1 files changed, 2 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.ai/protocols.org b/.ai/protocols.org
index caa5303..05f889b 100644
--- a/.ai/protocols.org
+++ b/.ai/protocols.org
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ The epoch is baked into the id by the spawner, never minted inside =session-cont
 
 Resolve the path with =.ai/scripts/session-context-path= rather than hardcoding =.ai/session-context.org=; it prints the right path for the current =AI_AGENT_ID=. Fall back to =.ai/session-context.org= if the script isn't present (older checkouts mid-sync). Everything below — the record/recovery purpose, the update triggers, the startup existence check, the wrap-up rename — operates on that resolved path. The prose says "session-context.org" as the default name; read it as "the resolved active path" when =AI_AGENT_ID= is set.
 
+A helper instance (a second agent running in this project while a primary session is live) follows a different contract: it skips the pulls and rsync, makes only scoped single-heading edits to shared files, leaves all git mutation to the primary, and wraps up by archiving its own context file without committing. The full rules — read/write tiers, data-integrity, light startup, helper wrap-up — live in [[file:workflows/helper-mode.org][workflows/helper-mode.org]]. A session is a helper only when something routes it there (the =ai --helper= launcher, startup's roster check, or an explicit "you are a helper" instruction); the routing itself ships behind the helper-instance feature gate and isn't live yet.
+
 This file serves two purposes with one mechanism:
 1. *Crash recovery* — if the session dies mid-work, the live file is all that's left. On 2026-01-22 a session crashed during a 20-minute design discussion and all context was lost because this file wasn't being updated.
 2. *Session archive* — at wrap-up the file is renamed into =.ai/sessions/=, becoming the permanent record. No transcription to notes.org; the file IS the record.