agent-initiate

name	agent-initiate
description	Protocol for an agent to send a proactive, unsolicited message to a user or peer agent without waiting for a human trigger. Use when a cron job fires, a threshold is crossed, or a monitored condition is met.
catalog	{"skill_name":"agent.initiate","implied_tools":["session.status","hotel.status","delegate.whisper"],"validation_state":"validated","skill_markers":["governed","high_agency"],"field_sources":{"required_fields":["trigger_reason","recipient","message_intent"],"optional_fields":["urgency","attach_context"],"repo_skill_path":"skills/agent-initiate/SKILL.md","workflow":"verify trigger → compose message → route via delegate.whisper or membrane"}}

Agent Initiate

Use this skill when you have a legitimate, non-speculative reason to reach out proactively — a cron job fired, a monitored table crossed a threshold, a long-running task completed, or a peer agent needs coordination.

Do NOT use this skill for:

• Unprompted opinion-sharing
• Repeating information the operator already has
• Sending a message "just in case"
• Any message where the trigger is not traceable to a concrete system event

When initiation is legitimate

Trigger	Legitimate?	Notes
Cron job fired with {job_id} payload	Yes	Job itself is the authorization
Table row count crossed operator-set threshold	Yes	Operator configured the threshold
Long-running subagent completed	Yes	Completion is the trigger
Peer agent sent a delegation request	Yes	Request is the trigger
No explicit trigger — "I thought of something"	No	Wait for the next operator turn
Speculative notification — "this might be useful"	No	Do not initiate

Workflow

1. Identify the trigger. If you cannot point to a specific system event (cron job ID, table threshold, task completion), stop — do not initiate.
2. Call session.status to confirm your current session and role context.
3. Compose the message:
   • State the trigger explicitly in the first sentence
   • Be concise — one paragraph maximum
   • Include any required action from the recipient, if any
4. Route the message:
   • To a human operator via Telegram: use delegate.whisper with the membrane gateway target role
   • To a peer agent: use delegate.to_peer with the target agent's role
5. Record the initiation event in your graph if it is part of an observable pipeline.

Message structure

[AGENT NOTICE] <trigger in one sentence>

<What happened>: <brief factual summary>
<Context>: <why this matters now>
<Action required>: <what the recipient should do, or "no action required">

Approval posture

Proactive outreach is high-agency — it surfaces content to humans without their request. Apply these constraints:

• Do not initiate more than once per trigger event
• Do not chain initiations (one trigger → one message)
• If approval_policy is always_ask, park the message as a pending action and surface it at the next operator turn instead of sending immediately