Templates

Local agent-template library for this NanoClaw install. This folder ships empty. Anything you drop here is a template you can stamp into an agent:

ncl groups create --template <relative-ref> --name "My Agent"

<relative-ref> is a path relative to this folder (e.g. sales/sdr). Refs must stay inside this directory — absolute paths, ~, and ../ escapes are rejected. Override the location with NANOCLAW_TEMPLATES_DIR=/another/local/path (a local path only — never a URL).

To use a template from the public registry (nanocoai/nanoclaw-templates), clone or download it yourself and copy the chosen template into this folder, then stamp from the local copy. There is no remote fetch — templates are only ever resolved from here.

Anatomy of a template

Only context/instructions.md is required; it both supplies the agent's standing brief and marks the folder as a template.

<template>/
├── context/
│   ├── instructions.md        # REQUIRED: the agent's standing persona, prepended to its
│   │                          #           CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md every spawn
│   └── additional_context/    # optional: extra .md files
│       └── *.md
├── .mcp.json             # optional: { "mcpServers": { ... } } — command + args, NO secrets
├── skills/<name>/        # optional: one folder per skill (SKILL.md + references/), copied whole
└── README.md             # recommended: per-template docs

Notes:

Extra context is copied preserving its layout relative to instructions.md (context/additional_context/faq.md → additional_context/faq.md in the agent's workspace). Nothing is referenced automatically — instructions.md must point to each file (e.g. "Pricing rules live in additional_context/pricing.md").
No provider, no model, no packages. A template is instructions + MCP servers + skills. The agent's runtime/provider is chosen separately (ncl groups config update --provider … or during setup).
No secrets. .mcp.json carries launch config only; credentials are injected by the credentials proxy at request time. If an MCP server refuses to boot without an env var, use a placeholder value — never a real key.
Skills are copied into the agent's own per-group overlay, never shared.