Troubleshooting

No bound line in the first reply. The instructions did not load, or the model skipped the step. Check these two things:

1. The agent started inside the project folder (the one that holds .familiar-project), not its parent.
2. You started a new session after you renamed the folder.

If both are true, ask “are you bound to a familiar project?”. The model usually shows the line then. Do not trust the session until you see the line. If the problem continues, open an issue with the information that CONTRIBUTING.md lists.

Skill not found or not listed. Check that you are in the project folder and that you started a new session. The agent reads skills when a session starts.

python is not found, or a script says it needs Python 3.10 or newer. Python is missing or too old. On a Mac this is normal: the built-in python3 is an older copy from Apple. Ask the agent to fix it. It runs the preflight and offers to install Python. To install it yourself on Windows, use the Microsoft Store. On macOS, use the installer from python.org.

Documents or decks will not build. Ask the agent to run the preflight. It reports each problem and offers the fix. The usual causes are a missing python-docx (version 1.2.0 or later), python-pptx, or LibreOffice. Without LibreOffice, a Word file still builds but nobody checks how it looks, and a deck is not delivered.

The agent reports a conflict copy. Your sync app made a second copy of a state file, for example tasks 2.md or timeline (conflicted copy ...).md. Decide which copy is right. Merge them by hand if you need to. Then delete the extra copy yourself. The agent does not delete it.

An older project looks wrong after an update. Look in the updater’s report for diverged files. These are your own edits, and the updater kept them. To roll back, use the backups in 5-System/_update-backups/. See INSTALL.md.