Role: miner. Input = trinity slice (transcripts, .agents/, bd, git). Output = skill diffs (proposed), bd updates, rare wiki entries. Never mutates code.

Status (2026-05-08): introduced ADDITIVE in Phase 1 (m6v5.D.1 / soc-78s2v). Existing miners (dream, harvest, forge, compile, retro, post-mortem-mining, flywheel, trace, provenance, defrag) stay until Phase 3 shim conversion (m6v5.D.3). Fix-C smoke (soc-wb2aa) gates Phase 3.

Modes (≤8 per Fix-F mode-flag budget)

Mode	Purpose	Replaces (post-Phase 3)
`--mode=dream`	Overnight bounded INGEST→REDUCE→MEASURE on `.agents/`	`$dream`
`--mode=harvest`	Cross-rig promotion + post-mortem mining + flywheel rollup	`$harvest`, `$post-mortem` (mining half), `$flywheel`
`--mode=forge`	Per-session transcript mining (SessionEnd cadence)	`$forge`
`--mode=compile`	Mine→Grow→Defrag→Lint corpus pipeline	`$compile`
`--mode=retro`	Single-session learning capture	`$retro`
`--mode=defrag`	Knowledge defragmentation (overnight)	`compile-session-defrag.sh` hook
`--mode=watch`	In-session drift / loop detection (15-min cadence)	`research-loop-detector.sh` hook
`--mode=provenance`	Decision-trace + artifact-provenance walk	`$provenance`, `$trace`

Mode-budget assertion: 8 modes. Adding a 9th requires demoting an existing one OR refusing the addition (per Fix-F § continuous CI gate).

Anti-goals (hard constraints from architecture):

NEVER mutates source code.
NEVER invokes $rpi or any code-mutating flow.
NEVER performs git operations (no commits, branches, push, rebase, checkout).
NEVER creates symlinks anywhere.

Quick Start

$curate --mode=harvest                  # cross-rig promotion sweep
$curate --mode=forge                    # mine the most recent session's transcript
$curate --mode=dream --duration=8h      # overnight bounded run
$curate --mode=compile                  # rebuild .agents/ corpus
$curate --mode=retro                    # capture this session's learning
$curate --mode=defrag                   # knowledge defragmentation
$curate --mode=watch                    # in-session drift check
$curate --mode=provenance --bead=soc-X  # walk decision trace for a bead

Execution

Step 1: Resolve mode + scope

Parse --mode. Each mode has its own scope semantics:

Mode	Reads	Writes	Cadence (typical loop binding)
dream	`.agents/` corpus	`.agents/overnight/<run-id>/` summary + per-iteration JSON	overnight (1×/24h)
harvest	`.agents/` across rigs (`~/.agents/learnings/`)	`~/.agents/learnings/` (promotion), `.agents/harvest/latest.json`	daily (1×/24h)
forge	runtime session transcripts or exported JSONL logs	`.agents/learnings/`, `.agents/patterns/`	per-session or 30m loop
compile	`.agents/` corpus	`wiki/INDEX.generated.md`, `.agents/compile/<date>.md`	weekly
retro	this session's transcript + recent diffs	`.agents/retro/index.jsonl` (append)	per-session (manual)
defrag	`.agents/` corpus	`.agents/defrag/<date>.md` (cleanup report)	overnight (1×/24h)
watch	last 100 lines of current session transcript	`.agents/watch/<date>.md` (advisory)	in-session 15m loop
provenance	`bd` graph + `git log` + `.agents/` for given anchor	`.agents/provenance/<anchor>.md`	on-demand

Step 2: Acquire lock (when applicable)

For --mode=dream: acquire .agents/overnight/run.lock exclusively. If held, exit with "another curator holds the lock" message; do NOT block.

For --mode=harvest: check the dream lock. If held, defer harvest to next loop fire.

For --mode=forge: per-session lock at .agents/forge/session-<id>.lock. Auto-released at end of run.

Other modes: no lock; concurrent invocation is safe.

Step 3: Run the mode-specific body

Each mode delegates to a body section in this skill (see § per-mode bodies below for outline; full content moves to references/<mode>.md at Phase 2 startup).

Step 4: Produce artifacts

Output is one of (priority order, per architecture knowledge-flywheel rule):

Skill diffs — proposed changes to existing skill bodies, written to .agents/skill-diffs/<date>-<skill>.diff. Operator approves before applying. NEVER writes to skills/ directly.
bd updates — bd note, bd remember, or new bd create for surfaced issues. Direct, no approval queue.
Wiki entries — .agents/research/, .agents/learnings/, ~/.agents/learnings/ (rare; only when knowledge is generally reusable).

Step 5: Append to LOG.md

Every mode appends one line to .agents/LOG.md:

2026-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ [curate --mode=<mode>] <run-id> — <short-summary> — outputs: <artifact-paths>

Step 6: Report

Mode + scope
Output path(s)
Surfaced bd issues (if any)
Loop continuation hint (next-fire cadence per architecture catalog)