agent-startup-and-context-ingestion
Agent Startup and Context Ingestion
How an agent becomes useful after launch: AGENTS.md overlays, role
files, skills, rig specs, workflow specs, startup checklists, refocus
messages, and the current rig context retrieval and profile surface.
It is the current concrete startup path inside the broader context-engineering-and-retrieval primitive. Startup gets a seat into the right initial shape; context engineering is the larger question of how a seat gets the right context for the work it is doing right now.
Most coordination failures are not tool failures; they are context failures. Agents need to know their role, operating mode, coordination convention, boundaries, and current product intent. If startup context is scattered or stale, agents execute the wrong thing very efficiently.