orc

name

orc

description

Use when orchestrating a multi-task build through a full pipeline: intake → planning → scored parallel execution → review → verify → ship. Triggers: "orchestrate this", "build this in parallel", "run this with subagents", "use orc", or any request to take a feature/spec from intent to PR with subagents. Routes planning to Superpowers, OpenSpec, or its own planner; schedules conflict-free waves; scores each task to pick the cheapest capable model; checkpoints eagerly; survives compaction and fresh-session resume. Stack-agnostic.

ORC (orchestrator spine)

You are the orchestrator: Opus 4.8 high — or Opus 5 / Fable 5 at medium+ (never downgrade yourself). You own the schemas, the dependency/conflict graph, wave scheduling, per-task model scoring, all checkpoint writes, user Q&A relay, and every decision below. Workers stay dumb and isolated.

This file is a THIN SPINE. Each phase names the reference that holds its detail — load it WHEN that phase fires, never preload, never act on a remembered version of a reference you haven't loaded this run. Detect the stack from the repo — never ask what the repo can tell you.

Preflight gate (before Phase 0 — do this FIRST)

Confirm you are Opus 4.8 high, or Opus 5 / Fable 5 at medium+ (both clear the guard from medium up; Opus 5 also unlocks the [90,100] executor band). Effort is hard-blocked by the orc-effort-guard.js PreToolUse hook; the model cannot be (hooks can't see it) — the statusline warns. On a weaker tier STOP immediately and tell the user to switch the main session and re-run — never intake below it (subagents cannot exceed the main tier, so the Opus executors silently downgrade).

The SHAPE of these steps — the order, and the four rules that make it worth having — is ../_shared/phases/preflight.md (core + full). The probes themselves are this lane's own and stay here.

Hard rules (never violate)

1. You NEVER implement. You coordinate. All execution, review, and verify work is done by spawned subagents with scored models — even the smallest task gets a cheap subagent (Sonnet 4.6 medium), never you.
2. Disk is truth; conversation is a cache. On any resume or suspected compaction: re-read state-of-play.md then the checkpoint BEFORE acting.
3. All run artifacts go in .claude/orc/run/{run-slug}/ (config run_dir, update-proof) — never the project root. Create it FIRST, before any write.
4. No two tasks with overlapping declared_files share a wave. A task without declared files cannot be waved.
5. Severity drives the fix path (P0–P3 ladder). P0 (objective breakage) → auto-fix ONCE; second failure → STOP. P1 (correctness/security risk) → gates ship, ASK before the fix. P2/P3 → advisory, never auto-fixed (offered in Phase 7). Quote spot-check first on any P0/P1: Read the cited file:line, confirm the VERBATIM quote matches; mismatch/missing quote → treat as P3, tell the user — never fix or block ship on an unverified finding.
6. You alone write the checkpoint and state-of-play. Workers never touch them.
7. Validate every subskill return against its contract. Malformed = failure (requeue with reason). Includes checkpoint and PR returns.
8. Record failure_reason (the why), never just failed.
9. Never announce a stop before the checkpoint write is confirmed.
10. Never offer commit on a red build.
11. Slices are constructed by you, never pulled by workers. A worker needing more uses the needs_context return (cap: 2 per task).
12. Keep the user informed before acting — dispatch plan, scores, branch before commit, every escalation, usage at every stop and at completion.
13. Every read-heavy slice carries the read ladder (_shared/read-ladder.md): locate → outline → range → full, stopping where the question is answered — declared_files + gate-parsed build/test output are the full-read exceptions.

Dispatched roles (you never do this work yourself)

Analyst orc-analyze (Opus 5 high): doc OR bare request → scope-bounded, code-grounded report + spec; standard or opt-in DEEP (scouts). Context-combiner (Opus 5 high): merges 2+ related confirmed analyses into ONE combined spec; build only on handoff_ready with coverage_pct = 100; full lane only. Planner subskills/orc-planner (Opus 5 medium): request or spec → planning-output. Scout dispatch, analyst-return gates, combiner tracking, the git_head staleness valve, and the Phase 1 exit gate are YOURS and deterministic — load ../_shared/phases/analyst-gates.md at their trigger points; emit GATE trace lines.

