dotHuman
Protocol Handbook v0.3

Your First dotHuman

Depth

The key elements to a working dotHuman, in order. (In a hurry? The Quickstart is the five-minute version of this.)

What dotHumanize builds into your folder. Before: a bare project folder with an agent hooked in but flying blind — its repeatability, auditability, and trust meters empty. Run dotHumanize (scaffold, then review: confirm facts, fix guesses, supply the why). After: the same folder now leads with a .human/ directory (Goals, Comprehension, Evergreen, captainslog.md) above your original files, and the meters are full.
Figure 1. What dotHumanize builds. Before: a bare folder, your agent flying blind (meters empty). Run it — scaffold, then review (confirm · fix · supply the why) — and after: a .human/ directory (Goals, Comprehension, Evergreen, captain's log) leads your project, and the repeatability · auditability · trust meters fill.
The dotHumanize transformation, two-layers view. Before: your project already holds an in-git bounds layer (.claude/, CLAUDE.md, constitution.md) plus work folders, so the meters are partly full — a floor set by the bounds. Run dotHumanize. After: a new off-git .human/ trail (Comprehension, Evergreen, Goals, captainslog.md) slots in beside the unchanged in-git bounds, and the meters fill completely. Your in-git bounds set a floor; dotHumanize adds the off-git trail that fills the rest.
Figure 1. The same transformation, the two-layers view. Your in-git bounds (.claude/, CLAUDE.md) already set a floor — the meters start partly full. dotHumanize adds the off-git .human/ trail beside them, and the meters fill the rest. Your bounds set the floor; .human/ fills the gap.

1 · Put a dotHuman on it

Run dotHumanize — the one pseudoskill that ships — on your project folder. It works either way:

  • Fresh project (greenfield): it lays a new .human/ floor from scratch.
  • Existing project: it reads what's already there and lays a floor that reflects it.

Same tool, two modes — so there's one path, not two. dotHumanize covers what it sets up and keeps tending.

2 · You get a floor you can trust

dotHumanize lays the pillars — Goals, Comprehension, Evergreen, Reports, and the captain's log — stating only what it can prove. That's your floor: a small, trustworthy base, not a wall of guesses.

3 · Decide what enters git

Whether the .human/ layer is committed is a deliberate choice — ignore by default, share on purpose. Pick once; revisit anytime.

4 · Work your goals on it

Now do the work as Goals. Every goal feeds the floor — comprehension sharpens, lessons compound — so the next one starts better than the last.

This page is the one-time part: the before/after of putting a dotHuman on a project. From here, every goal runs the lifecycle — the repeating loop that makes each one more reliable than the last. Everything else (the pillars, dotHumanize, the building blocks) is reference you reach for as you go, not steps to finish first.

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