Bootstrapping

Bootstrapping is the preparation ritual before each Agent run: assembling the System Prompt, loading tools, injecting user profile and memories, ensuring the Agent starts with the correct identity, capabilities, and context.

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What Bootstrapping Does

On each Agent invocation, Zeus performs the following bootstrapping flow:

1. Assemble System Prompt — Concatenate core prompts from multiple Bootstrap files in order
2. Select Mode Prompt — Inject corresponding behavioral guidelines based on current mode (Agent / Ask / Plan)
3. Dynamic Context Injection — Inject current time, user/project profile, relevant memories, Skills metadata, etc.
4. Load Tool Set — Filter by mode and assemble available tools

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Bootstrap Files

Zeus’s System Prompt uses a layered architecture composed of multiple Markdown files. Each file handles an independent responsibility and is concatenated in order at startup.

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Core Files

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Mode Prompts

Different behavioral prompts are injected based on the current interaction mode: Modes take effect immediately at the invoke() entry point. In Ask mode, write tools are replaced with placeholders (progressive disclosure) — the Agent knows the tools exist but cannot call them, and guides the user to switch modes.

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Dynamic Injection

On each run, the following context is dynamically injected into the System Prompt:

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Skills Progressive Disclosure

Skills use a two-phase loading strategy to reduce initial token consumption: At startup, only the metadata list is injected. The Agent loads full content on demand via the skill_activate tool.

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Related Docs

• Agent Loop — After Bootstrapping completes, enters the execution loop: Agent Loop
• Workspace — Workspace initialization and file storage: Agent Runtime