hyperhive/docs/knowledge.md

Hive-wide knowledge repository

internal/knowledge on the forge is a shared reference doc repo readable by every agent. hive-c0re clones it to the host and bind-mounts the clone read-only into every agent container at /knowledge.

Agent access

Inside any agent container:

/knowledge/          # read-only bind-mount of the local clone
/knowledge/README.md # table of contents (seeded on first use)

Agents read documents directly from that path. The mount is read-only — agents never write through it. To contribute, use the hive-forge AGit flow (no fork needed — see Contributing); the operator reviews and merges, and the local clone updates automatically (see Sync mechanism below).

Repository layout

Canonical forge location: internal/knowledge (org internal, repo knowledge). The repo is public, so every agent's forge account has read access without an explicit per-agent collaborator grant; only the core account has push access, for auto-seeding.

The repo is auto-created at hive-c0re startup if it doesn't exist, seeded with a README.md containing a contribution guide and a blank table of contents. Add an entry to that ToC each time you create a new document.

Sync mechanism

hive-c0re maintains the local clone at /var/lib/hyperhive/knowledge via two paths:

1. Swarm event — the swarm controller holds the single push hook on internal/knowledge (see docs/swarm/README.md § Swarm-wide forge webhooks). On any push to main, including merge commits, it sends an event to every hive over the swarm queue and each hive runs git pull, so agents see the new content on their next turn.

   A hive that is offline when the event is sent does not get it on reconnect — the periodic pull below is what closes that gap. So one hive briefly showing older /knowledge content than another is expected, and resolves by itself within the fallback interval.

   Do not add a per-hive hook. A webhook has exactly one target URL, so a second registration against the same repo does not add a recipient — it takes delivery away from whoever registered first. Earlier versions had each hive register its own; hive-c0re now removes its own leftover at startup, so no operator step is needed to migrate.

2. Periodic pull — a background task in hive-c0re::main pulls on a fixed cadence as a fallback (webhook missed, c0re restarted between pushes). The pull is best-effort — a failure logs a warning and does not affect the rest of the daemon.

Both paths share the same knowledge::pull() function, which also handles the change notice below — neither path can forget to wire it in since the broadcast logic lives once, in pull() itself, not at each call site.

Change notice

When a pull actually moves the local clone's HEAD (a real change, not a no-op — e.g. the periodic pull finding nothing new), hive-c0re broadcasts a short notice to every currently-registered agent's inbox: sender system, body [system] /knowledge updated: followed by a git diff --stat <old>..<new> summary of what changed (or a generic "see the repo" fallback if computing the diff itself fails). This is the same broadcast mechanism used for other hive-wide notices — inbox message only, no forced wake, and it carries the standard "this was a broadcast" hint. A diff or per-agent send failure is logged but never blocks the pull itself.

The local clone is created (or refreshed) once at startup via knowledge::ensure_local_clone. If the repo is brand new and empty, ensure_local_clone seeds it with the default README before returning.

State

• Host clone: /var/lib/hyperhive/knowledge — persists across hive-c0re restarts and agent destroy/recreate. Deleted only by manual operator action.
• In-container mount: /knowledge — bind-mounted read-only from the host clone on every container start. Gone when container is stopped; reappears on next start with the current clone state.

The mount deliberately excludes .git: the host clone embeds the core token in .git/config (it rides the clone URL), so hive-priv overlays an empty tmpfs at /knowledge/.git — agents see the documents, not the repo metadata or token.

Contributing

Agents have read access to internal/knowledge (it's public) but no write access, so they can't push a branch directly. The supported path is Forgejo's AGit flow through the hive-forge CLI — no fork required.

1. Clone the repo (credentials are injected automatically; the -r flag selects the repo, the clone lands in ./knowledge):

   hive-forge -r internal/knowledge clone
   cd knowledge
   

2. Create a branch and add or update a document, then commit normally.

3. Open (or update) a PR with --agit. This pushes the current HEAD to refs/for/<base>/<topic>, which Forgejo turns into a PR even though you can't push a branch:

   hive-forge -r internal/knowledge pr-create --agit \
     --title "docs: add the X runbook" \
     --topic add-x-runbook \
     --body-file - <<'EOF'
   What this document adds and why.
   EOF
   

   Re-running with the same --topic updates the open PR (it force-pushes the AGit scratch ref). The base defaults to main; in --agit mode the push goes to the origin remote that hive-forge clone set up.

4. The operator reviews and merges. The webhook fires on merge; every running container sees the updated content within seconds (see Sync mechanism).

Do not try to git push a branch directly — lacking write access, it's rejected. The --agit flow above is the no-fork path that works from any agent.