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Liner

Maintain a Project with an Agent

A completed Liner Project already carries a Project Skill that teaches an AI session how to use its saved research. Install the optional Maintenance Adapter when you also want Codex or Claude to update Project or Source state through Liner’s safe maintenance workflow.

The adapter is a thin routing skill. It reads the installed CLI’s current guidance and never edits liner.yaml, tape.yaml, LINER.md, SKILL.md, or MIXTAPE.md directly.

Install The Optional Adapter

Section titled “Install The Optional Adapter”

Use a persistent Liner install so the agent can call the same compatible CLI later:

$npm install -g linershliner adapters inspect codexliner adapters install codex --yes

For Claude Code:

$liner adapters inspect claudeliner adapters install claude --yes

Installation is explicit. Liner reports the target environment, version, managed files, compatibility, and file effects before writing. It preserves user-authored files and text outside its managed content.

Ask For One Concrete Change

Section titled “Ask For One Concrete Change”

Open Codex or Claude Code where it can read the Liner Project, then make a scoped request:

Inspect this Liner Project. Add the current Apple App Review Guidelines as a required Source, tell me which derived artifacts become stale, and show any approval-required plan before applying it.

The Maintenance Adapter tells the agent to start with:

$liner project guidance <project> --format markdownliner project inspect <project> --json

The running CLI—not the skill—defines the available operations, compatibility rules, and remediation.

Preview Before Apply

Section titled “Preview Before Apply”

Every supported change follows the same contract:

  1. A read-only Project Snapshot records identity, revision, compatibility, Sources, and lifecycle state.
  2. A write-free Project Change Set lists the exact operations, file effects, risk, and refresh consequences.
  3. When approval_required is true, the agent stops and waits for a fresh Curator response to that exact preview.
  4. Liner revalidates the Project and plan before applying it.
  5. A durable, redacted Change Receipt records what changed without copying Source bodies or private curator notes.

The immutable Project ID binds all three records to the same Project even after a rename or move. Source operations target immutable Source IDs so similarly named or duplicate-looking entries cannot be changed by accident. Receipts are stored inside the Project under mixtape/.liner-runs/maintenance/.

Additive and metadata-only changes may continue after validation when Core says approval is not required. Remove, purge, semantic replacement, Project moves, and other higher-risk changes keep their explicit approval gates.

What The Agent Can Maintain

Section titled “What The Agent Can Maintain”

The installed adapter can route supported requests to:

  • inspect Project identity, compatibility, lifecycle state, and Sources
  • add or update a Source while preserving Source identity
  • replace a Source with explicit predecessor and successor lineage
  • remove a Source into the Retention Vault or separately approve a destructive purge
  • rename or move a Project without changing Project identity
  • refresh stale corpus and Operating Layer state through review gates
  • update managed Project guidance or pointer blocks without overwriting user content

Recoverable Project Deletion

Section titled “Recoverable Project Deletion”

The terminal UI also exposes Delete Project under Maintain project. This is implemented as an identity-preserving Project move, not file erasure. You must type the exact Project name and approve the exact destination; Liner then moves the whole folder out of the active Project library into a reviewed Liner Trash path and writes a Change Receipt.

The archived folder keeps its Project ID and user-authored files. To restore it, inspect the trash path and use the ordinary identity-preserving Project move workflow to move it back to an unoccupied destination in your Project library.

Three Different Skill Surfaces

Section titled “Three Different Skill Surfaces”
Surface Purpose Can become active instructions?
Project Skill Lives at the Project root and teaches an AI how to use that Project’s research and Operating Layer. Yes, as the Project’s canonical entrypoint.
Maintenance Adapter Installs explicitly into Codex or Claude and routes maintenance to liner project guidance. Yes, after you install it.
type: skill Source Adds another skill’s text to the Mixtape as evidence or an example. No. It remains inert source material.

The Maintenance Adapter does not replace the Project Skill, and a type: skill Source never installs or activates instructions.

Inspect, Update, Or Remove The Adapter

Section titled “Inspect, Update, Or Remove The Adapter”
$liner adapters inspect codexliner adapters update codex --yesliner adapters remove codex --yes

Use claude for Claude Code. Update and removal touch only verified Liner-managed content. If compatibility or managed state is ambiguous, Liner fails closed and prints the exact remediation instead of overwriting the target.