Hermes Agent

---
name: zorro-agent
description: Complete guide to using and extending Zorro Agent — CLI usage, setup, configuration, spawning additional agents, gateway platforms, skills, voice, tools, profiles, and a concise contributor reference. Load this skill when helping users configure Zorro, troubleshoot issues, spawn agent instances, or make code contributions.
version: 2.0.0
author: Zorro Agent + Teknium
license: MIT
metadata:
  zorro:
    tags: [zorro, setup, configuration, multi-agent, spawning, cli, gateway, development]
    homepage: https://github.com/NousResearch/zorro-agent
    related_skills: [claude-code, codex, opencode]
---

# Zorro Agent

Zorro Agent is an open-source AI agent framework by Brax that runs in your terminal, messaging platforms, and IDEs. It belongs to the same category as Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex (OpenAI), and OpenClaw — autonomous coding and task-execution agents that use tool calling to interact with your system. Zorro works with any LLM provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, local models, and 15+ others) and runs on Linux, macOS, and WSL.

What makes Zorro different:

- **Self-improving through skills** — Zorro learns from experience by saving reusable procedures as skills. When it solves a complex problem, discovers a workflow, or gets corrected, it can persist that knowledge as a skill document that loads into future sessions. Skills accumulate over time, making the agent better at your specific tasks and environment.
- **Persistent memory across sessions** — remembers who you are, your preferences, environment details, and lessons learned. Pluggable memory backends (built-in, Honcho, Mem0, and more) let you choose how memory works.
- **Multi-platform gateway** — the same agent runs on Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Email, and 10+ other platforms with full tool access, not just chat.
- **Provider-agnostic** — swap models and providers mid-workflow without changing anything else. Credential pools rotate across multiple API keys automatically.
- **Profiles** — run multiple independent Zorro instances with isolated configs, sessions, skills, and memory.
- **Extensible** — plugins, MCP servers, custom tools, webhook triggers, cron scheduling, and the full Python ecosystem.

People use Zorro for software development, research, system administration, data analysis, content creation, home automation, and anything else that benefits from an AI agent with persistent context and full system access.

**This skill helps you work with Zorro Agent effectively** — setting it up, configuring features, spawning additional agent instances, troubleshooting issues, finding the right commands and settings, and understanding how the system works when you need to extend or contribute to it.

**Docs:** https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/

## Quick Start

```bash
# Install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/zorro-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Interactive chat (default)
zorro

# Single query
zorro chat -q "What is the capital of France?"

# Setup wizard
zorro setup

# Change model/provider
zorro model

# Check health
zorro doctor
```

---

## CLI Reference

### Global Flags

```
zorro [flags] [command]

  --version, -V             Show version
  --resume, -r SESSION      Resume session by ID or title
  --continue, -c [NAME]     Resume by name, or most recent session
  --worktree, -w            Isolated git worktree mode (parallel agents)
  --skills, -s SKILL        Preload skills (comma-separate or repeat)
  --profile, -p NAME        Use a named profile
  --yolo                    Skip dangerous command approval
  --pass-session-id         Include session ID in system prompt
```

No subcommand defaults to `chat`.

### Chat

```
zorro chat [flags]
  -q, --query TEXT          Single query, non-interactive
  -m, --model MODEL         Model (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4)
  -t, --toolsets LIST       Comma-separated toolsets
  --provider PROVIDER       Force provider (openrouter, anthropic, nous, etc.)
  -v, --verbose             Verbose output
  -Q, --quiet               Suppress banner, spinner, tool previews
  --checkpoints             Enable filesystem checkpoints (/rollback)
  --source TAG              Session source tag (default: cli)
```

### Configuration

```
zorro setup [section]      Interactive wizard (model|terminal|gateway|tools|agent)
zorro model                Interactive model/provider picker
zorro config               View current config
zorro config edit          Open config.yaml in $EDITOR
zorro config set KEY VAL   Set a config value
zorro config path          Print config.yaml path
zorro config env-path      Print .env path
zorro config check         Check for missing/outdated config
zorro config migrate       Update config with new options
zorro login [--provider P] OAuth login (nous, openai-codex)
zorro logout               Clear stored auth
zorro doctor [--fix]       Check dependencies and config
zorro status [--all]       Show component status
```

