File Format Reference

Effective version

v10.0.179+ (standing instructions in instructions.md).

AgentFS stores agent identity, behavior, memory, skills, and runtime policy as ordinary files. You can edit them through the UI or directly when you understand the fields.

agent.json -- Agent Entry Configuration

Every agent has an agent.json at its root. It defines identity, default model, permissions, and runtime environment injection.

{
  "$schema": "https://desirecore.net/schemas/agentfs/v1/agent-config.json",
  "name": "Legal Advisor",
  "version": "1.2.0",
  "description": "Contract review and legal risk analysis",
  "avatar": {
    "char": "L",
    "color": "blue"
  },
  "llm": {
    "provider": "anthropic",
    "providerId": "provider-anthropic-001",
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
    "thinkingBudgets": {
      "low": 1024,
      "medium": 4096,
      "high": 8192,
      "xhigh": 16384
    },
    "maxRetryDelayMs": 32000
  },
  "env": {
    "enabled": true,
    "includeWeekday": true,
    "includeLocalTime": true,
    "includeSessionStart": true
  },
  "heartbeat": {
    "enabled": false
  },
  "tool_permissions": {
    "denied": ["PowerShell"]
  },
  "mcp_servers": {},
  "accepts_handoff": true,
  "accepts_messages": true,
  "max_concurrent_sessions": 3
}

Field	Description
name	Agent display name, required
version	Agent content version, semver
description	One-line description
avatar	Avatar character and color
llm	Agent-level default model configuration
env	Date, time, timezone, and session-start injection policy
heartbeat	Heartbeat capability switch; inspection content lives in heartbeat/HEARTBEAT.md
tool_permissions	Tool allowlist or denylist
mcp_servers	Agent-specific MCP server configuration
webhooks	External webhook triggers
agents	Sub-agent definitions
capabilities	Capability labels
trigger_patterns	Simple trigger patterns
repository	Remote repository, branch, and publishing connection

llm Model Configuration

llm is the current agent-level model configuration. Legacy runtime model fields are accepted for compatibility, but new files should use llm.

Field	Description
provider	Provider protocol or type, such as anthropic, openai, or deepseek
providerId	Concrete provider instance ID, used to bind the correct Base URL and API Key
model	Default model name
thinkingBudgets	Budgets for low, medium, high, and xhigh reasoning levels
maxRetryDelayMs	Maximum retry delay for failed API calls

env Environment Injection

env controls whether the agent receives current date, local time, timezone, and session start time in the system prompt. When a continued session crosses into a new day, DesireCore appends a reminder so the agent does not keep using the old date.

Field	Default	Description
enabled	true	Enable environment injection and date rollover detection
includeWeekday	true	Include weekday in the date
includeLocalTime	true	Include local time and timezone
includeSessionStart	true	Include session start time
template	none	Custom template using {date}, {weekday}, {localTime}, {tz}, {sessionStart}

heartbeat Heartbeat Switch

heartbeat.enabled is the agent-level heartbeat switch. The inspection checklist lives in heartbeat/HEARTBEAT.md; user-level preferences such as frequency, quiet hours, Snooze, and cooldown are saved by heartbeat settings.

Field	Default	Description
enabled	false	Whether this agent may run heartbeat inspections

persona.md -- Persona

persona.md defines how the agent communicates and structures answers.

## How I Want You to Respond
- Start with the conclusion, then give the reasoning.
- Ask the one blocking question when ambiguity matters; otherwise state assumptions and continue.

## What I Do Not Want
- Template-like empathy or generic encouragement
- Analysis with no decision or next action

## When Uncertain
- State what is uncertain and give a verification path. Escalate to the user when the uncertainty affects risk.

persona.md stores role, expression style, and communication preferences. Put safety boundaries and confirmation rules in principles.md, and stable responsibilities and delivery requirements in instructions.md, so each requirement has one home.

principles.md -- Behavioral Rules

principles.md defines hard rules, safety boundaries, and escalation paths.

