principal-create

Principal Create

End-to-end onboarding for a new principal joining an agency-init'd repo. Wraps ./agency/tools/principal-onboard which orchestrates: directory scaffold (via existing principal-create tool), template substitution (CLAUDE-PRINCIPAL.md, bootstrap handoff), agent registration (.claude/agents/{name}-captain.md), and agency.yaml mutation.

This is the discoverable workshop-day command. Without it, adding a new principal requires hand-editing YAML, authoring captain.md from scratch, writing a bootstrap handoff manually, and remembering all the file paths.

When to use

• A new human principal joins an existing agency-init'd repo (peer principal).
• During agency init of a fresh repo, after the first principal is set up.
• Workshop demo: showing how the framework supports multi-principal.

When NOT to use

• For a fresh project with NO principals yet — use agency init first, which bootstraps the first principal.
• For an agent (not a person) — agents are scaffolded via workstream-create or agent-create, not principal-create.

Arguments

• $ARGUMENTS: positional principal name + flags. At minimum the name. Common shape:
  • <name> --user <sysuser> --display-name "Display Name"
  • Optional: --email <addr> (repeatable), --github-user <handle>, --no-yaml, --no-agent-reg, --no-handoff, --force, --dry-run, --verbose

If $ARGUMENTS is missing the required pieces, ask the principal for them 1B1 — name, system $USER, display name, email, GitHub username — before invoking the tool.

Steps

Step 1: Pre-flight

1. Confirm we're in an agency-init'd repo: agency/config/agency.yaml exists.
2. If $ARGUMENTS is empty or missing required fields, gather via 1B1:
   • "What's the principal's slug?" (lowercase, alphanumeric/hyphens/underscores)
   • "What's their system $USER?" (the value of echo $USER on their machine)
   • "What's their display name?" (Unicode OK)
   • "Email address(es)?" (optional)
   • "GitHub username?" (optional)
3. Recommend --dry-run first to preview what will be written.

Step 2: Dry-run preview (recommended)

Invoke:

./agency/tools/principal-onboard <name> --user <sysuser> --display-name "..." \
    --email ... --github-user ... --dry-run --verbose

Show the principal what will be written, where. Get explicit go-ahead.

Step 3: Execute

Drop --dry-run. Re-run with the same args.

Step 4: Verify

1. cat usr/<name>/CLAUDE-PRINCIPAL.md | head -30 — confirm template substituted correctly.
2. cat usr/<name>/captain/captain-handoff.md | head -20 — confirm bootstrap handoff readable.
3. cat .claude/agents/<name>-captain.md — confirm agent registration present.
4. grep -A 4 "^ <sysuser>:" agency/config/agency.yaml — confirm YAML entry.

Step 5: Commit (coordination artifact)

The new principal's files are framework coordination (not application code). Use coord-commit:

/coord-commit

(Stages CLAUDE-PRINCIPAL.md, captain-handoff.md, agent registration, agency.yaml change.)

Step 6: Hand off to the new principal

Tell the new principal:

You're set up. To start working as <display_name>:

1. On your machine: export AGENCY_PRINCIPAL=<name>
2. Verify: ./agency/tools/principal  (should print <name>)
3. Launch your captain: claude --agent <name>-captain
4. In Claude, run: /session-resume
   (reads your bootstrap handoff at usr/<name>/captain/captain-handoff.md)

Step 7: Cross-principal courtesy

If other principals exist on this repo, dispatch them a note that a new peer has joined. Use /dispatch to send a brief intro to each existing principal's captain:

"<display_name> has joined the repo. Sandbox: usr//. They'll introduce themselves once their captain bootstraps."

What this skill does NOT do

• Does not push changes to remote — that's /release or /sync after PR review.
• Does not configure shell on the new principal's machine — they set AGENCY_PRINCIPAL themselves (or use add-principal interactively).
• Does not migrate existing work — if the principal had work in another sandbox, they move it manually.
• Does not create workstreams or agents beyond captain — use /workstream-create for that.

Reference

• Tool: agency/tools/principal-onboard
• Templates: agency/templates/principal-v2/
• Schema: agency/config/agency.yaml (principals: block)
• Concept: agency/REFERENCE/REFERENCE-AGENT-ADDRESSING.md
• Worknote: agency/docs/worknotes/WORKNOTE-principal-tooling.md

OFFENDERS WILL BE FED TO THE — CUTE — ATTACK KITTENS!