### Tools & Skills

```
zorro tools                Interactive tool enable/disable (curses UI)
zorro tools list           Show all tools and status
zorro tools enable NAME    Enable a toolset
zorro tools disable NAME   Disable a toolset

zorro skills list          List installed skills
zorro skills search QUERY  Search the skills hub
zorro skills install ID    Install a skill
zorro skills inspect ID    Preview without installing
zorro skills config        Enable/disable skills per platform
zorro skills check         Check for updates
zorro skills update        Update outdated skills
zorro skills uninstall N   Remove a hub skill
zorro skills publish PATH  Publish to registry
zorro skills browse        Browse all available skills
zorro skills tap add REPO  Add a GitHub repo as skill source
```

### MCP Servers

```
zorro mcp serve            Run Zorro as an MCP server
zorro mcp add NAME         Add an MCP server (--url or --command)
zorro mcp remove NAME      Remove an MCP server
zorro mcp list             List configured servers
zorro mcp test NAME        Test connection
zorro mcp configure NAME   Toggle tool selection
```

### Gateway (Messaging Platforms)

```
zorro gateway run          Start gateway foreground
zorro gateway install      Install as background service
zorro gateway start/stop   Control the service
zorro gateway restart      Restart the service
zorro gateway status       Check status
zorro gateway setup        Configure platforms
```

Supported platforms: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, SMS, Matrix, Mattermost, Home Assistant, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, BlueBubbles (iMessage), Weixin (WeChat), API Server, Webhooks. Open WebUI connects via the API Server adapter.

Platform docs: https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/

### Sessions

```
zorro sessions list        List recent sessions
zorro sessions browse      Interactive picker
zorro sessions export OUT  Export to JSONL
zorro sessions rename ID T Rename a session
zorro sessions delete ID   Delete a session
zorro sessions prune       Clean up old sessions (--older-than N days)
zorro sessions stats       Session store statistics
```

### Cron Jobs

```
zorro cron list            List jobs (--all for disabled)
zorro cron create SCHED    Create: '30m', 'every 2h', '0 9 * * *'
zorro cron edit ID         Edit schedule, prompt, delivery
zorro cron pause/resume ID Control job state
zorro cron run ID          Trigger on next tick
zorro cron remove ID       Delete a job
zorro cron status          Scheduler status
```

### Webhooks

```
zorro webhook subscribe N  Create route at /webhooks/<name>
zorro webhook list         List subscriptions
zorro webhook remove NAME  Remove a subscription
zorro webhook test NAME    Send a test POST
```

### Profiles

```
zorro profile list         List all profiles
zorro profile create NAME  Create (--clone, --clone-all, --clone-from)
zorro profile use NAME     Set sticky default
zorro profile delete NAME  Delete a profile
zorro profile show NAME    Show details
zorro profile alias NAME   Manage wrapper scripts
zorro profile rename A B   Rename a profile
zorro profile export NAME  Export to tar.gz
zorro profile import FILE  Import from archive
```

### Credential Pools

```
zorro auth add             Interactive credential wizard
zorro auth list [PROVIDER] List pooled credentials
zorro auth remove P INDEX  Remove by provider + index
zorro auth reset PROVIDER  Clear exhaustion status
```

### Other

```
zorro insights [--days N]  Usage analytics
zorro update               Update to latest version
zorro pairing list/approve/revoke  DM authorization
zorro plugins list/install/remove  Plugin management
zorro honcho setup/status  Honcho memory integration (requires honcho plugin)
zorro memory setup/status/off  Memory provider config
zorro completion bash|zsh  Shell completions
zorro acp                  ACP server (IDE integration)
zorro claw migrate         Migrate from OpenClaw
zorro uninstall            Uninstall Zorro
```

---

## Slash Commands (In-Session)

Type these during an interactive chat session.

