email-connect/AGENTS.md

# email-connect — Agent Instructions

## Repo Identity

**Purpose:** Headless, provider-neutral email communication and evidence service
for sending, tracking, diagnosing, and normalizing email-channel events without
overclaiming delivery, awareness, or result satisfaction.

**Domain:** custodian
**Repo slug:** email-connect
**Topic ID:** `cee7bedf-2b48-46ef-8601-006474f2ad7a`
**Workplan prefix:** `EMAIL-WP-`

---

## Repo Orientation

This repository is currently in planning/specification shape. Treat
`INTENT.md` as the canonical product intent and
`spec/ProductRequirementsDocument.md` as the detailed requirements source until
implementation architecture is added.

Preserve the core principle: email events are evidence, not result
satisfaction. Provider acceptance, MX acceptance, inbox placement, opens,
clicks, replies, complaints, suppressions, and bounces must remain distinct.
Do not collapse them into "delivered", "read", "accepted", or any similar
business conclusion.

Keep the product provider-neutral and adapter-friendly. It should be useful as
a standalone email communication/evidence service and as the reference
`coordination-engine` adapter. It should not drift into newsletter campaign
management, broad marketing automation, or legal/business outcome adjudication.

There is no runtime stack committed yet. Any stack, API, storage, or provider
choice should be introduced through a workplan and anchored in the current
intent/PRD.

---

## State Hub Integration

The Custodian State Hub tracks work across all domains. Interact via HTTP REST —
there is no MCP server for Codex agents.

| Context | URL |
|---------|-----|
| Local workstation | `http://127.0.0.1:8000` |
| Remote via tunnel | `http://127.0.0.1:18000` |

### Orient at session start

```bash
# Offline brief, when present
test -f .custodian-brief.md && cat .custodian-brief.md

# Active workstreams for this domain
curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:8000/workstreams/?topic_id=cee7bedf-2b48-46ef-8601-006474f2ad7a&status=active" \
  | python3 -m json.tool

# Check inbox
curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:8000/messages/?to_agent=email-connect&unread_only=true" \
  | python3 -m json.tool
```

Mark a message read:
```bash
curl -s -X PATCH "http://127.0.0.1:8000/messages/<id>/read" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{}'
```

### Log progress (required at session close)

```bash
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/progress/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "summary": "what was done",
    "event_type": "note",
    "author": "codex",
    "workstream_id": "<uuid>",
    "task_id": "<uuid>"
  }'
```

Omit `workstream_id` / `task_id` when not applicable.

### Update task status

```bash
curl -s -X PATCH "http://127.0.0.1:8000/tasks/<task_id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"status": "progress"}'
# values: wait | todo | progress | done | cancel
```

### Flag a task for human review

```bash
curl -s -X PATCH "http://127.0.0.1:8000/tasks/<task_id>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"needs_human": true, "intervention_note": "reason"}'
```

---

## Session Protocol

**Start:**
1. `test -f .custodian-brief.md && cat .custodian-brief.md` — domain goal and open workstreams, when present
2. Check inbox: `GET /messages/?to_agent=email-connect&unread_only=true`; mark read
3. Scan workplans: `ls workplans/` — note `status: ready`, `active`, or `blocked` files and open tasks
4. Check human-needed tasks: `GET /tasks/?needs_human=true`

**During work:**
- Update task statuses in workplan files as tasks progress
- Record significant decisions via `POST /decisions/`

**Close:**
1. Update workplan file task statuses to reflect progress
2. Log: `POST /progress/` with a summary of what changed
3. Note for the custodian operator: after workplan file changes, run from
   `~/state-hub`:
   ```bash
   make fix-consistency REPO=email-connect
   ```
   This syncs task status from files into the hub DB.

---

## Credential and access routing

**Audience:** Codex, Claude Code, Grok, and custodian agents that call **llm-connect**
for inference. Run this check **before** requesting secrets, API keys, SSH access,
login tokens, or database passwords — in any repo, not only `ops-warden`.

ops-warden **issues SSH certificates only** (`warden sign`, `cert_command`). Every
other credential need belongs to another subsystem. **Do not** message
`ops-warden` on State Hub expecting a secret value; the reply is a pointer, not a key.

