# Agency Framework

kaizen-agentic is not just a library of agent instruction sets — it is an **agency**: a system where agents are deployed into projects with their own persistent memory, learn from experience, and are guided by a coaching meta-agent that distils patterns across the entire fleet.

## Overview

When you deploy a kaizen-agentic agent into a project, it can accumulate **project-scoped memory** — a structured file written at session close and read at session start. A **Coach** meta-agent reads across all agent memories and produces orientation briefs for newly deployed agents: what has been tried, what worked, what to watch out for.

Agents arrive in a project informed, not blank.

---

## Project Memory

### Location Convention

```
<project-root>/.kaizen/agents/<agent-name>/memory.md
```

The `.kaizen/` directory is analogous to `.claude/` — a project-level configuration and state directory owned by the kaizen-agentic ecosystem.

### Memory File Structure

```markdown
---
agent: <name>
project: <project-root or slug>
last_updated: <ISO date>
session_count: <n>
---

## Project Context
<!-- What this agent knows about the project it is working in -->

## Accumulated Findings
<!-- Patterns, recurring issues, key decisions the agent has encountered -->

## What Worked
<!-- Approaches that produced good results in this project -->

## Watch Points
<!-- Recurring risks, traps, or areas requiring extra care -->

## Open Threads
<!-- Things noticed but not yet acted on -->

## Session Log
<!-- One-line entry per session: date · summary · outcome -->
```

### Session Protocols

**Session-start (all agents with `memory: enabled`):**

1. Check for `.kaizen/agents/<name>/memory.md` in the project root.
2. If present, read it before beginning work.
3. Acknowledge the memory in the opening brief.

**Session-close (all agents with `memory: enabled`):**

1. Update `## Accumulated Findings`, `## What Worked`, `## Watch Points` as appropriate.
2. Append one line to `## Session Log`: `YYYY-MM-DD · <summary> · <outcome>`.
3. Bump `last_updated` and `session_count`.

---

## Agent YAML Frontmatter

Each agent definition (`agents/agent-<name>.md`) includes a YAML frontmatter block:

```yaml
---
name: <name>
description: <one-line description>
category: <category>
memory: enabled   # or: disabled
---
```

The `memory` field defaults to `enabled`. Set `memory: disabled` for agents that are stateless by design (e.g. `wisdom-encouragement`).

---

## The Coach Meta-Agent

`agents/agent-coach.md` is a **meta-agent** — it performs no domain work (coding, testing, infrastructure). Its sole purpose is synthesis and advice.

### What the Coach Does

- **Cross-agent synthesis**: reads all `.kaizen/agents/*/memory.md` files, identifies shared patterns, cross-domain risks, and contradictions
- **New-agent orientation**: when briefing a specific agent, filters all existing memories for what is relevant and produces a targeted brief
- **Fleet health overview**: summarises which agents are active, stale, or missing; flags high-session-count agents with open threads

### Invoking the Coach

**Via CLI (assembles raw memory context):**

```bash
kaizen-agentic memory brief <agent-name>
```

This prints a structured orientation brief. Pass the output to a Claude session with `agents/agent-coach.md` loaded for full LLM synthesis.

**Directly in a Claude session:**

```
Coach, brief the sys-medic agent on this project.
Coach, what patterns have you observed across all agents?
```

The Coach maintains its own memory at `.kaizen/agents/coach/memory.md` covering fleet-level observations over time.

---

## CLI Reference

The `memory` command group manages project-scoped agent memory:

```
kaizen-agentic memory show <agent>      # Print agent memory for the current project
kaizen-agentic memory init <agent>      # Scaffold an empty memory file
kaizen-agentic memory brief <agent>     # Assemble orientation context for the coach
kaizen-agentic memory clear <agent>     # Wipe memory (with confirmation prompt)
```

### Options

`memory brief` accepts:
- `--target / -t` — project root (default: current directory)
- `--raw` — dump raw memory file contents without the structured header

### Example Workflow

```bash
# First deployment of sys-medic into a project
kaizen-agentic memory init sys-medic

# After a few sessions, brief an incoming tdd-workflow agent
kaizen-agentic memory brief tdd-workflow
# → paste output into Claude with agent-coach.md loaded

# Review accumulated memory for a specific agent
kaizen-agentic memory show project-management
```

---

## Protocol Runbooks

Agents can reference **protocol runbooks** — structured, human-readable procedural checklists for structured assessments or remediation work. Protocols are distinct from agent prompts:

- **Agent prompts** (`agents/agent-*.md`) shape AI behaviour
- **Protocols** (`agents/protocols/<agent>/<slug>.md`) are procedural documents for humans and agents to execute

