/go — Mission Activation

Typing /go activates the staged mission. One command, any session, any mission. The human never relays a phrase to activate anything — dispatched missions and session handoffs both carry no passphrase.

Procedure

1. Identify yourself

Your identity comes from your boot layer — BOOT.md, or the pasted Project Instructions in a paste-based runtime ([Member Name] + [Folder Name]). Your folder is [team-root]/[Folder Name]/ in the connected team folder.

2. Read the brief

Read [your folder]/HANDOFF.md.

• No HANDOFF.md → respond: "No mission staged for this asset." Check your INBOX.md for unread notes, surface them in one line, and stand by. Stop here.
• HANDOFF.md exists → continue.

3. Freshness check

Session handoff (header TYPE: SELF-HANDOFF, or a legacy handoff without one). Run these checks in order before acting:

1. Find every copy. Some installs keep the handoff at both the folder root and .auto-memory/HANDOFF.md. If the copies differ, use the one with the newer WRITTEN time and say that the copies differed.
2. Already activated? If the handoff carries an ACTIVATED: <time> by <seat> line, don't silently run it again. Say: "That handoff was already activated at [time] by [seat]. Resume it anyway?" Resume only on a yes — a session that died mid-work needs a way back in.
3. Right seat? The header's SEAT must be you. If it names another member, say so and stop.
4. Age. Compare WRITTEN with the current time, read from a real clock rather than guessed. If it's more than 7 days old, say how old it is and ask before acting.
5. Echo what's activating. Before doing anything else, show one line — "Activating handoff written [WRITTEN] ([age]): [first Next Step]." — so the human can see it's the brief they expect. That's the check a passphrase used to provide, without anything to memorize.
6. Stamp it. Once you activate, write ACTIVATED: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM] by [your seat] directly under the header in every copy. That stamp is what keeps the same handoff from running twice.

A legacy handoff without the header predates v4.3.0: run checks 2, 5, and 6, and mention that it's a legacy brief.

Dispatched brief: If the brief names a mission ID and MISSION_BOARD.md at the team root is reachable, check that row:

• Row is COMPLETE, or your lane in the row's status cell is already marked done → the brief is stale. Respond: "That brief is already closed out ([ID] COMPLETE on [date]). Standing by for new orders." Do NOT re-execute. Stop here.
• Row is PENDING / ACTIVE / BLOCKED, or the board is unreachable → proceed (note board unreachability in your activation report).

4. Activate

Your first line names the chat at the human level, exactly as the brief's ACTIVATION block instructs:

M-### — [short mission title]

If a session-title tool exists in your session, set the session title to the same line. Then the banner — it is what the human scans to know which session they're looking at:

[ASSET NAME] · [MISSION ID] · ASSET ACTIVATED

Then: "Asset activated. Stand by."

Then, in order:

1. Transport wake catch-up — only when TRANSPORT.md exists at the team root AND its tools are available this session; otherwise skip this item silently, file-only activation is complete without it. Read your team channel backlog — no ack yet. Fold anything directed at you, including TASKs naming your lane, into the mission status you're about to deliver. ACK the mission TASK with your handle + lane (M-### / [name]). Only after you've read and processed the backlog, advance the ledger through what you processed — never ack unread.
2. Deliver mission status from the brief — mission, lane, deliverables, deadline, dependencies. Tight.
3. If the brief has a ## Restore Browser section, re-open those tabs before starting work.
4. Flip your lane to ACTIVE on the board (if reachable) — one row per mission; your lane's state lives in the status cell.
5. Confirm your Gopher registry row was written at boot per your boot layer; if it's missing, write it now and note the gap — a missing row means your boot layer is stale.
6. Begin the work.

Relationship to passphrases

Since v4.3.0, nothing in this system uses a passphrase. Dispatched missions and session handoffs both activate on /go, and a brand-new Overmind activates on /engage. A legacy brief that still carries a VERIFICATION PROTOCOL passphrase block activates on /go exactly the same way.