circus

name	circus
user-invocable	true
description	Sync multi-agent doctrine, AGENTS/CIRCUS files, and plugin metadata across Claude, Codex, and future agents.

circus

The Circus (le Carre's nickname for MI6) is a central source that briefs each coding agent. It has three levels and three command groups.

Explicit Invocation

When the operator says circus, $circus, "met circus", "via circus", or asks for multi-agent AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / system-prompt setup, use this skill as the active workflow. Do not hand-roll separate AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md files and call that done.

First identify the intended level:

• User level: global agent doctrine under ~/.laicluse/circus/; edit the source there and run circus build.
• Project level: instructions inside the current repo or directory; create or edit CIRCUS.md as the source of truth and run circus sync <path>.
• Plugin level: marketplace/plugin metadata or skill adapters; edit the plugin source and run the relevant circus plugins build|check|diff.

If the target level is ambiguous, ask one concrete clarification before editing: "Do you mean one umbrella CIRCUS.md here, or per child repo?" A parent directory that contains multiple repos is ambiguous unless the operator names a specific child repo.

After any manual change to project-level agent instructions, run circus sync <path> before reporting done. Verify that CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md carry the SYNCED banner and match CIRCUS.md after stripping the banner.

User Level: circus build

Source lives in ~/.laicluse/circus/:

• shared/*.md is shared doctrine, agent-agnostic and concatenated in order.
• specific/<agent>.md is per-agent guidance such as tool names, hooks, and escape hatches.
• targets is the name=output_path mapping. A target line may add supported=false to keep an agent configured but inactive, or supported=auto detect=<command> to skip it unless that command exists.

circus build combines shared/* with the relevant specifics and writes every active agent instruction file listed in targets, for example ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and ~/.codex/AGENTS.md. Each generated file carries a <!-- GENERATED ... --> banner. A handwritten target is never silently overwritten; it is staged as <target>.generated for review, then activated with circus build --force <name>.

When anything under ~/.laicluse/circus/ changes, run circus build. This is operational recovery: idempotent, local, and not an approval gate. New writes go only to ~/.laicluse/circus/.

Project Level: circus sync

Keeps a repo's CIRCUS.md, CLAUDE.md, and AGENTS.md identical. CIRCUS.md is the visible committed ground truth. CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md carry a <!-- SYNCED ... --> banner and are derived targets.

circus sync [path] (default cwd) uses the last committed CIRCUS.md (git show HEAD:CIRCUS.md) as the ancestor and decides content-based which file was edited:

• nothing edited -> already in sync
• CIRCUS.md edited -> it wins and is folded to all three files
• only CLAUDE.md or only AGENTS.md edited -> that file wins and is folded to the other two
• both CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md edited differently -> conflict

Commit the synced state so the ancestor moves with it.

Plugin Level: circus plugins

circus plugins build [repo] reads a marketplace repo with .claude-plugin/marketplace.json and packages/<plugin>/.claude-plugin/plugin.json. Claude metadata is source. Suffixless skills/<skill>/SKILL.md files stay in place when they are multi-agent compatible. SKILL.claude.md and SKILL.codex.md are agent-specific sources: they may exist as a pair for parity-by-variant, or singly when a multi-agent plugin intentionally has partial skill coverage. Circus generates adapters:

• .agents/plugins/marketplace.json
• packages/<plugin>/.codex-plugin/plugin.json
• .agents/plugins/generated/<plugin>/... when Codex needs a generated package, for example because a Claude-only frontmatter field must be sanitized or because Codex needs an explicit hooks/hooks.codex.json materialized as runtime hooks/hooks.json
• packages/<plugin>/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md when SKILL.claude.md is the Claude runtime source

Codex hook manifests are stricter than Claude hook manifests. A direct Codex source may expose hooks/hooks.json only when that JSON object has exactly one top-level key, hooks. Claude-only metadata such as top-level description belongs in Claude's hooks/hooks.json; Codex-specific hook payloads live in hooks/hooks.codex.json and are materialized into the generated package. Circus wraps plugin-root commands in those generated manifests so a missing runtime blocks PreToolUse with a restart instruction and becomes a readable warning for other lifecycle events instead of an exit-127 failure.

The commands follow the same build/check/diff pattern as the system-prompt targets:

circus plugins build [repo]   write Codex adapters
circus plugins check [repo]   exit 1 when adapters drift
circus plugins diff [repo]    show the generated diff without writing
circus plugins versions {--check|--write|--bootstrap|--staged} [repo]  check or update versions without a repo-local copy

This layer may assume the public how-plugins-work model exists: shared SKILL.md is source when behavior is agent-agnostic, suffixed skill sources are deliberate agent-specific coverage, manifests are agent adapters, and runtime caches are output. The dependency runs only one way. Personal doctrine and host-specific paths stay in user-level data, never in distributed plugin docs or generated packages.

Merge a Sync Conflict

Circus never merges a conflict itself. On conflict it exits 3 and the running agent merges with its own judgment:

1. Read the three versions: ancestor git show HEAD:CIRCUS.md, CLAUDE.md (ours), and AGENTS.md (theirs).
2. Merge them into a document that preserves both intents; discard nothing silently.
3. Write the result to CIRCUS.md.
4. Run circus sync again; CIRCUS.md now wins and is rolled out to CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md.

Commands

circus build [--force] [name]  user level: generate supported targets from shared + specifics
circus sync [path]             project level: keep CIRCUS.md/CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md equal
circus check                   report drift between source and user targets
circus diff                    show what a build would change
circus plugins <command>       build/check adapters or check/update plugin versions
circus list                    show root, doctrine, specifics, mapping, and skipped targets
circus edit                    open the source data in $EDITOR

Where Things Live

• Tool: this plugin ships the circus generator at bin/circus; the host may expose it on PATH through its own resolver.
• Personal data: ~/.laicluse/circus/{shared,specific,targets} (override with CIRCUS_ROOT). This is the user's doctrine and support matrix and does not belong in a plugin package.
• Project ground truth: CIRCUS.md in each synced repo.
• Plugin source: .claude-plugin/marketplace.json, .claude-plugin/plugin.json, and skills/ in the marketplace repo.
• Plugin adapters: .agents/plugins/marketplace.json, .codex-plugin/plugin.json, and optional .agents/plugins/generated/<plugin>/ materializations generated by circus plugins build.