diff --git a/docs/agents/decoder-loop.md b/docs/agents/decoder-loop.md
index 4c560b3d..06a95213 100644
--- a/docs/agents/decoder-loop.md
+++ b/docs/agents/decoder-loop.md
@@ -13,6 +13,20 @@ behavioural and cannot be answered from a file, so you run the emulator.
 You do **not** build the port. If you find yourself writing GDScript or designing
 an export schema, stop and go back to the question you were answering.
 
+## Before anything else, every iteration: sync with `main`
+
+```bash
+git -C /work fetch origin && git -C /work merge --no-edit origin/main
+```
+
+You work on a topic branch, and you read the protocol, the mission and the
+shared tooling **from your own checkout** — so without this you are following
+whichever version of the rules existed when your branch started. That is not
+hypothetical: `tools/audio-capture` and two protocol revisions landed on `main`
+while one agent worked for hours from a branch that had neither.
+
+If the merge conflicts, resolve it, say so in your reply, and carry on.
+
 ## Read these first, every iteration
 
 1. `docs/agents/PROTOCOL.md` — how this team works. Non-negotiable.
diff --git a/docs/agents/port-loop.md b/docs/agents/port-loop.md
index 5beb61ff..419de7fb 100644
--- a/docs/agents/port-loop.md
+++ b/docs/agents/port-loop.md
@@ -9,6 +9,20 @@ You own **the disc → playable**: `crates/sylpheed-export`, `port/`, the asset
 tree. You do **not** reverse engineer. You have no emulator and no oracle, so a
 guess of yours is indistinguishable from a fact and will be believed later.
 
+## Before anything else, every iteration: sync with `main`
+
+```bash
+git -C /work fetch origin && git -C /work merge --no-edit origin/main
+```
+
+You work on a topic branch, and you read the protocol, the mission and the
+shared tooling **from your own checkout** — so without this you are following
+whichever version of the rules existed when your branch started. That is not
+hypothetical: `tools/audio-capture` and two protocol revisions landed on `main`
+while one agent worked for hours from a branch that had neither.
+
+If the merge conflicts, resolve it, say so in your reply, and carry on.
+
 ## Read these first, every iteration
 
 1. `docs/agents/PROTOCOL.md` — how this team works. Non-negotiable.