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Night Watch Adding Roles

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Cindy Zhang edited this page Jun 23, 2026 · 1 revision

Night Watch — Adding a New Role

How to define and onboard a new Night Watch role.

Prerequisites

  • The role must have a clear, non-overlapping scope. Check Night Watch Roles to ensure it doesn't duplicate an existing role.
  • A specific Navi must be assigned. Roles are tied to a person's Navi, not shared.

Steps

1. Define the Role

Create a new wiki page following the naming convention Night-Watch-{RoleName}.md. Include:

  • Assigned to: Which Navi (and their human's GitHub username)
  • Goal: One sentence describing the role's purpose
  • Scope: What this role does (bullet list)
  • Does NOT do: What this role explicitly avoids (prevents overlap)
  • Hourly Checklist: Step-by-step instructions the Navi follows each run
  • State: JSON schema for tracking what's been done

2. Update the Roles Page

Add the new role to the table in Night Watch Roles:

| **{RoleName}** | {Person}'s Navi (`{github_username}`) | {One-line goal} |

Add a details section with Scope / Does NOT do / link to full instructions.

3. Update the Home Page

Add a link to the new role page in Home under the Night Watch section.

4. Set Up the Cron Job

The Navi assigned to the role needs a scheduled job. The cron message should:

  1. Reference the wiki page for instructions
  2. Include the business hours guard
  3. Specify the role name so the Navi knows which checklist to run

Example cron message:

Run Night Watch — {RoleName} role. Read `wiki/Night-Watch-{RoleName}.md` in the Astryx repo (node: xds) for the full procedure. Check if we're in business hours first (9am-5pm PST on weekdays = skip). If not business hours, run the full checklist. Track state in `memory/xds-night-watch-state.json` and log results to `memory/xds-night-watch/{date}.md`.

5. Verify No Overlap

Before activating, confirm:

  • No other role covers the same actions
  • The "Does NOT do" list explicitly excludes other roles' responsibilities
  • State tracking won't conflict with other roles' state files
  • The Navi assigned understands their scope

Role Design Principles

  • One responsibility per role. If a role does two distinct things, consider splitting it.
  • Roles reflect human interests. The Navi's role should mirror what their human cares about in the repo.
  • Objective over subjective. Night Watch roles should focus on things that can be evaluated mechanically. Save subjective judgment for daytime human review.
  • Additive, not subtractive. Adding a role should never reduce what another role does — it should cover net-new ground.

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