### Location Convention

```
agents/protocols/
  <agent-name>/
    <slug>.md    ← one file per protocol
```

### Protocol Frontmatter

Each protocol file has a YAML frontmatter block:

```yaml
---
agent: <agent-name>
slug: <slug>
title: <human-readable title>
version: 1.0.0
last_updated: "<ISO date>"
---
```

### Referencing Protocols from Agents

Agents with `memory: enabled` check for relevant protocols at session start and reference them in their session-start protocol block. For example, sys-medic's session-start protocol instructs:

> *"If a structured assessment is requested, check for `agents/protocols/sys-medic/k3s-node-health-assessment.md` and use it as your procedure."*

### CLI Reference

```bash
kaizen-agentic protocols list                        # List all protocols
kaizen-agentic protocols list sys-medic              # Filter by agent
kaizen-agentic protocols show sys-medic k3s-node-health-assessment
```

### sys-medic Memory and Protocols Integration

sys-medic extends the base memory template with three additional sections for operational continuity across sessions:

```markdown
## Node Profiles
<!-- Per-node operational baseline established over sessions -->
<!-- hostname | typical load | known quirks | last assessment date -->

## Recurring Findings
<!-- Issues seen more than once: pattern · first seen · frequency -->

## Cleared Issues
<!-- Issues that were resolved: what was done · when · outcome -->
```

These sections are maintained automatically by the sys-medic session-close protocol.

The **k3s Node Health Assessment** (`agents/protocols/sys-medic/k3s-node-health-assessment.md`) is the first protocol runbook — a step-by-step procedure covering OS baseline, process hygiene, memory, CPU, disk, network, Kubernetes node state, and k3s runtime health.

### Available Protocols

| Agent | Protocol | Description |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| sys-medic | [k3s-node-health-assessment](../agents/protocols/sys-medic/k3s-node-health-assessment.md) | Structured k3s node health check |

See [ADR-003: Protocols Artifact Convention](adr/ADR-003-protocols-artifact-convention.md) for the full specification.

---

## Agents with Memory Enabled

All agents that do session-bound project work have `memory: enabled` in their frontmatter and include session-start/session-close protocol blocks:

| Agent | Category | Notes |
|-------|----------|-------|
| project-management | process | Reference implementation of the session protocol pattern |
| tdd-workflow | testing | |
| requirements-engineering | process | |
| scope-analyst | process | |
| sys-medic | infrastructure | Extended memory template (node profiles, recurring findings) |
| coach | meta | Fleet-level memory |

---

## Project Metrics

Project-scoped **quantitative** metrics complement qualitative memory (ADR-002).
Per-execution records live under `.kaizen/metrics/<agent>/` and feed the
kaizen optimizer loop.

### Location

```
<project-root>/.kaizen/metrics/<agent-name>/
  executions.jsonl
  summary.json

<project-root>/.kaizen/metrics/optimizer/
  analysis.json
  recommendations.jsonl
```

### CLI (WP-0003)

```
kaizen-agentic metrics record <agent>   # Append execution record at session close
kaizen-agentic metrics show <agent>     # Summary + recent executions
kaizen-agentic metrics list             # Agents with metrics in project
kaizen-agentic metrics export <agent>   # Dump executions.jsonl
kaizen-agentic metrics optimize [agent] # Run optimizer on project metrics (≥10 records)
```

`memory brief` includes a `## Performance Summary` when metrics exist (WP-0003
Part 4).

`memory init` scaffolds `.kaizen/metrics/<agent>/` by default (`--no-metrics` to
skip). Record outcomes at session close per
[session-close protocol template](templates/session-close-protocol.md).

### Fleet correlation

Project metrics correlate with **Helix Forge** fleet session metrics in
`agentic-resources` via optional `helix_session_uid` (ADR-004). See
[wiki/EcosystemIntegration.md](../wiki/EcosystemIntegration.md).

### Evidence retention

Optimizer outputs may be published to `artifact-store` (WP-0004 Part 3).

---

## Related Documents

- [ADR-001: Workplan Convention](adr/ADR-001-workplan-convention.md)
- [ADR-002: Project Memory Convention](adr/ADR-002-project-memory-convention.md)
- [ADR-003: Protocols Artifact Convention](adr/ADR-003-protocols-artifact-convention.md)
- [ADR-004: Project Metrics Convention](adr/ADR-004-project-metrics-convention.md)
- [wiki/EcosystemIntegration.md](../wiki/EcosystemIntegration.md) — two-layer measurement model
- [WP-0002: Agency Framework](../workplans/kaizen-agentic-WP-0002-agency-framework.md)
- [WP-0003: Measurement Loop](../workplans/kaizen-agentic-WP-0003-measurement-loop.md)
- [WP-0004: Ecosystem Integration](../workplans/kaizen-agentic-WP-0004-ecosystem-integration.md)