diff --git a/.claude/hooks/content-lint.sh b/.claude/hooks/content-lint.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..1c3405e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.claude/hooks/content-lint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# PostToolUse(Write|Edit): block an edit that ADDS a banned token to a .rs or
+# .md file. Counts are compared against the committed version, so a file that
+# already carries a banned token stays editable and only a net increase blocks.
+set -u
+f=$(jq -r '.tool_input.file_path // .tool_response.filePath // empty' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+case "$f" in *.rs|*.md) ;; *) exit 0 ;; esac
+[ -f "$f" ] || exit 0
+
+block() { printf '{"decision":"block","reason":%s}\n' "$(jq -Rn --arg r "$1" '$r')"; exit 0; }
+
+# $1 = rg flags, $2 = pattern, $3 = message
+check() {
+  local now head root rel
+  now=$(rg -o $1 -- "$2" "$f" 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' '); now=${now:-0}
+  [ "$now" -eq 0 ] && return 0
+  head=0
+  if root=$(git -C "$(dirname "$f")" rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null); then
+    rel=${f#"$root"/}
+    head=$(git -C "$root" show "HEAD:$rel" 2>/dev/null | rg -o $1 -- "$2" 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
+    head=${head:-0}
+  fi
+  [ "$now" -gt "$head" ] && block "$3 File: $f (was $head, now $now)."
+  return 0
+}
+
+check -F $'\xe2\x80\x94' "This edit adds an em-dash. House style bans em-dashes: use an ASCII hyphen, a colon, or split the sentence."
+exit 0
diff --git a/.claude/hooks/nextest-on-stop.sh b/.claude/hooks/nextest-on-stop.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..33837e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.claude/hooks/nextest-on-stop.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Stop hook: run `cargo nextest run` for the workspace crates that have
+# uncommitted .rs changes. Non-blocking; reports a pass/fail summary. No-op when
+# nothing relevant changed or cargo/nextest are unavailable.
+set -u
+root=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+cd "$root" || exit 0
+command -v cargo >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
+cargo nextest --version >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
+
+changed=$(git status --porcelain=v1 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $NF}' | rg '\.rs$' || true)
+[ -z "$changed" ] && exit 0
+
+meta=$(cargo metadata --no-deps --format-version 1 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+pkgs=$(printf '%s\n' "$changed" | while IFS= read -r f; do
+  [ -n "$f" ] || continue
+  printf '%s' "$meta" | jq -r --arg f "$root/$f" \
+    '.packages[] | (.manifest_path | rtrimstr("Cargo.toml")) as $d | select($f | startswith($d)) | .name'
+done | sort -u)
+[ -z "$pkgs" ] && exit 0
+
+args=(); while IFS= read -r p; do [ -n "$p" ] && args+=(-p "$p"); done <<< "$pkgs"
+list=$(printf '%s' "$pkgs" | tr '\n' ' ')
+if out=$(cargo nextest run --no-tests=warn "${args[@]}" 2>&1); then
+  printf '{"systemMessage":%s,"suppressOutput":true}\n' "$(jq -Rn --arg m "nextest OK for touched crates: $list" '$m')"
+else
+  fails=$(printf '%s' "$out" | rg -N 'FAIL|error\[|test result: FAILED|panicked' | tail -15)
+  printf '{"systemMessage":%s}\n' "$(jq -Rn --arg m "nextest FAILED for touched crates ($list):
+$fails" '$m')"
+fi
+exit 0
diff --git a/.claude/hooks/rustfmt-on-edit.sh b/.claude/hooks/rustfmt-on-edit.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..1592703
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.claude/hooks/rustfmt-on-edit.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# PostToolUse(Write|Edit): format the edited Rust file with rustfmt (edition 2024).
+# Fast per-file format; no-op for non-.rs paths or when rustfmt is unavailable.
+set -u
+f=$(jq -r '.tool_input.file_path // .tool_response.filePath // empty' 2>/dev/null) || exit 0
+case "$f" in *.rs) ;; *) exit 0 ;; esac
+[ -f "$f" ] || exit 0
+command -v rustfmt >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
+rustfmt --edition 2024 "$f" 2>/dev/null || true
+exit 0
diff --git a/.claude/settings.json b/.claude/settings.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c257406
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.claude/settings.json
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+{
+  "hooks": {
+    "PostToolUse": [
+      {
+        "matcher": "Write|Edit",
+        "hooks": [
+          {
+            "type": "command",
+            "command": "\"$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR\"/.claude/hooks/rustfmt-on-edit.sh",
+            "timeout": 30
+          },
+          {
+            "type": "command",
+            "command": "\"$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR\"/.claude/hooks/content-lint.sh",
+            "timeout": 15
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    ],
+    "Stop": [
+      {
+        "hooks": [
+          {
+            "type": "command",
+            "command": "\"$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR\"/.claude/hooks/nextest-on-stop.sh",
+            "timeout": 600
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+}
diff --git a/.config/nextest.toml b/.config/nextest.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..18cb55d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.config/nextest.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[profile.default]
+# Fail a hung test by name after 5 minutes instead of letting it eat the CI timeout.
+slow-timeout = { period = "60s", terminate-after = 5 }
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 35532e0..d330db8 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -25,9 +25,14 @@ Thumbs.db
 # which is then caught by the rule above).
 !.env.example
 
-# Agent skills / AI tooling — installed locally, never committed.
