---

name: spaces description: "Build and troubleshoot Mesa discrete and experimental continuous spaces, including grids, networks, Voronoi cells, property layers, and movement agents." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: Apache 2.0

Spaces

Use this sub-skill for Mesa's modern space APIs: mesa.discrete_space and mesa.experimental.continuous_space.

Use for

• Cell, CellCollection, DiscreteSpace, and the grid/network/voronoi space families.
• CellAgent, FixedAgent, and Grid2DMovingAgent movement and occupancy logic.
• Property layers, cells_with_capacity, empties, and capacity-limited placement.
• ContinuousSpace and ContinuousSpaceAgent for experimental continuous movement.
• Safe smoke checks against an installed Mesa package.

Route elsewhere

• Model lifecycle, activation, and scheduling: ../model-core/SKILL.md
• Data collection, scenarios, and experiment runs: ../analysis-experiments/SKILL.md
• Visualization and rendering of space layers: ../visualization/SKILL.md

Start here

1. Read references/api-reference.md for verified signatures and object relationships.
2. Use references/workflows.md for copyable recipes.
3. Check references/troubleshooting.md for common failures and fixes.
4. Run scripts/space_smoke.py for a safe runtime probe.

High-signal rules

• Import modern space APIs from mesa.discrete_space and mesa.experimental.continuous_space.
• Do not use legacy mesa.space for new work.
• Use cells_with_capacity for partially full cells; empties only when you need zero occupancy.
• Mutate property layers in place. Do not rebind grid.<layer> to a new array.
• Use seeded randomness (Model(rng=seed) or random.Random(seed)) for repeatable layouts.
• Prefer CellAgent for mobile occupancy, FixedAgent for one-time placement, and Grid2DMovingAgent for 2D directional movement.
• Keep networkx optional in user-facing code; only build Network examples when the graph stack is available or when you provide an explicit layout.
• Use ContinuousSpaceAgent.remove() and CellAgent.remove() rather than mutating registries directly.