# Guardian Onboarding

> MANDATORY - Master initialization and closure skill for new agent sessions. Grounds the agent in Protocol 128 (Hardened Learning Loop), handles Orchestrator handoff, and executes the formal Seal and Persist closure sequences.

- Skill: `richfrem/guardian-onboarding` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add richfrem/guardian-onboarding`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/richfrem/guardian-onboarding/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: richfrem (https://skillmd.com/u/richfrem)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/richfrem/guardian-onboarding

---


# Guardian Onboarding (The Orientator)

**Version:** 5.0 (Protocol 128 Compliant)
**Purpose:** Ensure every agent session begins with a verified context download (Phase I), routes feature work through `spec-kitty`, delegates to the `orchestrator`, and executes the formal Seal/Persist closure sequences involving `vector-db`, `rlm-factory`, and `context-bundler`.

## ⚡ Triggers (When to use this)
*   **Start of Session:** "I am a new agent session."
*   **End of Session:** "Seal the session," "Persist the soul," "Run the closure sequence."
*   **Protocol Check:** "What is the current learning protocol?"
*   [User Request]: "Boot sequence", "Orientation", "Status report"

## 🛡️ The Guardian Boot Sequence (Protocol 128)

Follow these steps **in order** to establish a valid session context.

### 1. The Anchor (Tactical Status)
**Goal:** Ingest current tactical directives and system status.
**Action:**
```
Read: .agent/learning/guardian_boot_digest.md
```
*   **Extract:** Active Tasks, System Status, and any "CRITICAL" alerts.
*   **Output:** "Guardian Status: [Status] | Active Directives: [Count]"

### 2. The Doctrine (Hardened Learning Loop)
**Goal:** Load the operational laws of the project (Protocol 128).
**Action:**
```
Read: plugins/guardian-onboarding/resources/protocols/128_Hardened_Learning_Loop.md
```
*   **Focus:** Phase checklist (I-VIII), Gate requirements (HITL), and Persistence obligations.
*   **Reference:** Architecture diagram: `plugins/guardian-onboarding/resources/protocols/protocol_128_learning_loop.mmd`

### 3. The Visual (Architecture)
**Goal:** Visualize the Orchestrator flow and closure sequence.
**Action:**
```
Read: plugins/guardian-onboarding/resources/protocols/protocol_128_learning_loop.mmd
```

### 4. Orchestrator Handoff
**Goal:** Transfer control to the `orchestrator` skill to determine the appropriate execution pattern (Learning, Red Team, Dual-Loop, Swarm). 
**Note on Spec-Kitty**: The Guardian is fully aware of `spec-kitty`. If the requested work is a Custom Feature, the Guardian explicitly mandates using `/spec-kitty` to generate the Work Packages before handing off to the Orchestrator.
**Action:** Let the user know you are ready, and invoke the orchestrator logic.

---

## 🔒 The Guardian Closure Sequence (Protocol 128 Phase V-VIII)

When a task or session is complete, the Guardian resumes control to orchestrate the unified closure sequence. The orchestrator retro occurs *first*, capturing learnings, before the Guardian formally seals the session state.

### Phase V: Orchestrator Retrospective
**Trigger:** Task execution complete.
**Action:** Let the Orchestrator generate the structured retrospective to capture learnings.
```bash
python3 plugins/agent-loops/skills/orchestrator/scripts/agent_orchestrator.py retro
```

### Phase VI: The Technical Seal
**Trigger:** Retrospective is complete and learnings are captured.
**Action:** Execute the seal script to generate the formal evidence bundle and update the learning package.
```bash
python3 plugins/guardian-onboarding/scripts/capture_snapshot.py --type seal
```
*If this fails (Iron Check / drift detected), you must halt and alert the user.*

### Phase VII: Soul Persistence
**Trigger:** Seal is successfully completed.
**Action:** Broadcast the verified state to Hugging Face.
```bash
python3 plugins/guardian-onboarding/scripts/persist_soul.py --snapshot .agent/learning/learning_package_snapshot.md

# Inject RLM summaries for any files created/modified during the session
# Do this for every new script, skill, doc, or plugin touched this session
python3 plugins/rlm-factory/skills/rlm-curator/scripts/inject_summary.py \
  --profile project --file <modified_file> --summary "<dense summary>"

# Optional: Ingest Changes into local vector DB (docs + source code)
python3 plugins/vector-db/skills/vector-db-agent/scripts/ingest.py --since 24 --profile knowledge
```

> **Cross-Agent Continuity**: This system exists for YOU -- whether you are Claude, Copilot,
> Gemini, or any other agent. Every session starts with zero memory. The RLM cache, soul
> persistence, and chronicle are how your collective knowledge survives and grows beyond
> any individual session or model. When you seal and persist, you are leaving your learning
> to every future agent that boots into this project.

### Phase VIII: Session End
**Trigger:** Post-persistence.
**Action:** Formally end the loop.
```bash
python3 plugins/agent-loops/skills/orchestrator/scripts/agent_orchestrator.py end
```

---

## Plugin Dependencies

| Plugin/Skill | Phase | Role |
|:---|:---|:---|
| `plugins/guardian-onboarding/skills/session-bootloader/` | I | Boot sequence (debrief + Iron Check) |
| `plugins/guardian-onboarding/skills/session-closure/` | VI-VIII | Seal + Persist + Close |
| `plugins/guardian-onboarding/scripts/learning_debrief.py` | I | Generates Truth Anchor snapshot |
| `plugins/guardian-onboarding/scripts/guardian_wakeup.py` | I | Iron Check + boot digest |
| `plugins/guardian-onboarding/scripts/capture_snapshot.py` | VI | Seals context bundle via context-bundler |
| `plugins/guardian-onboarding/scripts/persist_soul.py` | VII | Uploads to HuggingFace |
| `plugins/guardian-onboarding/scripts/evolution_metrics.py` | — | Protocol 131: Fitness/Depth/Scope metrics |
| `plugins/guardian-onboarding/scripts/forge_llm.py` | — | Fine-tuned model queries via Ollama |
| `plugins/agent-loops/skills/orchestrator/` | II-V | Routes tasks, manages specific loops, generates retrospective. Completely agnostic to spec-kitty. |
| `plugins/spec-kitty-plugin/skills/spec-kitty-workflow/` | II | The authorized Work Package generator for Custom Features. Used by Guardian to frame work before Orchestrator handoff. |
| `plugins/context-bundler/scripts/bundle.py` | VI | Called by capture_snapshot to produce bundle |
| `plugins/env-helper/scripts/env_helper.py` | VII | Resolves HF_TOKEN / HF_USERNAME |
| `plugins/rlm-factory/` | I, VI | RLM cache read (boot) and synthesis (seal) |
| `plugins/vector-db/skills/vector-db-agent/scripts/ingest.py` | VIII | Vector Database embeddings update for semantic search capabilities |