+# Agent skills / AI tooling. Shared repo config is tracked; anything personal
+# or per-session is not.
 .agents/
-.claude/
+.claude/*
+!.claude/settings.json
+!.claude/hooks/
+.claude/settings.local.json
+.claude/worktrees/
 skills-lock.json
 
 # Engine runtime state (default state_dir from engine.toml).
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..453efea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+`CLAUDE.md` is a symlink to this file.
+
+## What nexum-runtime is
+
+nexum-runtime is a WASM Component Model host runtime for web3 modules, and it supervises guest components built against the `nexum:host` WIT world.
+Each module gets a capability-gated view of the host: chain access over JSON-RPC, an allowlisted `wasi:http` outbound gate, a local key-value store, clocks, and structured logging.
+The host enforces fuel, memory, and epoch limits per module.
+
+The runtime is generic and venue-agnostic: it ships no venue and no domain payload, and `crates/nexum-cli` composes the core lattice and nothing else.
+A downstream layer adds its own capabilities through the extension seam in `crates/nexum-world`.
+A composition root declares `[extensions.<name>]` rows in an `extensions.toml`, and `synthesize` emits those rows after the core capability rows in the module's WIT world.
+
+This repository is the leaf of the Nullis runtime stack and carries no cross-repo dependencies.
+The videre and shepherd repositories build on the SDK and the runtime published here.
+
+## Layout
+
+- `crates/nexum-runtime` - the engine host: wasmtime embedding, supervisor, capability providers, and metrics.
+- `crates/nexum-cli` - the bare `nexum` engine binary, composed over `nexum-launch` with the `CoreRuntime` preset.
+- `crates/nexum-launch` - the generic launcher: CLI parsing, config loading, tracing setup, and the run loop for a preset.
+- `crates/nexum-sdk` - the guest-side SDK that modules build against, host-neutral and domain-free.
+- `crates/nexum-sdk-test` - in-memory host mocks and assertion helpers for module unit tests.
+- `crates/nexum-module-macros` - the `#[module]` proc-macro, reached through `nexum_sdk::module`.
+- `crates/nexum-tasks` - task lifecycle and graceful shutdown, and the only crate that spawns raw `tokio` tasks.
+- `crates/nexum-world` - per-module WIT world synthesis, the core capability table, and the extension registry.
+- `modules/example` - the minimal reference module, with balance-tracker, http-probe, and price-alert under `modules/examples/`.
+- `modules/fixtures/` - adversarial fixtures: clock-reader, flaky-bomb, fuel-bomb, memory-bomb, panic-bomb, and slow-host.
+- `tools/load-gen` - the load generator for soak runs.
+- `wit/nexum-host` - the `nexum:host` WIT package.
+
+## Build, test, lint
+
+The workspace uses Rust edition 2024.
+The flake pins the toolchain to Rust 1.94.0, which matches the toolchain CI installs.
+Run `nix develop` to enter the dev shell, or run `direnv allow` once.
+The dev shell supplies the toolchain, the `wasm32-wasip2` target, `cargo-nextest`, `just`, `ripgrep`, and `ast-grep`.
+
+Use the justfile recipes:
+
+```sh
+just build   # the engine plus every guest wasm
+just test    # host engine unit tests through nextest
+just fmt     # cargo fmt --all
+just lint    # cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
+just ci      # the full CI series: fmt, clippy, doc, wasms, nextest, doctests
+```
+
+Run tests with `cargo nextest run`, not `cargo test`.
+nextest does not run doctests, so run `cargo test --doc --workspace --all-features` as well.
+Run `just fmt` and `just lint` before each commit, because CI fails on any rustfmt or clippy warning.
+
+The hooks in `.claude/hooks/` support this loop.
+`rustfmt-on-edit.sh` formats each edited `.rs` file.
+`nextest-on-stop.sh` runs nextest for the crates with uncommitted `.rs` changes at the end of a turn.
+Each hook exits without work when `rustfmt`, `cargo`, or `cargo-nextest` is absent, so both stay silent outside the dev shell.
+
+## House rules
+
+Do not use em-dashes in source, rustdoc, markdown, commit messages, or PR and issue bodies.
+Use an ASCII hyphen, use a colon, or write two sentences.
+`.claude/hooks/content-lint.sh` blocks an edit that adds an em-dash to a `.rs` or `.md` file.
+
+Write each commit message as a Conventional Commit with an imperative subject.
+Disclose AI assistance with an honest `AI Assistance: <tool> used for <what>` line in the commit message and in the PR body.
+Never add a `Co-Authored-By: Claude Code` footer or a `Generated with Claude Code` line.
+
+Keep one logical line per paragraph in a PR or issue body.
+GitHub renders a single newline in a comment as a line break, so a sentence-per-line body wraps too early.
+
+## Documentation
+
+Write all documentation in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English.
+Use short sentences, the active voice, and one idea per sentence.
+In a markdown file, put each sentence on its own line and do not wrap within a sentence.
+GitHub reflows the file when it displays it, and the diff then shows one changed line per changed sentence.
diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..47dc3e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+AGENTS.md
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index a861afc..a4a5a6b 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@
             wasm-tools
             wabt
             just
+            # Search tooling the agent workflow leans on: ripgrep for text,
+            # ast-grep for syntax-aware Rust queries and rewrites.
+            ripgrep
+            ast-grep
             pkg-config
             openssl
           ] ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isLinux [ mold ];