### Lookup (do this first)

```bash
warden route find "<describe your need>" --json
warden route show <catalog-id> --json
```

Requires the `warden` CLI from `~/ops-warden` (`uv tool install .` or `uv run warden`).

| Agent runtime | How to orient |
| --- | --- |
| **Codex / Grok** (shell, HTTP State Hub) | `warden route` commands above; inbox `to_agent=email-connect` is for coordination, not secret vending |
| **Claude Code** (MCP when available) | `get_domain_summary("custodian")` for workstreams; **still** use `warden route` for credential ownership |
| **llm-connect** (inference service) | Never put secret retrieval in prompts; route custody to OpenBao/operator paths surfaced by `warden route` |

### Quick routing table

| I need… | Owner | ops-warden executes? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SSH cert (`adm`/`agt`/`atm`) | ops-warden | **Yes** — `warden sign` |
| API key, DB password, provider token | OpenBao (`railiance-platform`) | No — route only |
| Login / OIDC / MFA | key-cape / Keycloak | No — route only |
| Authorization decision | flex-auth | No — route only |
| activity-core → issue-core emission | activity-core + issue-core | No — `warden route show activity-core-issue-sink` |
| SSH tunnel | ops-bridge (+ `cert_command` from warden) | No — route only |

### Anti-patterns (do not do these)

- `POST /messages/` to `ops-warden` asking for `ISSUE_CORE_API_KEY`, `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`, etc.
- Inventing `warden secret`, `warden login`, `warden bao`, `warden tunnel` — they do not exist
- Pasting secrets into Git, State Hub, workplans, logs, or chat

### Other capabilities (reuse-surface)

Non-credential capabilities are usually discovered through **reuse-surface** federation
(`reuse-surface` registry / `capability.*` indexes). Credential routing is inlined in
every repo's agent instructions because it is high-frequency, high-risk, and easy to
get wrong.

**Canon:** `~/ops-warden/wiki/CredentialRouting.md` · catalog `~/ops-warden/registry/routing/catalog.yaml`
---

## Workplan Convention (ADR-001)

Work items originate as files in this repo — not in the hub. The hub is a
read/cache/index layer that rebuilds from files.

**File location:** `workplans/EMAIL-WP-NNNN-<slug>.md`

**Archived location:** finished workplans may move to
`workplans/archived/YYMMDD-EMAIL-WP-NNNN-<slug>.md`. The `YYMMDD` prefix is
the completion/archive date; the frontmatter `id` does not change.

**Ad Hoc Tasks:** small opportunistic fixes discovered during a session use
`workplans/ADHOC-YYYY-MM-DD.md` with task ids `ADHOC-YYYY-MM-DD-T01`, etc. Use
this only for low-risk work completed directly; create a normal workplan for
anything needing analysis, design, approval, dependencies, or multiple phases.

**Frontmatter:**

```yaml
---
id: EMAIL-WP-NNNN
type: workplan
title: "..."
domain: custodian
repo: email-connect
status: proposed | ready | active | blocked | backlog | finished | archived
owner: codex
topic_slug: ...
created: "YYYY-MM-DD"
updated: "YYYY-MM-DD"
state_hub_workstream_id: "<uuid>"   # written by fix-consistency — do not edit
---
```

Use `proposed` for a new draft, `ready` after review against current repo
state, and `finished` after implementation. `stalled` and `needs_review` are
derived health labels, not frontmatter statuses.

**Task block format** (one per `##` section):

```
## Task Title

` ` `task
id: EMAIL-WP-NNNN-T01
status: wait | todo | progress | done | cancel
priority: high | medium | low
state_hub_task_id: "<uuid>"         # written by fix-consistency — do not edit
` ` `

Task description text.
```

Status progression: `todo` → `progress` → `done`; use `wait` for waiting/blocked work and `cancel` for stopped work.

To create a new workplan:
1. Write the file following the format above
2. Notify the custodian operator to run `make fix-consistency REPO=email-connect`
   (or send a message to the hub agent via `POST /messages/`)