Environment baseline

Synced from community-profiles/docs/environment.md. The repository is the source of truth.

The environment agent is a base profile for agents that need a stable repository convention. It inherits environment.repo-auth and environment.repos. A consumer can inherit environment to receive both repository location and authentication guidance.

---
name: software-development
description: Agent for implementation work.
inherits: [environment]
---

The effective resource set resolves each agent slug across layers. A higher precedence layer can replace agents/environment.repo-auth/agent.md with the same name: environment.repo-auth and select another approved Git transport. This override avoids separate authentication variants in this catalog.

The catalog’s default environment.repo-auth resource uses HTTPS and a GitHub CLI-managed token. An environment that uses SSH can replace that resource with this compact shape and keep the same slug:

---
name: environment.repo-auth
description: Repository authentication convention for SSH environments.
---

# Repository authentication

- Git transport MUST use `git@github.com:<owner>/<repo-name>.git`.
- GitHub CLI authentication MUST remain available for API operations.
- Private keys and credentials MUST NOT appear in files, prompts, arguments, or logs.

The baseline contains no credentials or consumer-specific values. Keep project instructions in the repository’s AGENTS.md; do not copy this environment policy into that project-owned file.

Profile taxonomy

A profile is either a runnable agent or an abstract composable.

An abstract profile declares abstract: true. It exists to be inherited and MUST NOT be run directly or named as default_agent. The abstract environment profiles are environment, environment.repos, environment.repo-auth, environment.agent-operator-pod, environment.actions-runner, and environment.container-readonly. The git-forge-delegator profile is an abstract practice. All other profiles are runnable.

Two kinds of abstract profile compose differently:

• An environment describes where an agent runs and the tool policy that runtime enforces. An agent takes one runtime environment.
• A practice describes how an agent works, independent of where. An agent MAY take several.

abstract: true is metadata that older Outfitter releases ignore because the agent schema accepts additional properties. A future Outfitter release can use the field to reject an abstract run target or default_agent.

Environment-specific profiles use the environment.* namespace. The base composition profile keeps the short environment slug.

Role family

The catalog provides five independent role profiles: founder, planner, engineer, researcher, and explorer. Their profile files define their responsibilities.

A project MAY document that the planner reports to the founder. A project MAY also document that the engineer, researcher, and explorer report to the planner. These reporting lines are documentation only. They do not change profile resolution or runtime authority. See Scaling by composition for the delegation model and the growth path.

Inheritance represents capability composition only. Inheritance MUST NOT represent an organization chart. The role profiles do not inherit other role profiles. The engineer inherits environment for repository conventions. The explorer inherits environment.container-readonly. The researcher does not select a runtime environment. A caller MAY compose a suitable environment with the researcher at deployment time.

Kubernetes residents

The environment.agent-operator-pod profile extends the baseline for Kubernetes residents. It inherits environment, which supplies the repository and authentication rules. The profile also supplies the pod runtime context: namespace scope, persistent workspace, durable task re-offers, resource limits, the Chrome sidecar, and operator-provisioned credentials:

---
name: resident
inherits: [environment.agent-operator-pod]
---

An organization catalog MAY vendor agents/environment.agent-operator-pod/, agents/environment/, and agents/environment.repo-auth/ when its runtime cannot layer this catalog directly. The same-slug override rule still applies. An organization can replace environment.repo-auth to select another forge or transport. Remove the vendored copies when the runtime supports direct catalog layers.

Ephemeral CI runners

The environment.actions-runner profile is for agents that ai-outfitter/actions launches on a GitHub or Forgejo runner. It does not inherit environment. The repository already exists in the working directory, so the workstation ~/repos layout does not apply. The profile states the runner limits and result channels. The actions-agent profile inherits it. A GitHub-specific child MAY inherit environment.repo-auth.

Confined read-only exploration

The environment.container-readonly profile is for work in a locked-down container. It denies bash, write, and edit. Inherited deny lists combine, so a child profile cannot restore these tools. The intended runtime has a read-only workspace, a writable /tmp, and only the required network access.

The explorer profile inherits environment.container-readonly. The researcher profile does not inherit it and does not define a read-only tool allow list. A researcher can write durable research notes, persona documents, and review reports. Use the explorer when a task MUST only inspect data.

The git-forge-delegator complements the planner on mature projects. It turns approved intent into forge issues with mechanical acceptance criteria. It dispatches work by agent:<slug> label or assignment. It reviews the pull requests that agents return. The forge is the delegation ledger.