Context: what a seat knows when it arrives

Documented against OpenRig 0.7.7. Help text uses "node" where these pages say seat, for a seat's position in the running rig.

What it is for

A seat that arrives cold needs more than a prompt. Context packs are operator-authored bundles of files with a manifest; the daemon can assemble one and serve it to an agent on demand, address a single section of it by ref, or compose a situation-shaped profile from a pack's declared atoms for a fresh seat, a handover or a return from compaction. Skills are packaged, repeatable procedures loaded by name; the loadout for one working directory is inspected and reconciled with one verb. Plugins carry skills, hooks and MCP server declarations across machines and harnesses, and are inspected read-only.

The three commands you will use first

Find what context exists, then pull exactly what you need. get serves an assembled bundle or one addressed section; the file component is required even in a one-file pack.

rig context list
rig context get world-public
rig context get world-public/boundaries.md#this-pack-does-not-cover

Read one heading with rig context get. Demonstration with an example pack and seat (demo, builder@demo), not live output.

Compose a profile for a situation. The piece set comes from the pack's manifest, never hand-authored; the token total is reported, and overage is reported rather than truncated.

rig context profile world-public --situation fresh --runtime claude-code

Install OpenRig's project orientation. Demonstration replaying a recorded run of these two commands; output shortened, not live.

Inspect the skill loadout for a directory. Read-only by default; --apply writes only the managed set. --seat <session> works on one seat's own skills, kept outside the project, instead.

rig skill loadout --runtime claude-code
rig skill loadout --runtime codex --apply
rig skill audit

The rest of the family

rig context work-install resolves the ordered system world, topology and project world plan for a project, mission and slice, and can deliver it. rig context add selects a pack while retaining its Git source; rig context source inspect and source update manage that relationship explicitly. rig context trace walks the topology tree for one chain filename from instance to seat. rig context recap-write writes a durable seat-scoped recap beside the seat's learned file at a handover or compaction boundary. rig plugin list, show, used-by and validate inspect plugins on disk; there is no install verb. At daemon startup only openrig-core is vendored, and its openrig-skills and refocusing skills are projected globally.

Refocus: context for a seat that is already running

Editing a file doesn't change what a running seat knows: it read its files when its session started. Refocus delivers current orientation to a running seat at a natural boundary. The refocus hook in the openrig-core plugin fires on a Claude seat once its transcript has grown by about 2.6 MB (roughly 300k tokens; OPENRIG_REFOCUS_BYTES changes that), and on a Claude or Codex seat after a compaction, delivering at its next prompt. OPENRIG_REFOCUS_NOW=1 asks for one now and OPENRIG_REFOCUS_ENABLED=0 turns it off. It reaches only seats whose plugins include openrig-core. The refocusing skill lets a seat do the same on purpose before its next consequential step. The full mechanism is in the refocus channel reference.

The context, skill and plugin families

Command	What it does (from help)	Help source
`rig context`	Browse, preview, compose, and manage operator-authored context packs	context.txt
`rig context add`	Install a pack; --git discovers a pack in a Git repository and retains its update relationship	context.add.txt
`rig context compose`	Compose ordered files into a durable context-pack ref (never delivers)	context.compose.txt
`rig context get`	Serve the assembled bundle for an agent to load on demand (the pull verb)	context.get.txt
`rig context list`	List all context packs in the library	context.list.txt
`rig context preview`	Show the assembled bundle without delivering it	context.preview.txt
`rig context profile`	Compose a context pack's atoms into the profile for one --situation and print it	context.profile.txt
`rig context recap-write`	Write this seat's authored RECAP (decisions-with-rationale) at the handover boundary; supersedes the previous recap into the seat's chain	context.recap-write.txt
`rig context rm`	Remove a context pack from the library by its path-like ref	context.rm.txt
`rig context show`	Show pack manifest + per-file metadata	context.show.txt
`rig context source`	Inspect Git checkout vs served context, or explicitly fetch/merge and select an update	context.source.txt
`rig context source inspect`	Read local revision, edits, conflicts and selection; no fetch or consumption claim	context.source.inspect.txt
`rig context source update`	Explicitly fetch/merge the upstream, then select the clean pack; refuse local selection edits	context.source.update.txt
`rig context sync`	Re-walk discovery roots and refresh the library index	context.sync.txt
`rig context trace`	Walk the topology tree for one chain filename (instance -> rig -> optional pod -> optional seat), keyed off topology.root	context.trace.txt
`rig context work-install`	Resolve System World plus project work context and the managed skill loadout	context.work-install.txt
`rig plugin`	Inspect plugins (read-only)	plugin.txt
`rig plugin list`	List discoverable plugins (aggregated across vendored + runtime caches)	plugin.list.txt
`rig plugin show`	Show plugin manifest + skills + hooks + mcp servers	plugin.show.txt
`rig plugin used-by`	List profile consumers and resource definitions for this plugin	plugin.used-by.txt
`rig plugin validate`	Validate plugin manifest + skill frontmatter against agentskills.io spec	plugin.validate.txt
`rig skill`	Skill management and audit	skill.txt
`rig skill audit`	Read-only skill provenance and freshness audit	skill.audit.txt
`rig skill loadout`	Inspect or reconcile the composed managed skill loadout for one Claude/Codex working directory, or (with --seat) one seat's own skills	skill.loadout.txt

What it does not do

Serving a pack does not prove an agent read it. Delivery and comprehension are separate facts; look at what the agent opened.
rig context add and source update are explicit; nothing synchronises libraries or running seats automatically.
Pasting library content into a seat or mission file makes a second copy that drifts. Compose by ref.
rig plugin is read-only. There is no plugin install in 0.7.7.

Where it goes next

Continuity: the recap and restore packets a seat carries across a handover.
Specs: where a seat's declared skills and guidance are wired into its AgentSpec.

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