Ntm

Scope: this skill is AgentOps operating doctrine for NTM. The binary is self-describing — for command syntax, flags, schemas, and examples use ntm --robot-docs=quickstart|commands|examples|exit-codes, ntm --robot-capabilities, ntm --robot-schema=all, or ntm --help. Never trust this file (or any notes) over the live contract. For tending loops, marching orders, unstick ladders, and swarm cadence, use the companion vibing-with-ntm skill.

NTM — Named Tmux Manager

The One Rule: Discover the live NTM contract first, then use the least interactive surface that can prove and execute the action. No --robot-capabilities / --robot-snapshot evidence -> no automation assumption.

The most common NTM mistake is treating it like a tmux macro runner. NTM is a control plane: robot API, attention feed, work graph, locks/mail, pipelines, safety, approvals, serve API, and durability all have explicit contracts. Use the contract.

Outcome — When an NTM Action Has Delivered

A state-changing NTM action is complete only when all of the following hold:

• The intended state transition is visible in ntm --robot-snapshot — not just acknowledged by the command's exit code. (NTM commands can succeed at the API layer while panes/work/locks remain unchanged; trust the snapshot, not the return value.)
• The attention feed (--robot-attention / --robot-tail) shows the expected event(s) — pane output, work-graph movement, lock acquire/release, mail delivery. Absence is evidence of failure.
• Adjacent state (git, br/beads, mail, pipelines) reflects the action's downstream effects within one observation window — otherwise the action fired in isolation and likely didn't accomplish its real purpose.
• Locks and pipelines you opened are either released / completed by you, or explicitly handed off via mail with a thread the next operator can claim. Orphaned locks block the swarm.
• For dispatched marching orders: the targeted pane has acknowledged (printed the order, started the work, or replied via mail). A sent-but-not-acknowledged order is not "done."

If the snapshot or attention feed disagrees with what the command said happened, trust the snapshot and re-discover the contract — the local model of NTM is stale.

Cold Start: Which NTM Skill?

For any state-changing action, verify the live contract with ntm --robot-capabilities before executing.

The Loop (Mandatory)

1. DISCOVER   -> ntm --robot-capabilities; ntm --robot-tools; repo AGENTS.md/README.md
2. SNAPSHOT   -> ntm --robot-snapshot; inspect sources/degraded_sources, cursor, sessions, panes
3. SELECT     -> choose the smallest surface: work/assign/send/wait/pipeline/locks/mail
4. PROVE      -> fill the NTM action card: target, contract, safety, ownership, rollback
5. EXECUTE    -> prefer --robot-* for automation; avoid human-only TUIs
6. VERIFY     -> attention/events/causality/tail plus git/br/mail evidence changed as expected
7. CLEANUP    -> release/renew locks, checkpoint/handoff, prune old pipeline state when appropriate
8. REPEAT     -> re-snapshot on cursor expiry or after any state-changing action

NTM Action Card

For every state-changing NTM action, be able to answer this before running it:

## NTM action: <command>
- Target session/project: <name/path>; resolved by: `ntm config get projects_base` / `ntm quick` / snapshot
- Live contract checked: `ntm --robot-capabilities` contains <flag>; schema/docs checked if unfamiliar
- Evidence before: cursor=<N>; sources=<fresh/degraded>; panes=<count>; locks=<summary>
- Ownership/safety: Agent Mail reservation or worktree policy is clear; user pane inclusion is intentional
- Blast radius: panes/files/sessions affected; destructive/safety/policy approvals required? <yes/no>
- Verification after: <robot event / tail movement / bead state / git change / pipeline status>
- Recovery: <smart restart / interrupt / checkpoint restore / cancel pipeline / handoff>

If you cannot fill the card, do a read-only discovery pass first.

Surface Selection

Score candidate surfaces when several could work:

Score = (ContractFit x Observability x Reversibility) / BlastRadius

ContractFit    1-5: exact robot/schema match beats human help text
Observability  1-5: action emits cursor/event/status/causality evidence
Reversibility  1-5: easy cancel/retry/restore/checkpoint
BlastRadius    1-5: one pane/file is low; whole session/process tree is high

Pick the highest score. In ties, prefer the surface that produces structured output. Enumerate candidates from ntm --robot-docs=commands, not from memory. Standing preferences:

• --robot-* for anything machine-driven; ntm dashboard / ntm palette / ntm view are human-only TUIs.
• --robot-format=toon (or NTM_ROBOT_FORMAT=toon) and --robot-verbosity=terse when context is tight.
• Recovery order: diagnose -> probe / is-working -> smart-restart -> explicit restart. Never kill before a liveness proof.
• Event-driven tending (--robot-wait / --robot-attention) over fixed sleep/poll loops.

