Workspace Genesis

Zaxy can initialize a session with a durable workspace profile before other memory writes or indexing work. The entrypoint is:

zaxy init-session . --session-id zaxy-default

The command inspects lightweight filesystem signals and appends a session.genesis event. The event records the root path, workspace type, confidence, matched signals, instructions profile, session ID, and write instructions. The write_instructions.memory_activation block is intentionally operational: it records memory_checkout as required before roadmap, implementation, release, review, resume, and high-context work, plus concrete command templates for zaxy activate codex, zaxy activate codex --launch, zaxy hook-event resume, and the CLI zaxy memory checkout fallback. It also marks MCP memory tools as runtime_unverified and sets fail_closed=true, so agents that can still read genesis after /resume, compaction, or MCP reload have a durable blocker instead of a vague preference. The activation templates include explicit <eventloom_path> and <workspace_root> placeholders, matching zaxy init output so copied commands stay tied to the initialized repository even when run from another shell. zaxy init also mirrors the operational part of this policy into a marker-managed Zaxy Memory Activation block in AGENTS.md by default. That block is the model-visible fallback for Codex sessions that resume after MCP tool reloads or context compaction. Use --no-agent-instructions to skip that write when a repository manages agent instructions another way.

The first profile is intentionally conservative. Codebase workspaces are detected from signals such as pyproject.toml, package.json, go.mod, Cargo.toml, src/, tests/, and .git/. If the root cannot be classified confidently, Zaxy falls back to generic_workspace with primitive event types such as observation.recorded, decision.made, task.completed, and artifact.indexed.

Genesis events are auditable. If Zaxy classifies a workspace incorrectly, append a session.profile.corrected event instead of rewriting history. That preserves the provenance trail: what Zaxy believed at session start, which write instructions that implied, and when the profile changed.

MCP startup also discovers workspace instruction files adjacent to genesis: AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, SOUL.md, and .github/copilot-instructions.md. Zaxy writes compact workspace.instructions.discovered events with per-file hashes, citations, kinds, sizes, and short summaries; it does not store full instruction file content. On later startup, if the discovered signature differs from the latest recorded signature, Zaxy appends workspace.instructions.updated with previous_signature to preserve instruction drift.

Related pages: eventloom.md, codebase.md, and runbook.md.