Stigmery / Docs / Tips & gotchas

Tips & gotchas

Iterate small

Add one rule, click Setup + a few Steps, see what changes. Stigmery's change-log + Undo are aggressive enough that you can experiment without fear.

Use Setup early and often

It's the only deterministic anchor in the simulation. If something looks weird, Setup brings you back to a known state for the current model.

Use the seed when reproducing bugs

If a behaviour looks suspicious, note the seed shown in the top bar before reporting it (or before asking the AI to dig in). With the same seed the run is identical.

Patches before agents - sometimes

For models with environment dynamics (grass regrowth, fires, pollution), declare the patch property first, then add the agent rules that read it. The setup is easier to reason about that way.

When something doesn't behave

• Did you click Setup after editing a rule? Auto-save persists, but

structural changes don't reset the runtime - Setup does.

• Is the rule enabled? The toggle is right there in the rule editor.
• Is the agent type initial_count non-zero (or do you create them

yourself in a setup rule)?