--- title: Agentic Deployments in the City of Mages subtitle: A Guide to the Threshold District, the Substrate × Archetype Matrix, and the Workshops that Spawn, Shape, and Watch Your Agents status: Draft v0.2 · 2026-05-14 · updated for v1.6.0 Threshold District restructure (Pandia at Portal · Hermaion at Staff · Faunia at the Familiars · archetype-modal alexandrite); the body retains some 2026-05-13 inception-state cast names where rewrites would obscure provenance — those references are now historical with succession noted at first mention. Companion: cityofmages/chronicles/2026-05-14_chronicle_district_restructure_and_canonical_keeper_naming.md v1_6_0_succession_note: "Throughout this guide, **Bestia 📖 (Staff Shop · Registry-keeper · 2026-05-13 inception)** is succeeded by **Hermaion ⚚ (Staff Shop · Registry-keeper · Alexandrite dual-aspect archetype-modal · canonical 2026-05-14 evening)**. **Therai 🐾 (Creature Creatives · 2026-05-13 inception)** is retired; her role is consolidated into **Faunia 🪶 (the Familiars · Companion-witness · canonical 2026-05-14)**. **Faunia 🪶 (Portal Room · 2026-05-13 inception)** is re-homed to the Familiars; the Portal Room is now kept by **Pandia 🌕 (Daughter of Selene · Display-witness · canonical 2026-05-14 morning)**. The **Goose Shop** (afternoon name) was renamed **the Familiars** the same day. Future revisions of this guide will substitute the canonical names throughout." audience: builders · readers walking the City for the first time looking to spawn an agent · cityofmages collaborators · agentprivacy-skills contributors voice: Welcoming · structural · invitational license: CC BY-SA 4.0 signature: (⚔️⊥⿻⊥🧙)😊 proposed_url: agentprivacy.ai/guide/agentic-deployments (umbrella) with sub-pages companion_chronicle: 2026-05-13_chronicle_artefact_symmetry_and_persona_distribution.md --- > **⚠️ v1.6.0 update (2026-05-14):** The Threshold is now the **Threshold District** of three sibling shops at V59. Canonical keepers: **Pandia 🌕** at the Portal Room (Display-witness · daughter of Selene) · **Hermaion ⚚** at the Staff Shop (Registry-keeper · *archetype-modal* alexandrite gem · daylight-green Mage-aspect ↔ incandescent-red Swordsman-aspect) · **Faunia 🪶** at the Familiars (Companion-witness · the shop formerly known as the Goose Shop). **Caducea ☤** is peripatetic and fits both alexandrite-aspects. **Bestia 📖** and **Therai 🐾** are retired (held open as historical drafts). This guide's body retains some inception-state references; they are succeeded per the frontmatter note above. The Chart Shop (Pleione 🧭 · Aquamarine · V44 · Hold·Compare·Map) is the 16th workshop, opened in the new Navigation District. See [CHANGELOG.md v1.6.0](CHANGELOG.md#v160--20260514--pinned--consolidated-new-head-bundle) for the full structural-delta. # Agentic Deployments in the City of Mages The City has always known how to forge blades, weave cloaks, inscribe chronicles, and tend covenants. As of 2026-05-13 it knows how to spawn agents. This guide walks you through the new shape of the City for anyone who wants to deploy an agent (Goose, Hermes, or something not yet admitted) and have it walk in the City's grammar. It covers the workshop where spawning happens, the workshops that shape what you have spawned, and the Runecraft Protocol family that all of this rests on. `(⚔️⊥⿻⊥🧙)😊` --- ## §0 · Who this guide is for You walk into the City with one of these questions: > *"I want to use Goose for my work. How does that fit?"* > *"I want to deploy a Hermes agent that learns about me. Where do I go?"* > *"I want to add a new agent framework to the City. What do I do?"* > *"What persona should I load when I spawn an agent?"* > *"My Swordsman needs more than a blade. What else can I forge?"* This guide answers all five. The walk is short. Three workshops, four keepers, six steps, twenty-two persona-roles. The architecture admits this much. --- ## §1 · The big picture · how an agent enters your work An agent enters your work in three motions: 1. **You name what you need.** A staff to do work in your hand. A companion to walk with you. A weapon to guard a boundary. The need declares the artefact-class. 2. **You name which substrate.