OpenRig Software Factory

Start with a useful repository outcome and add coordination when it earns its cost. A beginner can complete reviewed work without Workflow. These are choices using existing capabilities, not stages everyone must graduate through.

Choose how the team works

Need	Start here	Add more when…
One change, close human guidance	Manual/team work: give an owner the outcome, use repository instructions, implement and obtain the chosen independent check.	Work must survive turns or move between seats.
Continuing work with visible ownership	Queue-supported orchestration: use rig queue create, claim work, then rig queue handoff with the candidate/evidence to the next owner. Record real blockers and the continuation. No Workflow instance is needed.	Repeated steps need an explicit dependency graph and permitted exits.
An explicit execution contract	Workflow: inspect rig workflow compile, then deliberately use rig workflow instantiate-lifecycle. Advance its packets through the workflow projection mechanism.	The actual project needs reusable profiles, additional roles or gates.

For the concrete queue loop, wake behavior and optional two-slice Workflow, read references/worked-example.md. Installed copy: rig context get skills/core/openrig-software-factory/references/worked-example.md. A roadmap, YAML file or wake does not execute work or authorize a new outcome.

Choose the first team and its providers

Ask what the user wants to build and which working account(s) they have: Claude Code, Codex, or both. Recommend one of three teams: starter (a Claude builder and a Codex reviewer, for one bounded change), workshop (a lead, a builder, QA and a reviewer; a rig bundle installed from its pinned listing) or factory (seven agents for sustained product work). When the user lacks a provider a team needs, write an adapted copy of the team under the same name, as the kernel operator's guidance describes; never offer per-provider variants. first-project is starter's old name. Check only the CLIs/logins the team needs; request claude auth login or codex login once when that selected login is missing. No credential copying, unused provider prerequisite or silent model/provider fallback.

Read the compatible getting-started guide's Choose your providers and Start the kernel and check its state sections before launch. The choice selects the two project agents. Kernel auto-boot independently uses available authenticated accounts, so it may use both even when the project uses one. Do not add an unused-provider login gate or manual kernel setup to this path. An instance-wide provider restriction is a separate request. Preserve an existing kernel and working user rigs.

Show the chosen team, resolved runtimes/models and exact rig up <team> --cwd . --plan / rig up <team> --cwd . commands. Codex seats retain gpt-6-astra; Claude seats use the configured native default without an OpenRig model override. Confirm that model with the user and its availability; verify the native session's actual model before consequential work. Use the chosen rig name in owner/checker addresses (in the starter, dev-build@<rig> and dev-review@<rig>) throughout the same task and return.

Establish the working agreement

Read the repository instructions, current work and desired user-visible result. Verify the intended instance, code/work roots, real seat addresses and native readiness. Reuse a suitable small team; an existing agent can bootstrap it. A kernel operator is optional and is not automatically the project owner.

Agree the work boundary, time/spend limit, who answers unresolved choices, and when to stop: checked result, no authorized next work, exhausted budget, or a real user/permission/provider blocker. Background daemon checks are not themselves model turns, but delivered wakes and resumed work can spend tokens. Prefer an event-driven wait to frequent empty reminders. Wakes cannot answer a user question, clear a permission prompt or guarantee progress.

Ask once before launching or assigning work. For a team with no permission policy, seat choice or named Codex profile, recommend keeping the team default: Claude team seats run ordinary rig commands, project reads and common tests without prompts, and lifecycle commands such as rig up and rig down still ask. Only if they want more, offer: “Remember these selected OpenRig commands in your native settings for this project?” Yes / No — keep the team default. Reuse an existing explicit choice for this scope. Explain that a remembered allowance can cover all rig verbs, but Claude team seats still ask before lifecycle commands, at personal project scope unless the user explicitly chooses user-wide sessions. It is not global YOLO or permission to invent work. On an actual Yes, follow Applying a permission policy to add existing native rules, preserve stricter/unrelated settings, and verify the target conversation. No or no answer leaves settings alone and keeps the team default. Remember the explicit choice and exact additions in the existing onboarding context; “Undo the OpenRig command allowances added by this setup” removes only those additions. Broader access remains a separate opt-in.

Keep purpose, acceptance, decisions and evidence in existing project files. Deliver selected context and obtain each seat's scope reaction; retrieval alone is not peer delivery. The owner carries the candidate through the chosen check and bounded repairs, reports how to try it, and retains the next authorized task or explicitly reports none. Preserve work and custody before a supported stop.

Grow your factory

Choose the team size separately from the coordination method above:

1. Use the two-agent starter. Keep its builder (the owner) and independent reviewer (the checker) while that pair meets the workload. The builder can implement and coordinate.
2. Add one or two seats to the running rig. This is the usual next step. Follow Grow the running team for rig grow commands, readiness/context/work assignment, and saving the expanded topology. Existing sessions need no rebuild or down/up cycle solely to add capacity.
3. Author a custom rig when you want a different structure. Read OpenRig Architect, available through rig context get skills/core/openrig-architect/SKILL.md. Request: “Design a user-owned rig for [outcome] using the compatible RigSpec/AgentSpec guidance. Reuse suitable agents, define responsibilities and context, and validate the files. Preserve the existing rig and agree any new launch.”

As independent work grows, the original owner can concentrate on orchestration, multiple builders can implement separate outcomes, and the checker can retain independent review capacity. Record that division explicitly; adding seats does not assign work, change permissions or create parallelism. Agree file/worktree boundaries and integration ownership, follow the project's existing review policy, and keep active concurrency within the user's time/spend budget. Two seats are an entry point, not a finished factory or a maximum.

Read compatible guidance

Before installation, use this file and companion at the same published tag or commit as the selected package. After installation:

rig --version
rig context list --json
rig context show skills/core/openrig-software-factory --json
rig context get skills/core/openrig-software-factory/SKILL.md

Compare build identity as well as version. Preserve missing, unreadable or older recipe results; do not silently substitute newer main or skip a missing companion.

Find the compatible permission guide

Retrieve the maintained procedure with rig context get skills/applying-a-permission-policy/SKILL.md. For source or archive readers, locate it below; the companion getting-started guide contains optional broader launch-mode recipes under Opt-in permissive operation. These paths are relative to the named root, not this skill:

Reading from	Procedure and guide, at the same version as this recipe
Source checkout, including skills/_canonical	Below the repository root: packages/daemon/assets/plugins/openrig-core/skills/applying-a-permission-policy/SKILL.md and docs/reference/getting-started.md.
npm installation	Below the matching npm root -g or local npm root: @openrig/cli/daemon/assets/plugins/openrig-core/skills/applying-a-permission-policy/SKILL.md and @openrig/cli/daemon/docs/reference/getting-started.md.
Unpacked npm archive	Below the extraction directory: package/daemon/assets/plugins/openrig-core/skills/applying-a-permission-policy/SKILL.md and package/daemon/docs/reference/getting-started.md.

For installed guidance, use the npm installation that supplies the selected rig executable; another prefix or local project can contain a different version. If the matching guide or section is missing, report the gap before proceeding; do not substitute current main or guidance from another installation.

Request to give your agent

Help me achieve [observable change] in this repository. Read the compatible Software Factory recipe, choose the lightest useful team/queue/Workflow path, and keep the next owner visible. Preserve existing files and permissions. Agree time/spend limits, perform the authorized work and chosen independent check, and ask only about unresolved decisions or effects outside that scope. Keep publication and destructive changes out of this task.

When commands, defaults or permission semantics change, check this source and companion together and regenerate their existing projections. Website guidance should link to the same versioned recipe, not maintain another procedure.