techniques under the kernel's accepted scope, not additional workflow gates.

• Formats and examples: [generation templates](references/generation-templates.md), [project types](references/project-types.md).
• OSS scope: [documentation tiers](references/oss-documentation-tiers.md), [OSS project types](references/oss-project-types.md).
• Writing and checks: [prose workmanship](references/prose-and-report-workmanship.md), [validation techniques](references/validation-rules.md).
• Explicit context configuration: [context routing](references/bootstrap/context-routing.md).