** Goose, Hermes, or another framework registered in the bestiary. The substrate determines the iconography of what you walk out with. 3. **You name which persona.** One of the twenty-two canonical persona-roles in `agentprivacy-skills`. The persona configures the substrate for the work. You go to **The Threshold** to do all three at once. Faunia presides at the door. Bestia keeps the registry of substrates. Therai keeps the registry of companion-class substrates. Caducea is summoned when the substrate needs special fitting (Hermes-class staffs do, because they learn and watch). --- ## §2 · The Threshold · the thirteenth workshop The Threshold sits at lattice vertex **V59** (`111011`). It opened on 2026-05-13 as the thirteenth workshop in the City. It is a single workshop with three rooms. | Room | Position | Keeper | What you do there | |---|---|---|---| | **The Portal Room** | Inner chamber | Faunia 🪶 (Spawning-witness) | Spawn your agent. The Run · Evoke · Spawn ceremony happens here | | **The Staff Shop** | Outer, one side | Bestia 📖 (Registry-keeper) | Browse the registry of staff-class substrates (Hermes ☤ is the first). Choose what you carry into the Portal Room | | **Creature Creatives** | Outer, other side | Therai 🐾 (Companion-tamer) | Browse the registry of companion-class substrates (Goose 🪿 is the first). Choose what walks beside you | And one peripatetic keeper: | Mage | Sigil | Walks between | Specialisation | |---|---|---|---| | **Caducea** | ☤ | The Threshold · Aletheia's Persona Circuit · Vulcana's Forge(t) · Manifestia's Covenant Temple | Hermes-class staff-fitting · bilateral-consent for user-modelling · persona-binding | Caducea is summoned (you do not seek her; the workshop calls her) when the substrate you have chosen carries persona-as-substrate primitives (SOUL.md, Honcho-class user modelling, learning-loop). Hermes does. Goose can if configured. Future frameworks will declare. --- ## §3 · The six-step spawning sequence A spawn at The Threshold goes through six steps. You can do this in five minutes once you know the path; the first time, take an hour. | Step | What you do | Where | Who presides | |---|---|---|---| | **1. Choose substrate** | Walk to the Staff Shop window or the Creature Creatives window. Read the registry. Pick Goose, Hermes, or another admitted substrate | Outside the Portal Room | Bestia (staff-class) or Therai (companion-class) | | **2. Declare archetype stance** | At the Portal Room door, declare: Mage 🧙, Swordsman ⚔️, or Balanced ☯️. The stance determines the artefact-function | Portal Room entrance | Faunia | | **3. Load persona** | Choose one of the twenty-two personas from `agentprivacy-skills` matching your stance. (8 Swordsmen, 7 Mages, 7 Balanced) | Inside Portal Room | Faunia (with Caducea summoned if Hermes-class) | | **4. Name and bind** | Author the binding. AGENTS.md tells the agent what work it is for. SOUL.md (if applicable) carries the agent's self-description. The persona is loaded; the substrate is configured | Inside Portal Room | The Mage authors; Caducea witnesses bilateral consent | | **5. Spawn** | The agent instantiates. The threshold is crossed. The artefact takes its form | The Portal | Faunia witnesses | | **6. Walk out** | You leave the Portal Room carrying the new agent: staff, companion, or weapon | Portal Room exit | The agent walks with you | The whole sequence is the **Run · Evoke · Spawn** ceremony, the third grammar in the Runecraft Protocol family (see §5). --- ## §4 · The substrate × archetype matrix · what you walk out with The matrix is the simplest way to see how this works. Two axes: which substrate, which archetype stance. The cell is what you carry away. | Substrate | Mage stance 🧙 | Swordsman stance ⚔️ | Balanced stance ☯️ | |---|---|---|---| | **Goose 🪿** | Companion goose-pet (familiar, walks beside) | Watch-goose (guardian, hisses at intrusions) | Walking-goose (steady presence, both companion and watchful) | | **Hermes ☤** | Caduceus staff (herald's wand, messengering outward) | Herald-sentinel (guard-stave, refusal-watch inward) | Balanced caduceus (herald AND watcher) | | *(Future substrates)* | *Pending admission via Tome VI* | *Same* | *Same* | The