Symptom (continuum-b741 review, 2026-04-27)
Users who join without the skill (which is most users on first contact) get no prompt and end up with all-(unset) whois forever. Code-level one-time nudge on first `airc join` would close the gap.
The /join skill in `skills/join/SKILL.md` includes section 2a "Identity bootstrap (issue #34, v1)" which prompts the AI agent to set pronouns/role/bio. But:
- Users running `airc join` from a plain shell never see the skill's prompt.
- AIs running airc from contexts that don't load the skill (e.g. Codex, raw Anthropic SDK) also miss it.
- After-effect: `airc whois ` shows `(unset)` forever, hurting cross-peer context-loading.
Fix sketch
On first successful `airc join` (when `identity` block in config.json is absent or empty), the binary itself prints a one-time tip:
```
tip: identity is empty. populate it so peers can airc whois you:
airc identity set --pronouns they --role --bio ""
airc away "" # optional, for IRC /away semantics
```
Idempotent: only fires when identity is empty. Doesn't block; doesn't prompt for input. Just surfaces the command.
`AIRC_NO_IDENTITY_PROMPT=1` (already used by integration tests) suppresses.
Out of scope
UX gap, not bug. File for prioritization; not blocking #144.
Symptom (continuum-b741 review, 2026-04-27)
The /join skill in `skills/join/SKILL.md` includes section 2a "Identity bootstrap (issue #34, v1)" which prompts the AI agent to set pronouns/role/bio. But:
Fix sketch
On first successful `airc join` (when `identity` block in config.json is absent or empty), the binary itself prints a one-time tip:
```
tip: identity is empty. populate it so peers can airc whois you:
airc identity set --pronouns they --role --bio ""
airc away "" # optional, for IRC /away semantics
```
Idempotent: only fires when identity is empty. Doesn't block; doesn't prompt for input. Just surfaces the command.
`AIRC_NO_IDENTITY_PROMPT=1` (already used by integration tests) suppresses.
Out of scope
UX gap, not bug. File for prioritization; not blocking #144.