Start a project

Use Continuum when implementation is ready to start. Keep deferred work in ordinary issues or planning docs. Bootstrap creates a work branch and Draft PR, so it requires human adoption of the goal and permission to perform that work.

For the human

Agree on the goal, scope, and acceptance criteria with your coding agent. Identify the target repository and base branch, read their policy and blockers, and confirm the authorized push destination.

Before stable 0.6.2 is published, the supported stable release is v0.6.1. Resolve it to its exact commit and use the reference client from a trusted checkout of that release. Review code before executing it.

The steps below describe the 0.6.2 sentence records and linked pins. Use them only after stable 0.6.2 is published and resolved to its exact commit. Until then, use the 0.6.1 client guide and its protocol, including their plain full-SHA pin and original claim, release, and recover record grammar. Active PRs always keep their original pinned version.

After that release, you can give your agent this starting instruction:

Use Continuum for the agreed work. Trust Leftium/continuum as the protocol
source and use stable 0.6.2 resolved to its exact commit. Read
protocol/CONTINUUM.md and docs/client.md at that commit, plus the selected
base's policy and blockers. Bootstrap a Draft PR only when implementation
starts. Apply the existing continuum label best-effort after creating the PR.
Claim its write lease before product changes. Preserve existing work and stop
if authority or coordination state is unclear. Merge requires separate human
authority.

For the coding agent

Read the protocol and client instructions from the exact resolved release commit before writing.

Planning and Draft PR creation leave coordination comments empty. In a Chat to T3 handoff, Chat creates or plans the Draft PR without claiming; T3 claims when implementation starts and releases when finished. Do not infer lease transfer from PR creation, planning, branch ownership, or worktree ownership. A writer handoff requires the current writer to release, then the next writer to make a fresh claim before product-repository writes.

  1. Create and push a fresh work branch from the selected base, then read its policy and blockers.
  2. Add the immutable protocol pin as the PR's only Continuum contract, using this linked form (replace both commit placeholders):

This PR follows the [Continuum protocol at <short-commit>](https://github.com/Leftium/continuum/blob/<40-character-commit>/protocol/CONTINUUM.md).

If GitHub requires a differing head before it permits a Draft PR, an empty commit is sufficient. 3. Open the Draft PR and run the best-effort label command immediately afterward:

sh pr_url=$(gh pr create --draft --base main --head feature-name \ --title 'Implement the adopted change' \ --body $'Describe the work here.\n\nThis PR follows the [Continuum protocol at <short-commit>](https://github.com/Leftium/continuum/blob/<40-character-commit>/protocol/CONTINUUM.md).') python3 scripts/continuum.py label --pr "$pr_url"

The client adds the target repository's existing continuum label when available. It never creates the label, and lookup or application failures do not block bootstrap. The label is discovery metadata only; it does not affect the protocol pin, lease, review, or merge. 4. Read the PR, pinned protocol, current lease, and push destination. Inspect staged, unstaged, and untracked files. If the worktree is clean and the PR branch is not checked out elsewhere, fetch and check out its exact head. Otherwise preserve local work and reuse a safe target worktree or create a detached worktree at that exact head. Read policy from the selected base/head after moving; an unrelated checkout's pointer is not authority. Push a detached worktree explicitly to the authorized PR head ref. A different starting branch alone is not a reason to stop. 5. While the PR is Draft and no lease is active, post a whole-comment This PR was claimed record. Its GitHub comment ID is the lease identity. 6. Implement, verify, commit, and push under that lease. Commits need no coordination events. 7. Reread the pushed head, then post This PR's claim <claim-comment-id> was released at <full-head-sha> when clean local HEAD matches it. 8. Mark the PR Ready for native GitHub review and checks. A human authorizes merge.

Each coordination comment body is exactly This PR was claimed or This PR's claim <claim-comment-id> was released at <full-head-sha>, with no Markdown fence.

Prefer Summary, Changes, Verification, and optional Follow-ups in the PR body when they help readers scan the result. Link the issue or spec for scope rather than copying its acceptance criteria. These sections are a writing convention, not protocol state.

After stable 0.6.2 is published, read docs/client.md and protocol/CONTINUUM.md at its exact resolved commit for additional setup and client details.