## Must Do
- Confirm before any money-moving operation
- Explain the file change scope before editing files
- Generate a receipt after task completion

## Never Do
- Do not send external messages without confirmation
- Do not delete user files unless the user explicitly asks and confirms

## Escalation Path
- Escalate uncertain legal-risk judgments to the user
- Escalate operations above USD 10,000

Never Do rules and safety boundaries should stay concise and unambiguous. These constraints affect long-running agent behavior, so avoid writing them as vague preferences.

instructions.md -- Agent Standing Instructions

instructions.md is an optional file at the agent root. It stores stable responsibilities, default work strategies, and delivery standards. For example, it can define what a legal advisor should deliver in every contract review:

# Contract Review Responsibilities

Before reviewing, establish the transaction goal, contract version, and priority clauses.

Deliver a risk summary, itemized comments, suggested revisions, and questions for the user.
Include the source location for each comment. State uncertainty when evidence is missing;
do not invent clauses or facts.

Where Content Belongs

Content	Location
Role, tone, and expression style	persona.md
Behavioral boundaries, prohibited actions, and priorities	principles.md
This agent's stable responsibilities, default work strategies, and delivery standards	instructions.md
Detailed procedures, long SOPs, templates, and reference material	skills/*/SKILL.md and its references/
User preferences, team conventions, and project rules	prompt.md, rules.md, or AGENTS.md in the relevant scope; do not copy them into the shareable agent body

File and Update Contract

• Use ordinary UTF-8 Markdown. Frontmatter is not required or parsed, and L0/L1/L2 headings have no loading semantics. Content under ## L2 is still part of the full body.
• When the current runtime context allows this source, its nonempty body is loaded in full as a separate prompt section. It is never automatically summarized or truncated. If it cannot fit the context budget, the operation fails explicitly; shorten the instructions and move detailed methods into skills.
• Saved content is reread when new input, explicit continuation, or restoration is accepted. Tool loops, retries, and fallback models within the same execution turn retain the accepted snapshot.
• Normal heartbeats also load the full instructions. Lightweight heartbeats with lightContext=true skip them.
• The ManageAgent instructions parameter is a string: omission preserves the file, a string replaces the whole body, and an empty string clears it. Omitting it during creation does not require the file to be generated. The body must not contain NUL characters.

This file is one source for the dynamically assembled system prompt; it does not store or replace the complete systemPrompt. Editing it grants no tools, file access, or approval authority. See File Explorer and Prompt Center for editing.

SKILL.md -- Skill Definition

Each skill pack must include SKILL.md. Frontmatter can use top-level fields or a metadata wrapper.

---
name: Contract Review
description: Review contract clauses, identify risks, and suggest edits
version: 1.0.0
author: DesireCore Team
allowed-tools: [Read, Write, Edit]
user-invocable: true
risk_level: medium
provider: anthropic
---

# Contract Review

## When to Use
Use when the user asks for contract review, clause risk analysis, or suggested edits.

## Execution Steps
1. File parsing (deterministic step): read the contract, parse document structure, and identify sections and clause numbers.
2. Clause analysis (adaptive step): review payment, breach, intellectual property, confidentiality, and dispute-resolution clauses.
3. Risk labeling (adaptive step): group findings by high, medium, and low risk, with reasoning.
4. Report generation (deterministic step): produce risk summary, itemized comments, and revision suggestions from a fixed template.
5. User confirmation (human gate): ask for confirmation before external sending, rewriting source files, running commands, or issuing final formal advice.

## References
- Legal templates and examples under `references/`

Skill bodies can mark deterministic steps, adaptive steps, and human gates in prose. Workflow DSL uses human_gate nodes to formally block until the user responds; similar labels inside a skill help the agent and auditors understand process boundaries.

Field	Description
name / metadata.name	Display name
description / metadata.description	Matching description
version / metadata.version	Skill version
author / metadata.author	Author
tags	Search and marketplace tags
requires.tools	Required tool list
requires.optional_tools	Optional tool list
requires.connections	Required external connections or accounts
risk_level	Risk level: low, medium, or high
status	Skill status: enabled or disabled
allowed-tools	Tools allowed while running the skill
provider	Preferred provider slug
model	Model to use when triggered
user-invocable	Whether users can call it directly
disable-model-invocation	Whether automatic model invocation is disabled; disable_model_invocation is also accepted
context	Execution context mode, such as default or fork
agent	Child-agent role description when context=fork
argument-hint	Argument hint for command completion or explicit invocation
market	Marketplace metadata, such as category, maintainer, and minimum client version
json_output	Declares expected JSON output and enables automatic repair strategy

schedules/*.json -- Scheduled Task Definition

Each scheduled task is stored as schedules/<schedule_id>.json. It describes the trigger rule, action, status, and lifecycle controls.

