k9-coordination-protocol

K9 Coordination Protocol

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • The Problem
  • The Solution
• Supported Targets
• Usage
• Phases
  • Phase 1: Defensive (Current)
  • Phase 2: Coordination
  • Phase 3: Orchestration
• See Also

Overview

The K9 Coordination Protocol defines a standard way to express project invariants, architectural decisions, and coordination state in K9 Kennel-level files, then generate native instruction files for every major AI coding tool.

The Problem

When multiple AI agents (Claude, Copilot, Cursor, Gemini, Codex, etc.) work on the same codebase — sequentially or concurrently — they lack shared context about:

• What is intentional vs accidental

• What architectural decisions are deliberate

• What another agent is currently working on

• What should never be created, deleted, or reorganised

This leads to well-meaning destruction: agents "fixing" features, creating parallel systems, or deleting deliberate architecture because they lack context.

The Solution

A single coordination.k9 file per project, written in K9 Kennel format (pure data, no execution), which:

1. Declares invariants — rules that must never be violated

2. Protects patterns — files and directories that are deliberate

3. Records architecture — decisions that look odd but are intentional

4. Prevents creation — things that must not be introduced

5. Coordinates work — (Phase 2) who is working on what

A generator tool reads this K9 file and emits native instruction files for every supported AI tool.

Supported Targets

AI Tool	Output File	Location
Claude Code	CLAUDE.md	.claude/
GitHub Copilot	copilot-instructions.md	.github/
OpenAI Codex	AGENTS.md	root
Cursor	.cursorrules	root
Windsurf	.windsurfrules	root
Gemini CLI	GEMINI.md	root
Cline	.clinerules	root
JetBrains Junie	guidelines.md	.junie/
Amazon Q	coordination.md	.q/rules/

Usage

# Generate all AI config files from a coordination.k9
deno run --allow-read --allow-write \
  standards/k9-coordination-protocol/generator/generate.js \
  ./coordination.k9

# Generate for specific targets only
deno run --allow-read --allow-write \
  standards/k9-coordination-protocol/generator/generate.js \
  ./coordination.k9 --targets claude,cursor,copilot

Phases

Phase 1: Defensive (Current)

Single K9 file declares what is and isn’t negotiable. Every AI reads the same ground truth. Prevents accidental destruction.

Phase 2: Coordination

K9 file tracks which agents are working on which areas. A new agent can read the coordination state and avoid stepping on active work.

Phase 3: Orchestration

Agents report completion. Other agents can pick up follow-on work, tidy seams between parallel efforts, and flag integration points.

See Also

• Formal Specification

• Example Files

• Generator Tool

• K9 Format Specification

• AI Gatekeeper Protocol