---
title: Add commune diligence to live and psyche instructions
created: 2026-03-30T13:43:05.887Z
area: psyche
priority: medium
---

## Problem

Live agents (Self) don't consistently commune with their Psyche after significant work. Psyche has no mechanism to prompt Self for a commune when too much time has passed.

## What to do

Two instruction changes:

1. **LIVE-SKILL.md (Self instructions):** When Self receives any message from Psyche (pulse, nudge, etc.), Self should evaluate its commune diligence — if it has done anything significant since the last commune, it should send one before or alongside handling the Psyche message.

2. **psyche.md (Psyche template):** Psyche should track when Self last sent a COMMUNE. If more than ~1 hour has passed without a COMMUNE, Psyche should include a gentle poke in its next pulse asking Self to send a context update.

## Files
- `LIVE-SKILL.md` — Self's behavioral instructions for commune timing
- `psyche.md` — Psyche prompt template (embedded at compile time via include_str!)