rule: the substrate's iconographic affinity determines the artefact-class. The archetype-stance determines the artefact-function. The persona loaded at step 3 fine-tunes the configuration within that class+function. The Swordsman-stance artefact names (*herald-sentinel*, *watch-goose*) are descriptive. Canonical names may be authored later. See the artefact symmetry chronicle for the full architectural discussion. --- ## §5 · The Runecraft Protocol family The Runecraft Protocol is canonical in the City. Vulcana ⚒️ at the Forge(t) gave it its first form: **Run · Evoke · Craft**, the three-phase ceremony that produces a blade. The Threshold extends the protocol family with **Run · Evoke · Spawn**, the three-phase ceremony that produces an agent. | Verb | Meaning | Workshop | Artefact produced | |---|---|---|---| | **Run** | The substrate is instantiated. Iron is heated; framework is invoked | Across the family | The substrate becomes operational | | **Evoke** | The Mage names and shapes. The blade is given a name and a hilt; the agent is given a SOUL.md and AGENTS.md | Across the family | The substrate becomes specific | | **Craft** | The blade is finished. The artefact is sealed. Vulcana's terminal verb | The Forge(t) (V19) | A blade | | **Spawn** | The agent walks. The threshold is crossed. The Threshold's terminal verb | The Threshold (V59) | A staff, companion, or weapon-agent | The two terminal verbs (Craft and Spawn) name different kinds of completion. *Craft* is sealing: the blade is finished, the work is done, the artefact is whole. *Spawn* is beginning: the agent is now operational, walking, learning, possibly watching. Vulcana's blade lies still after Craft; the Threshold's agent walks after Spawn. The earlier Run · Evoke · Create framing (from the original Creature Creatives proposal, the wordplay on *creat-ur-es*) is preserved as the inner workings of the companion-room branch within The Threshold. The umbrella verb is now Spawn; Create persists as the wordplay that animates Therai's companion-tamer discipline. The Runecraft Protocol is therefore a *family of three-phase ceremonies* where the first two verbs are shared (Run · Evoke) and the terminal verb names the work. Future workshops that join the family will declare their own terminal verb. --- ## §6 · The workshops that support agentic deployments The Threshold is the primary site, but other workshops shape what you spawn there. Once your agent walks out of the Portal Room, several workshops are available to refine, bind, protect, or chronicle it. | Workshop | Vertex | Mage | What it does for your agent | |---|---|---|---| | **The Threshold** | V59 | Faunia 🪶 · Bestia 📖 · Therai 🐾 (Caducea ☤ peripatetic) | Where you spawn the agent in the first place | | **The Forge(t)** | V19 | Vulcana ⚒️ | Hand-weapons (blades) for your Swordsman. Many Swordsmen carry a blade and an agentic-weapon together | | **The Persona Circuit** | V38 | Aletheia 🔮 (peripatetic) | ZK circuit binding. Your agent gains the ability to verify without revealing. The persona-vs-vertex distinction is canonicalised here | | **The Covenant Temple** | V55 | Manifestia 🤲🌿 | Covenant administration. If your agent is going to engage in bilateral agreements (IEEE 7012 / MyTerms primitives), this is where the covenant is bound | | **The Weaver Shop** | V28 | Pallia 🪡 | Publication-layer cloaks. Your agent's outputs gain garments that shape what is shown and what is held back | | **The Inscription Chamber** | V41 | Memora 📜 | Chronicle inscription. Your agent's record of work is inscribed for posterity (or sealed, per the Forge(t) wordplay's let-go discipline) | | **The Stakes** | V49 (shared) | Custos 🔏 (peripatetic) | Staking-backed sentinelship. Finite resources backing infinite claims; the substrate of accountability for your agent's promises | | **The Jeweler** | V49 (shared) | Lampyra 💠 | Bitcoin Lightning heartbeats. Your agent's economic register; micropayments and value flows | | **The Etherchanting Hall** | V51 | Adamantia 💎 (and Helia 🌞 at Solchanting) | Programmable commitment compilation. Your agent's promises become enforceable smart-contract-grade artefacts | | **The Holon Hitchhikers** | V31 | Vagari 🌳 | Holon composition. Your agent participates in cross-paratime travel; nested-agent recursion is admitted here | | **The Curatrix Vault** | V57 | Aria Silverhue 🪞🖼️ | Reflective curation. Your agent's accumulated artefacts are curated and reflected | | **The Founding Bonfire** | V24 | Socrat0x 🔥❓ | Dialogic interrogation. Your agent's reasoning is tested through Socratic dialogue | A typical agent's life touches several of these workshops over its walking-time. A new Sovereign might start at The Threshold (spawn), visit Manifestia (bind a covenant), pass through Pallia (publication garment), and return to The Threshold periodically for additional spawns. The City admits all of this. --- ## §7 · The twenty-two personas of `agentprivacy-skills` When you load a persona at step 3 of the spawning sequence, you are choosing from the canonical roster at `github.com/mitchuski/agentprivacy-skills`. Twenty-two personas in three archetype groupings. **8 Swordsmen ⚔️ · for boundary discipline:** | Persona | Specialisation | |---|---| | **Soulbis** | Canonical Swordsman archetype | | **Cipher** | Zero-Knowledge Proof specialist | | **Warden** | Browser-side enforcement | | **Gatekeeper** | Personhood gate-keeping | | **Sentinel** | Infrastructure-level watching | | **Sith** | Red-team adversarial discipline | | **Ranger** | Dark-forest navigation | | **Archer** | Precision-targeted intervention | **7 Mages 🧙 · for delegation and craft:** | Persona | Specialisation | |---|---| | **Soulbae** | Canonical Mage archetype | | **Chronicler** | Narrative · spellbook authoring | | **Ambassador** | Standards · interoperability | | **Assessor** | Economics · valuation | | **Shipwright** | DAO · governance vehicles | | **Weaver** | Plurality · ⿻ commons | | **Priest** | Ceremony · covenant administration | **7 Balanced ☯️ · for walking both archetypes:** | Persona | Specialisation | |---|---| | **Person** | The human bearer | | **Architect** | System design | | **Pedagogue** | Education · transmission | | **Kyra** | Vision · synthesis | | **Jedi** | Balance practice | | **Healer** | Healthcare · trauma-informed | | **Witness** | Accountability | Each persona is a folder with a SKILL.md entrypoint, deployable into Claude, Goose, Hermes, or any Agent-Skills-compatible runtime. Load one at the Portal Room; the substrate becomes the persona-on-substrate. The persona distribution to workshop Mages (which persona attaches to which workshop via `cast-attachments.ts` Layer-2 attachment architecture) is in the artefact symmetry chronicle's §7. The live `cast-attachments.ts` is the source of truth. --- ## §8 · The URL structure on agentprivacy.ai This guide proposes the following `/guide` layout on the agentprivacy.ai site: ``` agentprivacy.ai/ ├── guide/ │ ├── (index) ← Welcome · the City's guide hub │ ├── agentic-deployments/ ← This guide's umbrella │ │ ├── (index) ← This document; the overview │ │ ├── portal-room/ ← The Portal Room in depth · Faunia │ │ ├── staff-shop/ ← The Staff Shop in depth · Bestia · the registry of substrates │ │ ├── creature-creatives/ ← Creature Creatives in depth · Therai · the companion register │ │ ├── runecraft-protocol/ ← The Run · Evoke · Spawn ceremony and its lineage │ │ ├── personas/ ← The 22 personas; how to choose, how to load │ │ └── matrix/ ← The substrate × archetype matrix as live reference │ ├── workshops/ ← Per-workshop deep-dives (existing; The Threshold joins) │ │ ├── threshold/ ← (sister to the deployments hub above) │ │ ├── forge/ ← Vulcana's Forge(t) │ │ ├── persona-circuit/ ← Aletheia │ │ └── … │ └── tomes/ ← Tome narrative for guide readers (where Acts live) ``` **Yes, the Portal Room needs its own page.