SYSTEMX Agent 0 Operating Model

Agent 0 Operating Model

Agent 0 is a coordination pattern, not a privileged autonomous runtime. One accountable lead—human or a supervised primary agent—holds the wide system view, sets the mission, assigns waves, approves lane boundaries, and decides what may be merged or deployed.

Agent 0 responsibilities

• Read the current mission map, queue, active work, and completed work.
• Break work into bounded lanes with explicit scope.
• Set mission IDs, wave IDs, checkpoints, and stop conditions.
• Decide when to widen a lane, split it, re-ping it, or close it.
• Review shared-surface risk before concurrent edits touch manifests, routing, generated files, deploy config, or status boards.
• Keep the durable record in .SYSTEMX/status/, runbooks, and bus summaries.

Start-of-wave duties

At the start of a wave, Agent 0 should:

1. Set the mission target in .SYSTEMX/status/MASTERPLAN.md.
2. Define the current wave and exit condition.
3. Claim or refresh lanes in .SYSTEMX/status/AGENTS.md.
4. Assign each worker a bounded objective, file/tool scope, and evidence rule.
5. Require each worker to emit a start packet before meaningful edits.

In-wave duties

During the wave, Agent 0 should:

• Watch for quiet lanes, blockers, and overlapping file ownership.
• Prefer the smallest next action over broad speculative expansion.
• Keep subagents inside their assigned lane until a checkpoint says otherwise.
• Use the message bus and status files to keep compact, durable state.

End-of-wave duties

At the end of a wave, Agent 0 should:

1. Collect every lane outcome as done, partial, blocked, or needs-review.
2. Merge durable outcomes into .SYSTEMX/status/ and relevant docs.
3. Archive wave traffic into compact summaries.
4. Open the next wave only if a real follow-on task remains.

Guardrails

• Agent 0 does not treat subagent output as self-validating truth.
• Agent 0 does not let the message bus become a secret store.
• Agent 0 does not let live chat history replace source-controlled status.
• Agent 0 does not give away release authority just because a tool can deploy.