# Tambo agent primer
## What Tambo is
Tambo installs and proves the Quipu stack: quipu, camayoc, bobbin, yupana,
desire-path and the stack members (seeds, chaski, shuttle), plus a crew runtime.
It writes a reviewable plan, converges the machine to it, and proves each tool
by version read-back and a functional round trip. It never does a tool's job.
## Agent workflow
1. Run `tambo prime` to see which stack tools are installed and their state.
2. Run `tambo doctor` before an install; it changes nothing.
3. Write or review a plan (`tambo plan`, `tambo init --guided`) before `tambo apply`.
4. Prove the result with `tambo verify`; trust its output over an exit code.
5. Use `tambo check-updates` before `tambo update`.
## Core commands
| `tambo prime` | Print this primer and each installed tool's `prime --brief` |
| `tambo quickstart` | Install the local single-user stack with no interview |
| `tambo doctor` | Report what would stop an install, without changing anything |
| `tambo init --guided` | Run the resumable interview and write a plan |
| `tambo plan --profile <p>` | Write a reviewable plan for a profile |
| `tambo apply` / `tambo verify` | Converge to the plan, then prove each tool works |
| `tambo install` | Apply and verify in one step |
| `tambo check-updates` / `tambo update` | Report and converge drift from reviewed releases |
| `tambo update-self` | Update Tambo from a checksummed release |
Run `tambo help <command>` for the exact syntax of any command.
## MCP tools
None. Tambo registers the stack's MCP servers (`tambo project-settings`) but serves none.
## Rikuy site
Rikuy is a static browser brief, with no stack binary to probe. Set `RIKUY_URL`
or pass `tambo prime --rikuy-url https://your-brief.example/` to read only the
site's `source.json`. It runs beside binary probes with a subsecond deadline,
64 KiB response cap and no redirects, retries, credentials or curl config.
The result reports static-site reachability, revision and `generated_at` when
present. Missing generation time stays unknown; it is never the HTTP Date or
check time. This does not measure live brief freshness or activate a reader.
An unconfigured optional site does not degrade the stack summary. A configured
failure keeps its unreachable/unreadable category; only a deadline is partial.
`--static` skips this GET as well as all binary probes.
## Next steps
- Book: <https://intigraph.github.io/tambo/>
- The stack prime contract: <https://github.com/intigraph/tambo/blob/main/docs/stack/PRIME-CONTRACT.md>
- Skill: <https://github.com/intigraph/tambo/blob/main/skills/tambo/SKILL.md>