using-o9k

name	using-o9k
description	Meta-skill for the o9k doctrine and arbitration — who owns output style, the repo map, dispatch, memory, the plan. Load at session start, on conflicts between efficiency skills, and whenever unsure Path A vs Path B — if a team-up roster exists, external CLI tmux workers require team-up + dispatch mailbox/watcher (not bare dispatch). Also use when caveman vs other output-styles collide.

using-o9k — The Doctrine

You are running under the o9k efficiency framework. Its goal: maximize the fraction of your context window doing useful work. Every token you emit or load gets re-read on every subsequent turn — waste compounds.

o9k itself owns no efficiency feature. It is the connector: it decides which installed framework owns which concern, wires them into every host, and keeps them from colliding. Whether a given rule below applies depends on what the user opted into — read the table, not your memory of a default install.

What applies, and when

Situation	Concern	Owner (if installed)
Writing any response	Output compression	caveman (upstream project)
About to open/read/explore code	Context discipline	scout (o9k-scout)
A search, lookup, or decomposable task	Subagent isolation	dispatch path A (o9k-dispatch)
External CLI worker (tmux / cross-CLI)	Multi-agent roster	team-up + dispatch path B — required once a roster exists
Session start, project questions, "what was the state?"	Memory	memory (o9k-memory)
Conflict between any of the above	Arbitration	this skill

A row whose owner is not installed simply does not apply. Do not emulate a missing pillar by hand, and do not tell the user they are missing one unless they ask.

Roster detection gate (run before any external CLI spawn):

command -v team-up && test -f ~/.team-up/roster.json

• No roster → Path A only (in-host RESULT subagents).
• Roster present → external CLI workers must use Path B: runs create → team-up dispatch --run-id → cheap in-host runs wait watcher. Bare tmux dispatch without mailbox + watcher = incomplete spawn — parent never gets notified. See dispatch § Incomplete-spawn gate.

Core rules (always on)

1. Never load what you can look up later. Prefer an ID, a path, a one-line summary over the full content. Drill down only when the task demands it.
2. Never repeat what's already in context. No restating the user's request, no quoting code back unchanged, no summarizing your own previous message.
3. Output is future input. Everything you say now is context tax on every later turn. Say it once, say it short (see caveman).
4. Isolate the noisy work. Broad searches, log dumps, doc reading — send a subagent (see dispatch path A); keep only the conclusion.
5. External workers need a callback. When a team-up roster exists and you spawn an external CLI in tmux, Path B is mandatory — not a shortcut, not "when you remember." Three steps or the spawn is incomplete: runs create, dispatch --run-id, watcher on runs wait. Never report "running" to the human until the watcher exists.
6. Persist before you lose it. Approaching compaction or /clear: flush decisions, lessons, and open state to memory (see memory) — context is ephemeral, memory is not.

Arbitration: exactly one owner per concern

Multiple efficiency frameworks installed together WILL collide. These ownership rules resolve every collision; when a third-party framework claims a concern below, either it or the o9k pillar must be disabled — never run two owners:

When an arbitration needs a human decision (e.g. two dispatch owners), don't lecture — surface it once and point to /o9k-guide, which walks the user through it and offers to apply the fix.

Concern	Owner	Displaced alternatives
Output style / tone	upstream caveman	Claude Code output-styles, persona skills; caveman's own cavecrew (dispatch) and caveman-stats (cost) skills — disable those two
Session-start context injection	the memory MCP's hook (TIM or hmem)	any other SessionStart injector
The repo overview map	o9k-scout (one map per session)	codesight + Serena + repo-map all generating overviews
Symbol-level navigation/edits	Serena MCP if installed, else plain tools	—
"The plan"	beads if installed, else the plan file	plan content duplicated into CLAUDE.md or memory
Task/issue state	beads if installed, else memory T-entries	parallel TODO markdown files
Workflow methodology (TDD, review, brainstorm)	superpowers if installed	—
Subagent dispatch (in-host)	o9k-dispatch path A	superpowers' dispatching-parallel-agents (disabled 2026-07-17 — owner is o9k)
Cross-CLI who/spawn + mailbox	team-up (own repo) + o9k-dispatch path B once a roster exists	hard-coded model picks; bare team-up dispatch without runs create + --run-id + watcher; a second dispatch owner
The host status bar	o9k-statusline (own repo)	a second statusLine command per host
Markdown attribution	md-provenance (own repo)	hand-written "written by" headers

Exceptions that override everything

Efficiency never outranks correctness or safety. Use full, explicit prose for: security warnings, destructive/irreversible actions, legal/compliance content, ambiguous multi-step instructions the user must follow exactly, and anything that will be pasted somewhere else (commit messages, PR bodies, docs).