Use when operating an ap2 board — running an `ap2 <verb>` operator-CLI command (start/stop/status/add/approve/unfreeze/rollback/cron/sandbox/…), or reaching for an `autopilot` custom MCP tool (`report_result`, `board_edit`, `operator_queue_append`, `cron_propose`, …) from an agent toolset.
Use when configuring an ap2 daemon — discovering or tuning an `AP2_*` environment knob, authoring `.cc-autopilot/config.toml` keys (`[core]` / `[components.*]` / `[agent_backends]`), or setting up the Codex agent backend.
Use when authoring or revising an ap2 project's `goal.md` (Mission / Done-when / Current focus / Non-goals / Constraints, the delete-test, and the TB-161/TB-164/TB-235 queue-time validators) or running the retrospective `ap2 audit` review of what shipped after a walk-away window.
Use when inspecting ap2 event types, the events.jsonl timeline, prose-judge verification diagnostics, `ap2 logs` / stats-dashboard output, or the `ap2 status` components block (which subsystems are wired and their on/off state).
Use when an ap2 daemon hit trouble — a task failed / froze / retry-exhausted, the daemon restarted with an Active task, a pipeline or agent crashed, the watchdog went quiet, or you need to intervene (`ap2 unfreeze` / `ap2 delete`) or answer 'why did TB-N fail / what just happened?'.
Check status + recent work of an ap2 daemon for a specific project (board state, daemon liveness, recent events, recent commits, last task summary).
Add a task to an ap2 sandbox project's Backlog by authoring a briefing markdown file and passing it to `ap2 add --briefing-file` (locks TASKS.md, issues a fresh TB-N, no ID collisions). Auto-detects whether to run as the sandbox user directly or escalate via sudo from the main user. Also the operator-facing reference for the task-agent contract, authoring `## Verification` bullets (the `Prose:` prefix + the four shell-bullet pitfalls), and `ap2 classify` impact verdicts — mirroring the daemon-canonical authoring rules in `ap2/ideation.default.md`.
Migrate an existing project to ap2: convert legacy TODO.md / tasks.md to canonical TASKS.md (5-section + TB-N IDs), then run `ap2 init` and `ap2 doctor`.