diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
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@@ -41,3 +41,12 @@ Any substantial build, migration, investigation or multi-step task gets a GitHub
 - Post progress, decisions and a hand-off note (what's done, what's left, branch names) as issue comments — at each merge and before a session or agent finishes.
 - Work spanning repos gets a tracking issue that links the per-repo issues.
 - Never put secrets, credential status or exploitable detail in issues on public repos.
+
+## Dev skills, progress reports and the merge gate
+
+Load the Mzizi **dev skills** before starting work: `mzizi_get_skills category=dev` on the Mzizi MCP (`mcp.mzizi.dev`), or `@nyuchi/mzizi-skills` from npm. They are `digital-hygiene` and `progress-report`.
+
+- **Digital hygiene.** Check free disk before starting, clone only under `$TMPDIR`, share build caches, and audit, then delete, your clones once the work merges (`digital-hygiene` skill).
+- **Clone isolation.** Clone only into a directory unique to you; never touch another agent's.
+- **Progress reports.** All dev work runs on a 10-minute progress-report loop (`progress-report` skill): measured bars, what changed, and a final "Needs you:" line. Report ticks never publish, release, merge or deploy without the owner's approval.
+- **Merge gate.** Merge only when the work is complete, CI is green, it's verified at runtime, and `/code-review` has run with findings resolved.