---
artifact_schema_version: 1
artifact_type: workflow
workflow_id: agent-workflow-guide
---

# Agent Workflow Guide

Use this file as the compatibility entry point for agent lifecycle guidance.

Primary audience: agents that arrived through older references to this compatibility file. Responsibility: route to the layer-specific lifecycle guide after `.day-shift/agents.md`; keep substantive lifecycle rules in those guides instead of duplicating them here or in human workflow indexes.

## Agent Orientation Command

`<day-shift-cli> agent` is the read-only agent orientation command. Use it at the start of an automation-agent session to show the repository contract, entrypoint guidance, and command envelope before the agent chooses workflow-specific commands.

`agent orient` is the full-orientation alias, and `agent remind` is the shorter correction-focused reminder for sessions that have drifted from the repository contract.

For routine automation, prefer compact JSON orientation, one explicit work selection, artifact-scoped context, and action-scoped health over loading the full repository contract. Follow `.day-shift/references/small-model-agent-operations.md` for bounded recovery, freshness, trust-lane, constrained-profile, and resume behavior.

Layer-specific lifecycle guides now live in dedicated files:

- `.day-shift/workflows/task.agent-lifecycle-guide.md`
- `.day-shift/workflows/milestone.agent-lifecycle-guide.md`
- `.day-shift/workflows/phase.agent-lifecycle-guide.md`
- `.day-shift/workflows/slice.agent-lifecycle-guide.md`

Use the layer-specific file that matches the artifact the agent is operating on.

- If the agent is executing one task end to end, use `.day-shift/workflows/task.agent-lifecycle-guide.md`.
- If the agent is coordinating multiple tasks inside one milestone, use `.day-shift/workflows/milestone.agent-lifecycle-guide.md`.
- If the agent is steering milestone sequencing inside one phase, use `.day-shift/workflows/phase.agent-lifecycle-guide.md`.
- If the agent is working at slice-selection or cross-phase planning scope, use `.day-shift/workflows/slice.agent-lifecycle-guide.md`.

This file should stay lightweight. Put substantive lifecycle guidance in the layer-specific files.
