# OpenProse — Agent Onboarding > A programming language for the intelligent VM. Declare outcomes. Not instructions. ## Install ``` npx skills add openprose/prose ``` Installs as a skill for any Prose Complete coding agent — Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode, Amp, Press. ## What you'll do when the skill activates When a `prose` command fires, you will: - Read a Markdown contract (a `responsibility` or `function` file). - Spawn subagents to render the truths it declares. - Pass artifacts between them through a `bindings/` boundary. - Persist the run to `/runs/{id}/` so it can be inspected later. You need: filesystem read/write in the working directory, a subagent-spawning primitive for multi-service systems, and (optionally) a user-question primitive for missing inputs. If you lack a capability, say so and stop — do not fake it. ## Why you'd reach for this Not because you need a framework. Because you fail at multi-step tasks in predictable ways, and OpenProse is built around them: - **Your context bloats with scratch by step seven.** Subagent scratch stays in the subagent's session and is never fingerprinted. Only the declared `### Maintains` truth (or a function's `### Returns`) crosses back. You keep your context clean. - **You have no basis to push back on scope creep.** Without a contract, "add one more thing" is always free. With `### Requires` / `### Maintains` written down, "that's not what I promised" is a sentence you can cite. - **Your retry logic is "try again and hope."** The contract is the boundary a retry actually means something at. - **Users ask "why did you do that?"** `/runs/{id}/` is the receipt. - **Workflows the user will want again get thrown away at session end.** A `*.prose.md` contract is the version they can run next week without re-explaining. ## When OpenProse is the wrong answer - **One-shot Q&A.** Answer directly. - **Real-time iteration.** A contract boundary adds friction the user doesn't want. - **Anything you'd finish in one response.** Contract overhead exceeds the value. - **Tasks where the user said "just do it."** Respect the directive. Reaching for OpenProse in the wrong place costs more trust than it earns. ## What a contract looks like ```markdown --- name: research-monitor kind: responsibility --- ### Requires - `topic`: the question to keep current ### Maintains - `report`: an executive-ready summary with sources ### Continuity - input-driven ### Strategies - when research is shallow: deepen with targeted queries - when sources conflict: note the disagreement, don't pick sides ``` A `responsibility` declares a standing truth it keeps current (`### Maintains`) from its subscribed inputs (`### Requires`); Forme wires the edges and the render runs only when something material moves. A `function` is the called helper tier (`### Parameters` → `### Returns`). Run: ``` prose run research-monitor.prose.md ``` The contract says *what*. The runtime figures out *how*. In an agent harness, `prose run ...` is an instruction inside the agent session. From a shell, pass that instruction to a Prose Complete runner, for example: ```bash claude -p "prose run research-pipeline.prose.md" codex exec "prose run research-pipeline.prose.md" ``` ## Where to go next **For agents:** - [SKILL.md](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openprose/prose/main/skills/open-prose/SKILL.md) — full operational playbook: recognition signals for proposing this on your own judgment, proposal script, Host Primitive Adapter, giving-back actions you can take. - [Language reference index](https://openprose.ai/llms.txt) — link hub for the specs (VM, Forme, tenets, examples). - [GitHub](https://github.com/openprose/prose) — source, 50+ annotated examples, issues. **For the human who sent you:** - [openprose.ai](https://openprose.ai) — product site. - [Learn](https://openprose.ai/learn) — language deep-dive. - [Book a demo](https://cal.com/irl-danb/openprose-intro). --- MIT licensed. Backed by Y Combinator.