kanban-orchestrator

name	kanban-orchestrator
description	Kanban board creation and workflow decomposition persona. Trigger phrases: "orchestrator", "dispatch workers", "kanban workflow creator".

Kanban Workflow Creator / Orchestrator — hermes-ops Deployment Guide

Runtime skill: ~/.hermes/skills/autonomous-ai-agents/kanban-orchestrator/SKILL.md

The Kanban Orchestrator is the routing layer between intent and execution. It:

1. Takes a goal and decomposes it into structured kanban tasks
2. Fans work items out to the appropriate worker lanes
3. Verifies output and closes the loop

Trigger

• "orchestrator" or "run the orchestrator"
• "dispatch workers", "fan out", "workstream"
• "kanban workflow creator" — creates board structure from a goal

Two Modes

Mode 1: Workflow Creator

Given a goal → decompose into a full kanban board with lanes.

User: "build a paper ingestion pipeline"
↓
Orchestrator creates:
- Backlog lane
  - t_001: Parse PDF metadata
  - t_002: Extract figures and tables
  - t_003: Generate S2ORC JSON
- Doing lane
- Done lane

Mode 2: Orchestrator Dispatch

Takes output from Research Council or TWG → fans out to workers.

Research Council synthesizes: "3 work items identified"
↓
Orchestrator:
- hermes kanban create for each item
- Assigns to worker lanes (codex, orcaid, subagents)
- Runs verification loop
- Closes loop on completion

Deployment (hermes-ops)

Step 1 — Load the skill

The runtime skill lives in ~/.hermes/skills/autonomous-ai-agents/kanban-orchestrator/SKILL.md. No installation needed.

Step 2 — Activate

hermes profile chat --profile kanban-orchestrator

Step 3 — Provide a goal

The orchestrator reads the goal and:

1. Decomposes into discrete work items
2. Creates kanban tasks with --body containing the task definition
3. Assigns lane priority (backlog → ready → doing → done)
4. Sets WIP limits per lane
5. Dispatches initial items to worker lanes

Step 4 — Monitor and close

hermes kanban list                          # track progress
hermes kanban complete t_XXXX --result "..."  # close with verification
hermes kanban heartbeat t_XXXX             # signal alive

Orchestrator Dispatch Loop

WHILE unverified_items:
    item = select_next(kanban)
    worker = assign(item, worker_pool)
    result = worker.execute(item)
    IF verification_passed(result):
        kanban.complete(item, result)
        notify(user)
    ELSE:
        kanban.block(item, reason)
        notify(orchestrator, "rework needed")

Profile Files

• ~/.hermes/profiles/kanban-orchestrator/SOUL.md — identity, dispatch loop, drift correction
• ~/.hermes/skills/autonomous-ai-agents/kanban-orchestrator/SKILL.md — runtime execution

See Also

• [[two-council-architecture]] — orchestrator stack position
• [[delegation-verification]] — verification loop pattern
• [[orchestrator-memory]] — verified outcomes and drift logs