# Agent Starters

Use when creating, refreshing, packaging, inspecting, promoting, or deprecating a named...

- Repository: https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig (8541 stars)
- Category: AI and agents
- License: Apache-2.0
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill agent-starters -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill agent-starters -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill agent-starters -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill agent-starters -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Use when creating, refreshing, packaging, inspecting, promoting, or deprecating a named per-seat starting point, Agent Starter manifest authoring, the 6-state lifecycle (captured → named → inspectable → used → promoted → deprecated), provenance honesty, and refusal rules. NOT a VM image; a managed starting point composed from agent role + startup context + optional native session source + provenance.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Agent Starters

A named, reusable per-seat starting point. Composes an agent role, startup
context, optional native session source, and provenance into something a
user or rig can choose when creating, refreshing, or packaging a seat.

This registry-backed startup context is distinct from the `rig agent-image`
surface and from a VM image. See the current behavior below before treating
optional session provenance as an executable native session source.

## Use this when

- Creating a new seat from a known-good starting context.
- Refreshing a seat with `rig expand` and `starter_ref`.
- Authoring a new starter (registry entry).
- Inspecting an existing starter's provenance, freshness, or recommended status.
- Promoting / deprecating starters in the registry.
- Composing a starter with a Composable Priming Pack (record manifest id/version, runtime, source session id or transcript path, ready-check evidence, freshness state).

## Don't use this when

- You want VM-style deterministic state capture. Starters don't capture VM state.
- You want to copy provider auth material into a starter. **Starters refer to session sources and context; they do NOT copy credentials.**

## What makes a starter valuable

A starter is valuable when it is **functional**, it carries the context the seat needs to do its task well. Functional is the *only* measure of a good starter. Size is not: a smaller starter is not a better one, and a bigger one is not worse. Whatever it took for the seat to become genuinely capable at its job is the right starter, 80K tokens or 800K.

Capture the seat as it naturally is at a functional, proven point. Don't pad it with context the seat doesn't use, and, just as important, don't strip context out to make it smaller. Size is an *outcome* of what the seat needed, never a target.

The rest: https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig/blob/HEAD/packages/daemon/specs/agents/shared/skills/core/agent-starters/SKILL.md