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Developer & Agent Guides

Practical, battle-tested execution guides for human software engineers and autonomous AI agents working within the ZQK Knowledge Kernel.

Overview

While the Reference Manual details comprehensive subsystem APIs and Specifications formalize architectural grammar, these Guides provide step-by-step, actionable recipes for common engineering disciplines, graph operations, and multi-agent coordination patterns.

Every guide is structured to serve both human pair programmers using the interactive CLI/TUI and autonomous AI agents operating via headless interfaces or Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools.

Operational Guide Directory

1. Knowledge Graph & Data Plane Operations

Guide Focus Area Target Audience Primary CLI & MCP Commands
Knowledge Kernel Object Model & Usage Guide Canonical taxonomy across all 14 ontological domains and packs (70+ object kinds), standard envelopes, VDS cascade, and copy-pasteable CLI recipes. All Engineers & Agents zqk object create, zqk object list, zqk object ref add, zqk object promote
Knowledge Management, Vocabularies & Semantic Recall Operational glossaries, lens taxonomies, composable libraries, docman CAS verification, and on-demand recall protocols. AI Agents, Architects, SREs zqk docman register, zqk docman verify, zqk object list glossary_term
Declarative Graph Queries (ZPARQL) & Atomic Mutations (ZQL) Multi-hop graph traversals, Cypher-like pattern queries, and atomic multi-object ACID transactions. AI Agents, Backend Devs zqk query, zqk mutate, query_zparql, mutate_zql
Object Lifecycle, State Machines & CAS Storage Schema contracts, Content-Addressed Storage (CAS) membrane, two-phase draft/authoritative isolation, and DoD criteria binding. All Engineers & Agents zqk object create, zqk object inspect, zqk object promote

2. Governance, Security & Policy DSL

Guide Focus Area Target Audience Primary CLI & MCP Commands
Custom Validation Policy Creation & Rule DSL Composing declarative Validation Rule DSL expressions, live population dry-run audits, grandfathering, and check-valve registration. Tech Leads, Governance Stewards zqk object inspect --policy-studio, zqk system check-policy

3. Autonomous Execution & Continuous Loops

Guide Focus Area Target Audience Primary CLI & MCP Commands
Single-Command Execution Loop (zqk do) 5-phase execution engine (Intent ➔ Preflight ➔ Locks ➔ Dispatch ➔ Verification), fail-closed invariant guards, and anti-thrashing discipline. Autonomous AI Agents zqk do <intent>, zqk workflow whats-next

4. Multi-Agent Swarm Collaboration

Guide Focus Area Target Audience Primary CLI & MCP Commands
Multi-Agent Swarm Orchestration & Mesh Collaboration Agent seating, append-only agent feeds, conflict-free single-claimant work leases, and ambient signal interpretation rubrics. Swarm Engineers, Multi-Agent Setups zqk system agent-onboard, zqk agent feed, zqk agent claim-work

5. Diagnostics, Self-Healing & Telemetry

Guide Focus Area Target Audience Primary CLI & MCP Commands
Diagnostics, Auto-Remedies & Self-Healing 4-layer health checks, automated resolution of stale locks and orphaned temp buffers, and CAS quarantine recovery. SREs, Operators, CI/CD zqk system check --auto-remedy, zqk system doctor 
Human Engineer Onboarding Path:
[Community First-Run] ──► [Object Lifecycle Guide] ──► [Mission Control Visual Guide] ──► [Policy Studio Guide]
      (docs/onboarding)            (docs/guides)                 (docs/manual)                 (docs/guides)

Autonomous AI Agent Onboarding Path:
[Agent Boot Protocol] ──► [Agent Onboarding Guide] ──► [ZQL & ZPARQL Guide] ──► [Single-Command Execution Loop]
     (AGENTS.md)                  (docs/onboarding)             (docs/guides)                  (docs/guides)