| name | orchestrate |
| description | Multi-goal harness — runs N `/cmax` pipelines in parallel for DIFFERENT goals at the same time. Each goal gets its own deepresearch → multispec → /goal → blind /verify, independent state, independent verdict. Rollup status at end. Effectiveness-driven defaults (--tdd --confidence 0.85). Use when you have several distinct things to ship at once and don't want to babysit them sequentially. Distinct from /parallel (which fans out one goal across N sub-Specs) and /hive (which gives N agents the SAME problem). |
/orchestrate — N /cmax pipelines, one command
Ask for several things at once. Each gets its own full pipeline; they run in parallel.
CLI equivalent: cmax orchestrate "<goal A>" "<goal B>" "<goal C>" — or cmax multi ...
Pipeline (per goal, in parallel)
For each goal you provide, the orchestrator spawns a cmax ask "<goal>" --tdd --confidence 0.85 subprocess. Each subprocess runs the standard /cmax pipeline independently:
- /deepresearch
- multispec decompose
- /specqa + /introspect gates
- Parallel /goal per DAG leaf
- Per-sub-Spec /verify (blind Opus)
- Rollup /verify
Each goal writes to its own memory dir (.claudemax/state/orchestrator-<ts>/<goal-id>.memory.sqlite) so they don't collide.
Live status
A status table updates every 5 seconds (configurable via --tick-ms):
─── status @ 03:14:22 ───
running 142s add-health-endpoint-with-tests add a /health endpoint that returns build sha…
running 138s migrate-user-model-to-drizzle migrate the user model to drizzle, preserve a…
finished 97s add-otel-to-the-worker add OpenTelemetry instrumentation to the wor…
Rollup verdict
all-finished (every goal shipped clean) / partial (some did, some didn't) / all-failed. Exit 0 only on all-finished.
Flags
| Flag | Default | Effect |
|---|
--goals-file <path> | (none) | Read newline-separated goals from a file (in addition to positional args) |
--max-parallel <n> | all | Cap concurrent subprocesses. Default = run all goals in parallel |
--variant opussonnet|opusolo | opussonnet | Per-goal exec tier — opusolo is ~3× cost, max effectiveness |
--mode auto|solo|teams | auto | Per-goal parallelism mode for the inner multispec |
--no-tdd | (TDD on) | Skip the TDD enforcement inside each goal |
--confidence <n> | 0.85 | Verifier confidence threshold per goal |
--tick-ms <n> | 5000 | Live status refresh interval |
When to invoke /orchestrate
- You have several distinct features / fixes / migrations to ship and don't want to do them sequentially.
- Overnight: queue 5–10 goals before bed, wake up to a rollup verdict.
- You're evaluating which approach works — give 2-3 phrasings of the same goal, see which ones the verifier accepts.
When NOT to invoke /orchestrate
- One goal: just use
/cmax or cmax ask.
- Goals that touch the same files heavily (writeSet overlap across goals → merge conflicts). Run them sequentially instead.
- You haven't yet exercised
cmax ask against your billable pool once. Validate the single-goal path first.
Pre-split era warning (today, until 2026-06-15)
Per code.claude.com/docs/en/agent-sdk/overview (accessed 2026-05-21): until 2026-06-15, every cmax ask consumes your shared 5-hour rolling subscription pool. N parallel goals = N× faster envelope burn. Use a small N first (2–3) to feel the cost before queuing 10. After 2026-06-15 the harness auto-switches to the dedicated monthly Agent SDK credit pool.
Differentiation from sibling skills
/orchestrate vs /parallel: /orchestrate runs N DIFFERENT goals (different deepresearch, different multispec each). /parallel fans out ONE goal into distinct packets./orchestrate vs /hive: /orchestrate gives N distinct problems to N pipelines. /hive gives the SAME problem to N agents and merges their proposals./orchestrate vs /cmax: /cmax is one pipeline for one goal. /orchestrate is N parallel /cmax invocations.