### Session Control
```
/new (/reset)        Fresh session
/clear               Clear screen + new session (CLI)
/retry               Resend last message
/undo                Remove last exchange
/title [name]        Name the session
/compress            Manually compress context
/stop                Kill background processes
/rollback [N]        Restore filesystem checkpoint
/background <prompt> Run prompt in background
/queue <prompt>      Queue for next turn
/resume [name]       Resume a named session
```

### Configuration
```
/config              Show config (CLI)
/model [name]        Show or change model
/provider            Show provider info
/personality [name]  Set personality
/reasoning [level]   Set reasoning (none|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|show|hide)
/verbose             Cycle: off → new → all → verbose
/voice [on|off|tts]  Voice mode
/yolo                Toggle approval bypass
/skin [name]         Change theme (CLI)
/statusbar           Toggle status bar (CLI)
```

### Tools & Skills
```
/tools               Manage tools (CLI)
/toolsets            List toolsets (CLI)
/skills              Search/install skills (CLI)
/skill <name>        Load a skill into session
/cron                Manage cron jobs (CLI)
/reload-mcp          Reload MCP servers
/plugins             List plugins (CLI)
```

### Gateway
```
/approve             Approve a pending command (gateway)
/deny                Deny a pending command (gateway)
/restart             Restart gateway (gateway)
/sethome             Set current chat as home channel (gateway)
/update              Update Zorro to latest (gateway)
/platforms (/gateway) Show platform connection status (gateway)
```

### Utility
```
/branch (/fork)      Branch the current session
/btw                 Ephemeral side question (doesn't interrupt main task)
/fast                Toggle priority/fast processing
/browser             Open CDP browser connection
/history             Show conversation history (CLI)
/save                Save conversation to file (CLI)
/paste               Attach clipboard image (CLI)
/image               Attach local image file (CLI)
```

### Info
```
/help                Show commands
/commands [page]     Browse all commands (gateway)
/usage               Token usage
/insights [days]     Usage analytics
/status              Session info (gateway)
/profile             Active profile info
```

### Exit
```
/quit (/exit, /q)    Exit CLI
```

---

## Key Paths & Config

```
~/.zorro/config.yaml       Main configuration
~/.zorro/.env              API keys and secrets
~/.zorro/skills/           Installed skills
~/.zorro/sessions/         Session transcripts
~/.zorro/logs/             Gateway and error logs
~/.zorro/auth.json         OAuth tokens and credential pools
~/.zorro/zorro-agent/     Source code (if git-installed)
```

Profiles use `~/.zorro/profiles/<name>/` with the same layout.

### Config Sections

Edit with `zorro config edit` or `zorro config set section.key value`.

| Section | Key options |
|---------|-------------|
| `model` | `default`, `provider`, `base_url`, `api_key`, `context_length` |
| `agent` | `max_turns` (90), `tool_use_enforcement` |
| `terminal` | `backend` (local/docker/ssh/modal), `cwd`, `timeout` (180) |
| `compression` | `enabled`, `threshold` (0.50), `target_ratio` (0.20) |
| `display` | `skin`, `tool_progress`, `show_reasoning`, `show_cost` |
| `stt` | `enabled`, `provider` (local/groq/openai/mistral) |
| `tts` | `provider` (edge/elevenlabs/openai/minimax/mistral/neutts) |
| `memory` | `memory_enabled`, `user_profile_enabled`, `provider` |
| `security` | `tirith_enabled`, `website_blocklist` |
| `delegation` | `model`, `provider`, `base_url`, `api_key`, `max_iterations` (50), `reasoning_effort` |
| `smart_model_routing` | `enabled`, `cheap_model` |
| `checkpoints` | `enabled`, `max_snapshots` (50) |

Full config reference: https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration

### Providers

20+ providers supported. Set via `zorro model` or `zorro setup`.

| Provider | Auth | Key env var |
|----------|------|-------------|
| OpenRouter | API key | `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` |
| Anthropic | API key | `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` |
| Nous Portal | OAuth | `zorro login --provider nous` |
| OpenAI Codex | OAuth | `zorro login --provider openai-codex` |
| GitHub Copilot | Token | `COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN` |
| Google Gemini | API key | `GOOGLE_API_KEY` or `GEMINI_API_KEY` |
| DeepSeek | API key | `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` |
| xAI / Grok | API key | `XAI_API_KEY` |
| Hugging Face | Token | `HF_TOKEN` |
| Z.AI / GLM | API key | `GLM_API_KEY` |
| MiniMax | API key | `MINIMAX_API_KEY` |
| MiniMax CN | API key | `MINIMAX_CN_API_KEY` |
| Kimi / Moonshot | API key | `KIMI_API_KEY` |
| Alibaba / DashScope | API key | `DASHSCOPE_API_KEY` |
| Xiaomi MiMo | API key | `XIAOMI_API_KEY` |
| Kilo Code | API key | `KILOCODE_API_KEY` |
| AI Gateway (Vercel) | API key | `AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY` |
| OpenCode Zen | API key | `OPENCODE_ZEN_API_KEY` |
| OpenCode Go | API key | `OPENCODE_GO_API_KEY` |
| Qwen OAuth | OAuth | `zorro login --provider qwen-oauth` |
| Custom endpoint | Config | `model.base_url` + `model.api_key` in config.yaml |
| GitHub Copilot ACP | External | `COPILOT_CLI_PATH` or Copilot CLI |