Pattern Tiers

Escalate only with the action card filled; each tier raises the proof bar:

1. Tier 1 — safe read-only (capabilities/schema, snapshot, events/digest/attention, work triage/queue-dry, locks list/check). Always permitted; proof = fresh sources / degraded_sources reviewed, cursor advancing, no conflicting reservation.
2. Tier 2 — reversible control (directed send, interrupt, smart-restart, assign, pipeline cancel/resume). Guard = explicit pane/type scoping, tail/liveness evidence that intervention is warranted, run id and state confirmed.
3. Tier 3 — durable orchestration (pipelines, Agent Mail locks, checkpoint/handoff, serve API, safety/policy/approvals). Guard = dry-run first, lease/thread/run ids captured, auth and exposure understood, exit/recovery path named.

Anti-Patterns (Never Do)

Pre-Flight Checklist

• Repo AGENTS.md / README read when operating inside a codebase (repo-local rules override this skill).
• ntm --robot-capabilities checked for any unfamiliar flag.
• ntm --robot-snapshot captured and sources / degraded_sources reviewed.
• Session/project resolution verified; labels and projects_base make sense.
• User pane inclusion/exclusion is explicit.
• File ownership is clear: Agent Mail reservation, bead assignee, or approved worktree policy.
• For pipelines: dry-run passed; run id/state file plan known.
• For recovery: liveness truth stack supports intervention.
• For destructive/risky actions: safety/policy/approval surfaces checked.
• Post-action verifier named before execution.

Output

NTM actions produce no skill-owned files. The deliverable is verified state plus evidence:

• Structured robot output (JSON or TOON) on stdout from --robot-* commands, cited in your report.
• The post-action proof named in the action card: snapshot/attention movement, bead/git/mail change, pipeline status.
• When the surrounding arc requires durable evidence, write it to the repo's evidence path (e.g. an Evidence: file under .agents/ or the path the bead names) — not into this skill.

Operating Notes (doctrine-critical facts)

• Project resolution is the #1 cross-tool breakage: session name MUST equal the directory basename under projects_base (NTM_PROJECTS_BASE), or agent-mail/beads/reservations register under a different key than NTM sees. If tools "see different projects," fix this first.
• Coordination default: Agent Mail reservations are the primary primitive; --worktrees isolation is allowed when repo policy permits. If mail/reservations are degraded, record it and use bead assignee/status as the soft lock — no retry loops.
• Cross-machine continuity is checkpoint export/import or handoff bundles — never shipped cursors.
• Safety surfaces are first-class: use ntm safety / ntm policy / ntm approve (approve takes a token, not a bead id) instead of ad hoc shell habits; obey repo rules that route builds through rch or similar.
• The full distilled trip-wire list (CASS dedup blocking sends, -- label separator, send-vs-spawn flag parsers, attention flag namespacing, PATH precedence for safety wrappers, and more) lives in TROUBLESHOOTING.md.

Reference Index

Keep depth out of this file. The binary's own docs (ntm --robot-docs=...) are the first stop for syntax; load these for operator-handbook detail:

Assets

Drop-in examples live under assets/:

• pipeline-example.yaml — a review pipeline with parallel step + retry
• policy-example.yaml — opinionated ~/.ntm/policy.yaml starter
• envrc.example — recommended direnv/shell env vars

Related Skills

• vibing-with-ntm — the companion operator / orchestration skill: tending loops, marching-orders prompts, autonomous unstick recipes, steady-state cadence. Use it whenever the question is "how do I run the swarm well?" rather than "what does NTM do?"
• agent-mail for inboxes, contact handshakes, and file reservations
• br for bead state changes and syncing
• bv for graph-aware task prioritization
• cass for prior-session retrieval
• caam for account rotation across providers (paired with --robot-switch-account)
• dcg, slb for destructive-command and two-person approval policy