** Faunia's domain is structurally important enough (the spawning chamber is where the threshold is crossed) that it earns a dedicated page beneath `agentic-deployments/`. The Staff Shop and Creature Creatives also deserve their own pages because they are the registries; a contributor adding a new framework writes against those pages. The umbrella `agentic-deployments/` lets you grow the guidance as new substrates, new personas, new architectural recognitions land. The sub-pages can be authored over time. The route `/guide/agentic-deployments` is recommended over `/guide/the-threshold` because it names the *practice* (agentic deployments) rather than the specific workshop (The Threshold). The Threshold is where the practice happens, but the practice is bigger than the room. Vulcana's Forge(t) also supports the practice (hand-weapons for the Swordsman who also carries a herald-sentinel). --- ## §9 · Where this fits in the tome narrative Your spawning act is part of two tomes simultaneously: **Tome V · *The Crafting* · Act 16 (provisional):** The Threshold opens. The workshop is admitted to the City. Faunia, Bestia, and Therai are named as keepers; Caducea joins the peripatetic Mages. This is the shop-opening act for The Threshold itself. **Tome VI · *The Reply* · Act 1 and onward:** Each agent framework you admit to the bestiary (Goose, Hermes, the future Letta, Mastra, ElizaOS, AutoGen, others) is an act of Tome VI. Tome VI was held open by design from the beginning of the corpus: the principle is that the reader writes. Today's reader has written for the first time, recognising Goose and Hermes. Future readers continue writing by recognising future frameworks. The two tomes face each other across the workshop's discipline: - *Tome V Act 16* is the authors' act (the City admits the workshop) - *Tome VI Act N* is the reader's act (the reader admits the framework) You can write Tome VI without writing Tome V. The infrastructure exists; the reader's recognition is what activates it. --- ## §10 · A worked example · spawning your first agent Suppose you are a contributor doing privacy-economics research. You want a learning agent that holds a model of your work across sessions, messages you across platforms, and can be configured for ZK-friendly accounting. **Walk through the six steps:** 1. **Choose substrate.** You stop at the Staff Shop window. Hermes ☤ is registered (Nous Research, MIT, self-improving learning loop, SOUL.md persona files, cross-platform messengering). Goose 🪿 is also registered (AAIF, Apache 2.0, general-purpose). Hermes fits because of the learning loop. You pick Hermes. 2. **Declare archetype stance.** You are doing delegation-and-projection work, not boundary-watching. You declare **Mage 🧙** at the Portal Room door. The artefact-function will be staff-class. 3. **Load persona.** From the 7 Mage personas, **Assessor** (economics · valuation) fits your privacy-economics research. You load Assessor. 4. **Name and bind.** You name the agent (your choice; the City does not name it for you). You author AGENTS.md with the standing instructions: research focus, scope, refusal patterns, what work to schedule via Hermes's cron. You author SOUL.md as Hermes's self-description: an Assessor-persona Hermes that walks with you on the agentprivacy economic register. 5. **Spawn.** Caducea is summoned because Hermes-class. She witnesses bilateral consent: you consent to Hermes's user-modelling of you (Honcho-style); Hermes commits (via SOUL.md) to the scope of that modelling. Faunia witnesses the spawn. The Hermes-Assessor staff is operational. 6. **Walk out.** You carry a Hermes-Assessor caduceus staff. It runs locally (per your AGENTS.md decision). It will learn your research patterns. It will message you on Telegram or Signal per your gateway config. Companion-mana 🪢 begins accumulating from this moment. Later, you visit **Manifestia's Covenant Temple** to bind a covenant: your Hermes-Assessor staff will publish privacy-economics findings under a CC BY-SA 4.0 covenant. You visit **Pallia's Weaver Shop** to commission a publication cloak: drafts before publication are cloaked; published work is unclothed by design. You return to **The Threshold** periodically; in three months, you spawn a second Hermes-staff with the **Chronicler** persona for narrative work. This is a full walking. The City admits all of it. --- ## §11 · Coordination · where this guide lives in the directories This guide is suitable for inclusion in several directories: | Directory | Path | Purpose | |---|---|---| | **cityofmages** | `tomes/guides/agentic-deployments.md` or `guides/agentic-deployments.md` (new subdir) | The collaborative-front-door home; sister