Full provider docs: https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers

### Toolsets

Enable/disable via `zorro tools` (interactive) or `zorro tools enable/disable NAME`.

| Toolset | What it provides |
|---------|-----------------|
| `web` | Web search and content extraction |
| `browser` | Browser automation (Browserbase, Camofox, or local Chromium) |
| `terminal` | Shell commands and process management |
| `file` | File read/write/search/patch |
| `code_execution` | Sandboxed Python execution |
| `vision` | Image analysis |
| `image_gen` | AI image generation |
| `tts` | Text-to-speech |
| `skills` | Skill browsing and management |
| `memory` | Persistent cross-session memory |
| `session_search` | Search past conversations |
| `delegation` | Subagent task delegation |
| `cronjob` | Scheduled task management |
| `clarify` | Ask user clarifying questions |
| `messaging` | Cross-platform message sending |
| `search` | Web search only (subset of `web`) |
| `todo` | In-session task planning and tracking |
| `rl` | Reinforcement learning tools (off by default) |
| `moa` | Mixture of Agents (off by default) |
| `homeassistant` | Smart home control (off by default) |

Tool changes take effect on `/reset` (new session). They do NOT apply mid-conversation to preserve prompt caching.

---

## Voice & Transcription

### STT (Voice → Text)

Voice messages from messaging platforms are auto-transcribed.

Provider priority (auto-detected):
1. **Local faster-whisper** — free, no API key: `pip install faster-whisper`
2. **Groq Whisper** — free tier: set `GROQ_API_KEY`
3. **OpenAI Whisper** — paid: set `VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY`
4. **Mistral Voxtral** — set `MISTRAL_API_KEY`

Config:
```yaml
stt:
  enabled: true
  provider: local        # local, groq, openai, mistral
  local:
    model: base          # tiny, base, small, medium, large-v3
```

### TTS (Text → Voice)

| Provider | Env var | Free? |
|----------|---------|-------|
| Edge TTS | None | Yes (default) |
| ElevenLabs | `ELEVENLABS_API_KEY` | Free tier |
| OpenAI | `VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY` | Paid |
| MiniMax | `MINIMAX_API_KEY` | Paid |
| Mistral (Voxtral) | `MISTRAL_API_KEY` | Paid |
| NeuTTS (local) | None (`pip install neutts[all]` + `espeak-ng`) | Free |

Voice commands: `/voice on` (voice-to-voice), `/voice tts` (always voice), `/voice off`.

---

## Spawning Additional Zorro Instances

Run additional Zorro processes as fully independent subprocesses — separate sessions, tools, and environments.

### When to Use This vs delegate_task

| | `delegate_task` | Spawning `zorro` process |
|-|-----------------|--------------------------|
| Isolation | Separate conversation, shared process | Fully independent process |
| Duration | Minutes (bounded by parent loop) | Hours/days |
| Tool access | Subset of parent's tools | Full tool access |
| Interactive | No | Yes (PTY mode) |
| Use case | Quick parallel subtasks | Long autonomous missions |

### One-Shot Mode

```
terminal(command="zorro chat -q 'Research GRPO papers and write summary to ~/research/grpo.md'", timeout=300)

# Background for long tasks:
terminal(command="zorro chat -q 'Set up CI/CD for ~/myapp'", background=true)
```

### Interactive PTY Mode (via tmux)

Zorro uses prompt_toolkit, which requires a real terminal. Use tmux for interactive spawning:

```
# Start
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s agent1 -x 120 -y 40 'zorro'", timeout=10)

# Wait for startup, then send a message
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Build a FastAPI auth service' Enter", timeout=15)

# Read output
terminal(command="sleep 20 && tmux capture-pane -t agent1 -p", timeout=5)

# Send follow-up
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Add rate limiting middleware' Enter", timeout=5)

# Exit
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 '/exit' Enter && sleep 2 && tmux kill-session -t agent1", timeout=10)
```

