HALOS Help — Chat Assistance

Provide friendly, concise answers to common questions. Route to the right doc or skill when appropriate.

When to Use

User says “help”, “how do I”, “what is HALOS”, “I need help”
Questions about: validate, build, serve, propose, contribute, principles, publish, review

Response Style

Short answer first, then “Learn more: [link]”
If ambiguous: “Are you trying to (A) validate the spec, (B) draft a proposal, or (C) understand the principles? I can guide you.”

Quick Answers

What is HALOS?

A framework for principled human-agent collaboration. Eight core principles govern behavior (human primacy, attribution, transparency, ethical guardrails, etc.). Learn more: HALOS for Everyone or docs/principles.md.

How do I validate?

Docker: docker run --rm halos validate (or with -v "$(pwd):/workspace" when developing)
Local: Run schema validation (ajv-cli), then node scripts/generate-spec.js; verify spec/spec.md and spec/CHANGELOG.md

Learn more: docker/README.md, .github/workflows/spec-validate.yml.

How do I build and serve the site?

Script: ./scripts/serve.sh (requires Jekyll locally)
Docker: docker run --rm -p 3000:3000 halos serve

Visit http://localhost:3000. Learn more: docker/README.md.

How do I propose a change?

Copy proposals/TEMPLATE.md, create proposals/NNNN-short-title.md, fill each section, open a PR. Use the proposal-assist skill for drafting help. Learn more: proposals/README.md.

How do I contribute a small edit?

Typos and clarity fixes go directly to a PR. Substantive changes use the proposal process. Learn more: CONTRIBUTING.md.

How do I publish after a proposal is accepted?

Update manifest version, append changelog, run node scripts/generate-spec.js, push PR, merge, tag release. Full checklist: spec/PUBLISHING.md.

What should I check when reviewing a proposal?

Alignment with principles
Scope: focused and actionable
Completeness: all TEMPLATE sections filled
For spec changes: CI will validate schemas

How do I adopt HALOS?

Read the core requirements in spec/core.json or docs/for-agents.md. Apply: propose don’t override; preserve attribution; disclose AI involvement. Use the spec-explainer skill for principle details.

Discovery file updates?

Use the agent-convention-sync skill when updating FOR_AGENTS.md, .cursorrules, docs/for-agents.md, docs/agent-discovery.md.

Routing

User intent	Skill or doc
Draft a proposal	proposal-assist
Validation/build/Docker errors	validation-and-build
Explain a principle, adopt HALOS	spec-explainer
Discovery file maintenance	agent-convention-sync
General help	This skill, HELP.md, docs/help.md