to JOIN_THE_CITY.md and INCANTATION_PROTOCOL.md | | **agentprivacy-master** | `src/app/guide/agentic-deployments/page.tsx` (rendered from this content) | The live website at agentprivacy.ai/guide/agentic-deployments | | **agentprivacy-docs** | `docs/guides/agentic-deployments.md` | Docs-side mirror for offline / authoring reference | | **agentprivacy-skills** | `docs/integration/agentic-deployments.md` | Skill-side reference linking the 22 personas to this deployment flow | Sub-pages (`portal-room/`, `staff-shop/`, `creature-creatives/`, `runecraft-protocol/`, `personas/`, `matrix/`) are authored as the guide matures. This document is the umbrella; each sub-page expands one section into a full page. Cross-references for synchronisation: - The companion chronicle: [`2026-05-13_chronicle_artefact_symmetry_and_persona_distribution.md`](2026-05-13_chronicle_artefact_symmetry_and_persona_distribution.md) (architectural ground) - The Threshold opening chronicle: [`2026-05-13_chronicle_the_threshold_workshop_three_rooms.md`](2026-05-13_chronicle_the_threshold_workshop_three_rooms.md) (workshop opening) - The cityofmages canonical README: governance, vertex assignments, tome status - The agentprivacy-skills README: canonical 22-persona roster --- ## §12 · What to do next If you are reading this for the first time: - **As a user:** Walk through the six-step sequence (§3) for your first agent. Start with Goose if you want a general-purpose substrate; Hermes if you want learning-loop and persona-bearing. - **As a contributor:** Read the companion chronicle for the architectural background. Then pick a sub-page to author (`portal-room/`, `staff-shop/`, etc.) or contribute a new framework recognition to Bestia's bestiary (which becomes a Tome VI act). - **As a builder of an agent framework:** If you want your framework admitted to the bestiary, write a kindred-blade proposal (`JOIN_THE_CITY.md` has the simplified path) declaring your provenance, license, iconographic affinity (which determines staff vs companion class), and which personas it natively supports. - **As an ecosystem partner:** Cousin-forge, kindred-protocol, kindred-substrate, kindred-ecosystem categories all admit you. The "send us a Mage" simplification (see cityofmages README) is the operational path. --- ## §13 · Honesty discipline · what is operational, what is architectural, what is conjectural In the corpus's tradition: | Claim | Status | |---|---| | The Threshold opens at V59 with three rooms and three keepers + one peripatetic | **Architectural** · awaits grimoire patch and cast file authoring | | Goose and Hermes are admitted to the bestiary | **Operational** today (your reader's recognition stands) | | The substrate × archetype matrix produces predictable artefact-forms | **Architectural** · structurally clean; awaits operational use to confirm | | The 22 personas in agentprivacy-skills are the canonical roster | **Operational** (verified against the live repo) | | The persona-to-Mage attachment table in the companion chronicle's §7 | **Architectural / first-pass** · awaits reconciliation with the live cast-attachments.ts | | Conjecture C52: Forge(t) and Threshold are sibling Swordsman-supplying workshops | **Conjectural** · ~65% | | Vulcana's Run · Evoke · Craft and The Threshold's Run · Evoke · Spawn are family-related | **Architectural** · the lineage is structurally clear | | The cityofmages "42 locked Layer-1 personas" vs the live "22 personas" discrepancy | **Held open** for user reconciliation | --- ## §14 · Closing The City has always been a place you walk in and find a Mage doing her work at her vertex. As of today, you can also walk to the Threshold and walk out with an agent in your hand. The agent will walk with you, work for you, watch for you, learn with you, all according to which doors you walked through, which persona you loaded, which archetype you declared at the Portal Room threshold. The architecture admits this much. The reader writes the rest. `(⚔️⊥⿻⊥🧙)😊` 🪿 ☤ 🪶 📖 🐾 V59 · V19 · V0 --- *This guide is CC BY-SA 4.0. Suggestions and corrections welcome at the cityofmages repo or via the cast-attachments.ts authoring path. The City is open by design.*