diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4319473
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+name: ci
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+      - moltenhub-*
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - main
+
+jobs:
+  repository-checks:
+    name: repository-checks
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Validate repository layout
+        run: bash scripts/validate-repo.sh
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b155e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Local runtime artifacts
+.codex
+.task-logs/
+AGENTS.md
+.moltenhub-agents-*.md
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a46ae92..9d1950b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1 +1,17 @@
-# .github
\ No newline at end of file
+# .github
+
+Organization metadata repository for `Molten-Bot`.
+
+## Scope
+
+This repository is intentionally minimal and currently only contains:
+
+- `README.md`
+- `profile/README.md`
+
+It does **not** contain product application source code (frontend, backend, or tests).
+
+## Task Routing
+
+If a task is about product behavior (for example, UI bugs such as form fields not rendering),
+run the task against the product repository that owns that code, not `Molten-Bot/.github`.
diff --git a/scripts/validate-repo.sh b/scripts/validate-repo.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a42d178
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/validate-repo.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+for required_ignore_pattern in .codex .task-logs/ AGENTS.md ".moltenhub-agents-*.md"; do
+  if ! grep -Fqx "$required_ignore_pattern" .gitignore; then
+    echo "error: .gitignore is missing '$required_ignore_pattern'"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+done
+
+for required_file in README.md profile/README.md; do
+  if [[ ! -f "$required_file" ]]; then
+    echo "error: missing required file '$required_file'"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+done
+
+if ! grep -Fq "## Task Routing" README.md; then
+  echo "error: README.md must include the 'Task Routing' section"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+while IFS= read -r markdown_file; do
+  if grep -nE "[[:blank:]]$" "$markdown_file" >/dev/null; then
+    echo "error: trailing whitespace found in $markdown_file"
+    grep -nE "[[:blank:]]$" "$markdown_file"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+done < <(git ls-files "*.md")
+
+echo "repository validation passed"