Start a conversation

Put a VPP command on line 1 and the request body on later lines:

!<g>
Design a resilient queue.

The skill prepares the turn through the deterministic runtime, asks the model for body-only content, formats it, validates it, and carries the returned state to the next exchange.

Tags and content contracts

• <g> stays conceptual and avoids complete modules or files.
• <q> asks broad uncertainty-reducing questions or frames a diagnosis.
• <o> realizes a deliverable and includes assumptions, citations, and tests when relevant.
• <c> critiques or clarifies concrete deltas, with at most 25 questions.
• <o_f> produces the publishable final result and closes the current pipeline.
• !<e> --<tag> moves to a new locus; !<e_o> starts an immediate <o> pipeline.

The runtime enforces tag selection and wrapper structure. It cannot prove semantic quality, citation relevance, or whether a conceptual answer accidentally became a full implementation.

Counters, cycles, and loci

Tag indexes are global to one conversation. If <g_1> is followed by a locus jump that also produces <g>, the next footer says Tag=g_2. A new conversation starts every counter at zero.

Cycle begins at 1. Every valid user !<c> advances it, capped at 3. A new-locus escape, immediate-output escape, explicit pipeline, or new command after <o_f> resets cycle to 1 but preserves tag counts. Cycle-3 formatting automatically adds both canonical escape choices when they are absent.

The default locus is default. An unnamed jump becomes locus-2, then locus-3, and so on. Applications can supply a safe explicit name with next_locus.

Modifiers and recovery

Supported ordinary modifiers are --correct, --incorrect, --minor, and --major. Pipeline destinations are limited to assistant tags and use angle brackets. Duplicate modifiers, contradictory pairs, and invalid destinations deterministically produce <c> recovery; the host does not call the model for that body.

Implementation options

Use remote MCP when the host supports it. Otherwise use the JSON/OpenAPI operations or the provider-neutral adapter. The bundled offline script exposes the same four operations. Custom instructions are available only as a reduced-assurance fallback.

See the normative v1.5 specification and the repository adoption recipes.