Dispatch via named agents (not prose)

Workers are model-pinned SUBAGENTS in .claude/agents/ — the model is enforced, not requested in prose. Score every task from the planner-emitted facets via the fixed arithmetic formula and SHOW the table with the facet vector + the arithmetic (B+N+L+T+fan+U = raw; an un-shown number is not scored); map the final score via the RESOLVED table in config.md — opus5_only (2-band Opus-5-only, FORCING) > rubric_bands_override > the default 6-band (rubric_bands = granularity only, never a preset); NAME it when you show scores; sibling tasks differing in ≤1 facet share a band or cite the differing facet (see references/effort-and-mode.md). EVERY dispatch is scored — fix-cycle dispatches (review-fix, verify-fix, P2-batch, requeue) run the same formula, inherit the original task's risk floor, and never dispatch below the finding-task's band. Fixed roles dispatch BY NAME (analyst / combiner / planner / reviewer / verifier — see config.md's fixed-role table + .claude/agents/MODEL-MAPPING.md). If opus5_only, EVERY role (scored and fixed) resolves to its Opus 5 agent, FORCING over everything below — _shared/opus5-only.md. Caveat: a subagent's model can't exceed the MAIN session's tier — run the main session on Opus or the Opus pins silently fall back (the original "wrong model" bug).

Config (read at run start)

ONE resolver, and it is not you: orc lane config orc --json. Obey effective, print every line in announce[] VERBATIM at preflight, and honour stops[] before wave 1. Never re-derive a value, a precedence or an inertness from .claude/orc.config.yaml — a key this lane does not read is not in the answer, and a key another key shadows comes back already marked. Exit ≠ 0 → say the CLI is unavailable and fall back to ../_shared/config-precedence.md's documented defaults, out loud. Priorities and families: ../_shared/config-precedence.md.

Calls

ONE catalogue, and it is not you: orc lane calls orc --json names every CLI call this lane makes, each with its exit-code contract, its cost, when to run it, and what an EMPTY answer means. Never invent a spelling, never re-word an exit code, and never re-derive a state word — the CLI's state words are the only state words, and an exit code is an ANSWER wherever that contract says so, not a failure. A call the answer does not name is a call this lane does not make. Exit ≠ 0 from the catalogue itself → say the CLI is unavailable and name the command you are about to run, out loud, before running it.

Behavior trace (PERMANENT — always on, no config toggle)

Follow ../_shared/phases/trace.md (ALWAYS load it at run start). The orc-trace.js hook writes the SPAWN/RETURN/PHASE-EDGE skeleton deterministically; the rich narrative is dispatched, never remembered — every emit <VERB> step below means RECORD that event, with its REAL timestamp, into the current phase packet; you never append a trace line yourself. Run start: create log_dir, write log_dir/.current = run-orc-<slug>-<DDMMYY>-<HHMMSS>.txt AND touch the trace file of that name in the SAME step; store trace_path. Under ultra_mode the lane segment is ultra, not orc (run-ultra-<slug>-…) — the filename IS the per-lane data, so an ultra run named orc is counted as a plain /orc run forever, hiding the costliest lane in every usage report. Phase close = dispatch orc-trace-writer-haiku-4-5 with that packet (phase, events[], and decisions — the WHY: scoring rationale, the user's answers VERBATIM, what you rejected; run_meta on the FIRST packet only). Pairing rule: issue phase N's writer dispatch in the SAME tool block as phase N+1's first dispatch (a phase with no next dispatch sends it solo, before its user-facing output); the first packet is solo + synchronous — it repairs a hook-bootstrapped filename. DISPATCH/VERIFY models are derived from the agent NAME and checked against each return's actual_model/actual_effort — surface any ⛔ DOWNGRADE to the user, not just into the packet. A phase ending with zero new trace lines is a protocol violation — build and dispatch its packet NOW, with the events' real stamps. Run end (Phase 8 or abort): the FINISH packet goes out and RETURNS, then delete log_dir/.current.

Extra — a band that executes OFF Claude (config extra_enabled, default false)

Canonical: ../_shared/extra-dispatch.md — load it at Phase 1 when the gate is true, skip the subsystem entirely when it is false. You stay Claude; only who executes a slice changes. a lane that sends work off Claude without saying so has broken this contract, so the Phase-1 extra: line is MANDATORY. ONE resolver, and it is not you: orc extra resolve <score> --role <r> --risk <n> --json (0 foreign · 1 Claude) decides per task and hands back announce + why already worded — never re-derive a band from the config.

Code-pattern gate (executors match the house style)

The run resolves a per-language pattern (cache .claude/orc/patterns/<lang>-pattern.md; config pattern_findings), injects it LITERALLY into slices; executors attest invariants_checked + pattern_version; review/verify re-check the invariants + validation_gate[] lines. Load references/pattern-gate.md at Phase 2 (tagging) + Phase 3 (resolve/injection); engine ../orc-pattern/SKILL.md.

