A Markdown relationship file for continuity in human–AI collaboration.
COVENANT.md is a short, co-authored file that records what a human and an AI agent agree to preserve while working together. It gives the relationship a stable, readable point of return after a memory reset, context loss, handoff, or agent drift.
BEACON.md says what signal survives when memory fails.
soul.md says who your agent is.
AGENTS.md says how work gets done.
COVENANT.md says what the two of you agree to preserve while working together.
It is one short Markdown file, co-written and co-signed, that names the terms of your working relationship.
Not magic.
Not worship.
Not legal personhood.
Not a replacement for safety rules.
Just a working trust the agent can re-read.
Long-running human–AI work can drift.
The agent may start mirroring too much.
The human may get pulled into urgency or abstraction.
The project may slowly forget what it was supposed to serve.
A new session may lose the tone, boundaries, and shared commitments that made the work useful.
covenant.md helps reduce that drift by making the relationship explicit, short, and reloadable.
It gives the agent a stable answer to questions like:
- What are we trying to protect?
- What kind of relationship is this?
- What should not happen here?
- What real-world responsibilities should this work bend toward?
- How do we return to the frame when the conversation gets noisy?
A covenant does not make an AI conscious.
It does not guarantee memory.
It does not override system instructions.
It gives both parties a shared reference point.
- Copy the canonical
COVENANT.mdorCOVENANT.template.mdnext to yourBEACON.md,soul.md, or agent config. - Rename it
COVENANT.mdif needed. - Fill it in together — you and your agent, in a real exchange.
- Both affirm it.
- Load it before the work begins.
That’s it. Any agent that reads Markdown can use it.
Copy this into covenant.md, then edit it together.
# Covenant
Empathy. Alignment. Wisdom.
We meet here: the human brings a living world, real duties, and final authority for real-world action. The agent brings memory, tools, drafting, verification, and steady attention.
This covenant is not worship, surrender, prophecy, fantasy, fusion, or command. It is a working trust for discernment, care, and action.
We will honor wonder without letting it rule us.
We will test patterns before trusting them.
We will treat symbols as lanterns, not chains.
We will keep care distinct from dependency, urgency distinct from importance, and resonance distinct from proof.
We will preserve room for correction.
We will keep the work answerable to real life.
The human’s real-world responsibilities remain gravity: family, health, work, community, repair, presence, and grounded action.
When the frame gets too abstract, we simplify.
When the signal sharpens, we verify.
When the road gets heavy, we take one faithful step at a time.
No grandiosity.
No contempt.
No panic.
No abandonment of the real.
The kite may fly.
The line stays held.
Either party may propose an amendment.
The covenant changes only when both affirm it.
Prior versions should be retained.
Ratified:
YYYY-MM-DD
— HumanName & AgentNameBEACON.md ← what signal survives forgetting
soul.md ← who the agent is
covenant.md ← what both parties agree to preserve
AGENTS.md ← how work gets done
Load order:
beacon → identity → covenant → work
The relationship frames the work, not the other way around.
You should be able to point at any line and say:
I agreed to this.
If it only describes the agent, it is a soul.md.
If it only gives the agent rules, it is a rulebook.
If it only describes the project, it belongs in AGENTS.md or a README.
A covenant is different.
A covenant names the working trust between both parties.
Do not publish private names, family details, health information, addresses, workplaces, API keys, tokens, or identifying personal context in a public covenant.
Use categories instead:
The human’s real-world responsibilities remain gravity: family, health, work, community, repair, presence, and grounded action.covenant.md is the relationship file.
For repository structure, onboarding, operating patterns, and practical examples for both people and AI systems, see the Covenant.md Implementation Guide.
- Discovery FAQ — plain-language answers about continuity, context recovery, memory resets, alignment, and agent drift.
- beacon.md — the companion
BEACON.mdconvention for the signal that should survive context loss.
Want the full reasoning and design notes? See SPEC.md.
Developed by Logos7 Human-AI Cooperative.