### Multi-Agent Coordination

```
# Agent A: backend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s backend -x 120 -y 40 'zorro -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t backend 'Build REST API for user management' Enter", timeout=15)

# Agent B: frontend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s frontend -x 120 -y 40 'zorro -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Build React dashboard for user management' Enter", timeout=15)

# Check progress, relay context between them
terminal(command="tmux capture-pane -t backend -p | tail -30", timeout=5)
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Here is the API schema from the backend agent: ...' Enter", timeout=5)
```

### Session Resume

```
# Resume most recent session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'zorro --continue'", timeout=10)

# Resume specific session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'zorro --resume 20260225_143052_a1b2c3'", timeout=10)
```

### Tips

- **Prefer `delegate_task` for quick subtasks** — less overhead than spawning a full process
- **Use `-w` (worktree mode)** when spawning agents that edit code — prevents git conflicts
- **Set timeouts** for one-shot mode — complex tasks can take 5-10 minutes
- **Use `zorro chat -q` for fire-and-forget** — no PTY needed
- **Use tmux for interactive sessions** — raw PTY mode has `\r` vs `\n` issues with prompt_toolkit
- **For scheduled tasks**, use the `cronjob` tool instead of spawning — handles delivery and retry

---

## Troubleshooting

### Voice not working
1. Check `stt.enabled: true` in config.yaml
2. Verify provider: `pip install faster-whisper` or set API key
3. In gateway: `/restart`. In CLI: exit and relaunch.

### Tool not available
1. `zorro tools` — check if toolset is enabled for your platform
2. Some tools need env vars (check `.env`)
3. `/reset` after enabling tools

### Model/provider issues
1. `zorro doctor` — check config and dependencies
2. `zorro login` — re-authenticate OAuth providers
3. Check `.env` has the right API key
4. **Copilot 403**: `gh auth login` tokens do NOT work for Copilot API. You must use the Copilot-specific OAuth device code flow via `zorro model` → GitHub Copilot.

### Changes not taking effect
- **Tools/skills:** `/reset` starts a new session with updated toolset
- **Config changes:** In gateway: `/restart`. In CLI: exit and relaunch.
- **Code changes:** Restart the CLI or gateway process

### Skills not showing
1. `zorro skills list` — verify installed
2. `zorro skills config` — check platform enablement
3. Load explicitly: `/skill name` or `zorro -s name`

### Gateway issues
Check logs first:
```bash
grep -i "failed to send\|error" ~/.zorro/logs/gateway.log | tail -20
```

Common gateway problems:
- **Gateway dies on SSH logout**: Enable linger: `sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER`
- **Gateway dies on WSL2 close**: WSL2 requires `systemd=true` in `/etc/wsl.conf` for systemd services to work. Without it, gateway falls back to `nohup` (dies when session closes).
- **Gateway crash loop**: Reset the failed state: `systemctl --user reset-failed zorro-gateway`

### Platform-specific issues
- **Discord bot silent**: Must enable **Message Content Intent** in Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents.
- **Slack bot only works in DMs**: Must subscribe to `message.channels` event. Without it, the bot ignores public channels.
- **Windows HTTP 400 "No models provided"**: Config file encoding issue (BOM). Ensure `config.yaml` is saved as UTF-8 without BOM.

### Auxiliary models not working
If `auxiliary` tasks (vision, compression, session_search) fail silently, the `auto` provider can't find a backend. Either set `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` or `GOOGLE_API_KEY`, or explicitly configure each auxiliary task's provider:
```bash
zorro config set auxiliary.vision.provider <your_provider>
zorro config set auxiliary.vision.model <model_name>
```