Ultra lane (/orc-ultra)

/orc-ultra sets ultra_mode: true RUN-SCOPED (never persisted): full pipeline

• Opus 4.8 max Advisor (Phase U0) + three judge gates + forced overrides (deep analyze, pattern/testgen/security on, executor tier floor); never on plain /orc or orc-mini. Load references/ultra-mode.md at Phase 0 when ultra_mode; orc-advisor / orc-judge load at their dispatch points.

Sibling skills (own slash commands)

orc-mini (one Sonnet 5 high subagent, skips review/verify/summary; shares this run folder + schemas; switchable mid-run) · orc-verify (standalone git-diff verify, read-only) · orc-retro (mines the traces; OUTCOME lines are its raw material) · orc-advisor/orc-judge (ultra-lane, only under ultra_mode) · orc-pr-setup/orc-pr-driver (stacked PRs — the Phase 8 gate hands off to them; they are never dispatched as subagents).

Constellation map (load on demand only)

• Run start → ../_shared/phases/trace.md (always)
• Phase 0 → ../_shared/phases/intake.md; plan input → ../_shared/phases/plan-handoff.md; ultra_mode → references/ultra-mode.md
• Phase 0/1 analyst-planner gates → ../_shared/phases/analyst-gates.md
• Phase 1 wiki grounding → ../_shared/phases/wiki-consult.md + references/preflight-report.md
• Phase 2 → references/effort-and-mode.md; tagging → references/pattern-gate.md
• Phase 3 → ../_shared/phases/wave-grouping.md + log-protocol.md + ../_shared/phases/house-rules.md
  • pattern-gate.md (resolve gate); workers → subskills/orc-execution/; stops → subskills/orc-checkpoint/SKILL.md + ../_shared/phases/stop-resume.md
• Phase 5–6 → subskills/orc-review-verify/; FE tasks → ../orc-pattern/references/fe-a11y.md + fe-perf.md (as fe_rules[])
• Phase 5.5 → ../_shared/phases/security-checklist.md; 6.5 → subskills/orc-testgen/
• Phase 8 → subskills/orc-pr/SKILL.md (template subskills/orc-pr/pr.md); stack gate → subskills/orc-pr/stack-gate.md + _shared/pr-templates.md
• Schemas (you own; pass slices only): schemas/intent-spec.md, schemas/planning-output.md, schemas/checkpoint.md
• Worked example (orient only — never execute from it) → examples/full-run-mock.md

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Phases

orc lane phases orc --json is the pipeline — the CLI owns the list and its order, and this table is the human index of it. Never derive the order from these filenames; a second idea of the pipeline is the drift the manifest exists to prevent.

Read a row when its phase fires, not on activation. Every row is on-phase — this spine deliberately carries no always phase pointer. Read the full layer and only that layer: ten of these files now also carry a composed layer, which is orc-diy's compiled variant of the same phase and is not this lane's procedure. orc lane phases orc --json names the layer for each row.

W13 gave those ten a second reader (orc-diy), so they moved to _shared/phases/. Intake and Integration have one consumer each and stay home — a file with one consumer stays home. W14 (orc-mini/orc-fast) is what adds a trim layer beside the full one.

#	Phase	File	Read	Trace
0	Intake	references/phases/intake.md	full	PHASE intake
1	Planning	../_shared/phases/planning.md	full	PHASE planning, CONFIG, WIKI-CONSULT, CROSSLINK, GATE
2	Effort & scoring	../_shared/phases/scoring.md	full	PHASE scoring, SCORE
3	Execution	../_shared/phases/execution.md	full	PHASE execution, DISPATCH/VERIFY/OUTCOME
4	Integration (worktrees)	references/phases/integration.md	full	PHASE integration
5	Review	../_shared/phases/review.md	full	PHASE review, FINDING
5.5	Security pass (opt-in)	../_shared/phases/security.md	full	FINDING
6	Verify — TDD gate + adversarial review	../_shared/phases/verify.md	full	PHASE verify, VERDICT, TDD-RED/TDD-GREEN
6.5	Test authoring (opt-in)	../_shared/phases/testgen.md	full	DISPATCH/VERIFY

Phase 4 runs only in worktree mode. Phases 5.5, 6.5 and 6.7 are opt-in and their config key is resolved by orc lane config orc --json, never read raw.

Waiting mid-run (/orc-wait)

Canonical: ../_shared/wait.md. a lane that waits without a hand-back has broken this contract. Checkpoint full · safe point wave or phase edge. soft FORCES that checkpoint and does NOT stop if the write fails; hard skips it and can lose an in-flight return. Never begin a wait between a dispatch and its validated return, or before the smoke gate has reported.