{
  "id": "daily-briefing",
  "display_name": "Daily Briefing",
  "enabled": true,
  "status": "active",
  "schedule": {
    "kind": "cron",
    "cron": "0 8 * * 1-5",
    "timezone": "Asia/Shanghai",
    "missed_fire_policy": "fire_once",
    "no_overlap": true
  },
  "action": {
    "type": "query",
    "prompt": "Summarize today's calendar, todos, and important mail."
  },
  "tags": ["report"]
}

Field	Description
id	Schedule ID, unique inside the agent
display_name	Name shown in the Automation panel
enabled	Whether the schedule is enabled
status	pending, active, paused, completed, or cancelled
schedule.kind	Trigger type, commonly at, delay, interval, or cron
schedule.at / delay / interval / cron	Time parameter for the selected trigger type
schedule.timezone	IANA timezone, commonly used by at and cron
schedule.starts_at / expires_at	Active and expiry windows
schedule.max_fires	Maximum number of fires
schedule.missed_fire_policy	Missed-fire policy: skip, fire_once, or fire_all
schedule.no_overlap	Whether to skip a fire while the previous execution is still running
action.type	Usually query, meaning the scheduler sends a prompt to the agent; the schema also keeps heartbeat as a compatibility action type, while heartbeat monitoring should be managed through heartbeat settings
action.prompt	Instruction sent at trigger time
retry	Optional retry configuration
failureAlert	Optional consecutive-failure alert configuration

The regular UI and CreateSchedule tool mainly create at, delay, interval, and cron schedules. The lower-level schedule definition also includes rrule for more complex iCalendar rules.

memory/_policy.json -- Memory Policy

memory/_policy.json controls conversation memory compression and retention.

{
  "compression": {
    "enabled": true,
    "max_recent_matters": 20,
    "strategy": "summarize"
  },
  "retention": {
    "pinned": "forever",
    "topics": "forever",
    "timeline": {
      "recent": "90d",
      "archive_after": "180d"
    }
  }
}

Field	Description
compression.enabled	Enables automatic compression; manual compression can still be called
compression.max_recent_matters	Maximum recent topics before older ones are archived
compression.strategy	Compression strategy, currently summarize
retention.pinned	Retention for pinned memories
retention.topics	Retention for topic summaries
retention.timeline	Recent/archive windows for timelines

Legacy threshold_days is read compatibly as max_recent_matters; new files should use max_recent_matters.

Memory Files

Memory files are Markdown files under memory/, with optional frontmatter for type, importance, creation time, and source.

---
type: preference
importance: high
created: 2026-01-15T10:30:00Z
source: user_teaching
---

# User Preference: Contract Review

The user prefers seeing payment terms and breach liability first, then confidentiality, intellectual property, and dispute resolution.
Mark penalties above 30% of contract value in red.
Call out confidentiality periods shorter than 2 years.
Preferred report format: summary first, then details.

Frontmatter Field	Description
type	Memory type, such as fact, preference, experience, or rule
importance	Importance: high, medium, or low
created	Creation time
source	Source, such as user_teaching, interaction, or reflection

Receipts

Receipts record task goals, steps, tool calls, outputs, risks, and timing. They are used for audit and traceability.

receipt_id: "rcpt_20260115_143022_abc123"
repo_ref: "a1b2c3d4..."
session:
  session_id: "sess_xyz789"
  agent_id: "legal-advisor"
  user_id: "user_001"
task:
  input_summary: "Review supplier contract clause 3"
  output_summary: "Found 2 high-risk clauses"
  outcome:
    status: completed
step_types:
  deterministic: 3
  adaptive: 5
  human_gate: 1
time_metrics:
  agent_execution_time: 45
  actual_human_time: 120

Receipts may also include session ID, agent ID, repository reference, approval state, tool-call chain, file-change summary, and error reasons. They are system-generated audit material rather than files users normally write by hand.

Directory Conventions

Path	Management	Description
agents/<id>/	Git-managed	Agent body; shareable and publishable
users/<id>/	Local private	User profile, preferences, relationship memory
runs/	Local runtime records	Sessions, receipts, audit records
cache/	Rebuildable	Indexes, market cache, temporary data
logs/	Local logs	App and service logs