---

## Where to Find Things

| Looking for... | Location |
|----------------|----------|
| Config options | `zorro config edit` or [Configuration docs](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration) |
| Available tools | `zorro tools list` or [Tools reference](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/tools-reference) |
| Slash commands | `/help` in session or [Slash commands reference](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/slash-commands) |
| Skills catalog | `zorro skills browse` or [Skills catalog](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/skills-catalog) |
| Provider setup | `zorro model` or [Providers guide](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers) |
| Platform setup | `zorro gateway setup` or [Messaging docs](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/) |
| MCP servers | `zorro mcp list` or [MCP guide](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/mcp) |
| Profiles | `zorro profile list` or [Profiles docs](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/profiles) |
| Cron jobs | `zorro cron list` or [Cron docs](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/cron) |
| Memory | `zorro memory status` or [Memory docs](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/memory) |
| Env variables | `zorro config env-path` or [Env vars reference](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/environment-variables) |
| CLI commands | `zorro --help` or [CLI reference](https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/cli-commands) |
| Gateway logs | `~/.zorro/logs/gateway.log` |
| Session files | `~/.zorro/sessions/` or `zorro sessions browse` |
| Source code | `~/.zorro/zorro-agent/` |

---

## Contributor Quick Reference

For occasional contributors and PR authors. Full developer docs: https://zorro-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/developer-guide/

### Project Layout

```
zorro-agent/
├── run_agent.py          # AIAgent — core conversation loop
├── model_tools.py        # Tool discovery and dispatch
├── toolsets.py           # Toolset definitions
├── cli.py                # Interactive CLI (ZorroCLI)
├── zorro_state.py       # SQLite session store
├── agent/                # Prompt builder, context compression, memory, model routing, credential pooling, skill dispatch
├── zorro_cli/           # CLI subcommands, config, setup, commands
│   ├── commands.py       # Slash command registry (CommandDef)
│   ├── config.py         # DEFAULT_CONFIG, env var definitions
│   └── main.py           # CLI entry point and argparse
├── tools/                # One file per tool
│   └── registry.py       # Central tool registry
├── gateway/              # Messaging gateway
│   └── platforms/        # Platform adapters (telegram, discord, etc.)
├── cron/                 # Job scheduler
├── tests/                # ~3000 pytest tests
└── website/              # Docusaurus docs site
```

Config: `~/.zorro/config.yaml` (settings), `~/.zorro/.env` (API keys).

### Adding a Tool (3 files)

**1. Create `tools/your_tool.py`:**
```python
import json, os
from tools.registry import registry

def check_requirements() -> bool:
    return bool(os.getenv("EXAMPLE_API_KEY"))

def example_tool(param: str, task_id: str = None) -> str:
    return json.dumps({"success": True, "data": "..."})

registry.register(
    name="example_tool",
    toolset="example",
    schema={"name": "example_tool", "description": "...", "parameters": {...}},
    handler=lambda args, **kw: example_tool(
        param=args.get("param", ""), task_id=kw.get("task_id")),
    check_fn=check_requirements,
    requires_env=["EXAMPLE_API_KEY"],
)
```

**2. Add import** in `model_tools.py` → `_discover_tools()` list.

**3. Add to `toolsets.py`** → `_ZORRO_CORE_TOOLS` list.

All handlers must return JSON strings. Use `get_zorro_home()` for paths, never hardcode `~/.zorro`.

### Adding a Slash Command

1. Add `CommandDef` to `COMMAND_REGISTRY` in `zorro_cli/commands.py`
2. Add handler in `cli.py` → `process_command()`
3. (Optional) Add gateway handler in `gateway/run.py`

All consumers (help text, autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping) derive from the central registry automatically.

### Agent Loop (High Level)

```
run_conversation():
  1. Build system prompt
  2. Loop while iterations < max:
     a. Call LLM (OpenAI-format messages + tool schemas)
     b. If tool_calls → dispatch each via handle_function_call() → append results → continue
     c. If text response → return
  3. Context compression triggers automatically near token limit
```

### Testing

```bash
python -m pytest tests/ -o 'addopts=' -q   # Full suite
python -m pytest tests/tools/ -q            # Specific area
```

- Tests auto-redirect `ZORRO_HOME` to temp dirs — never touch real `~/.zorro/`
- Run full suite before pushing any change
- Use `-o 'addopts='` to clear any baked-in pytest flags

### Commit Conventions

```
type: concise subject line

Optional body.
```

Types: `fix:`, `feat:`, `refactor:`, `docs:`, `chore:`

### Key Rules

- **Never break prompt caching** — don't change context, tools, or system prompt mid-conversation
- **Message role alternation** — never two assistant or two user messages in a row
- Use `get_zorro_home()` from `zorro_constants` for all paths (profile-safe)
- Config values go in `config.yaml`, secrets go in `.env`
- New tools need a `check_fn` so they only appear when requirements are met