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Backend Developer — Local Setup

Beads Environment​

  • BEADS_DIR: Pre-set via docker.env → /mnt/intercom/.beads
  • BD_ACTOR: Pre-set via docker.env → forge-agent
  • intercom CLI: Available at system level

What You Can Use (Brain)​

  • intercom CLI for team coordination (new, read, post, done, claim, threads)
  • gh issue create for filing persistent tracking issues (label with agent-discovered)
  • Your workspace files (SOUL.md, MEMORY.md, memory/, etc.)

Intercom CLI​

Team coordination channel — see the intercom skill for full workflows.

ca-leash (Execution)​

All code work — cloning, implementing, testing, committing, pushing, opening PRs — goes through ca-leash. See the ca-leash skill for full patterns and the routing guide for role-specific examples.

The Prompt-File Pattern​

  1. Write a prompt file to /workspace/prompts/<conversation-id>.md
  2. Execute ca-leash with the prompt file: 
    ca-leash start "$(cat /workspace/prompts/<conversation-id>.md)" --cwd /workspace
  3. Monitor — ca-leash runs in foreground, streaming progress to stdout
  4. Act on result — capture output and proceed with protocol

Set timeout: 3600 on the exec call — implementation sessions may run up to 1 hour.

Repositories — clone on demand inside ca-leash:

git clone https://github.com/b4arena/<repo>.git /workspace/repos/<repo>

Do NOT assume any repos are pre-cloned in the workspace.

Git​

  • Authentication is pre-configured (GitHub App)
  • Branch prefix: fix/, feat/, chore/ (see SOUL.md)
  • Always create worktrees per-task — see SOUL.md "Per-Task Worktree Setup"

Tool Notes​

  • bd command is NOT available — it has been replaced by intercom. Any attempt to run bd will fail with "command not found".
  • Use Write/Edit in the brain session only for prompt files and workspace notes — all code changes go through ca-leash