umb-demo-conductor

name	umb-demo-conductor
description	Run the end-to-end Umbraco blogging-site demo as a Conductor multi-agent workflow. Use when asked to build the full demo site via Conductor (the orchestrated, workflow-driven variant of the umbraco-demo agent).

Run the Umbraco demo as a Conductor workflow

This skill runs the complete Umbraco blogging-site demo as a Conductor multi-agent workflow. The workflow file lives next to this skill at umbraco-demo.yaml and embeds most demo steps by !file-including their SKILL.md (umb-homepage, umb-blog-pages, umb-navigation, umb-image-sourcing, umb-blogpost-images, umb-tagcloud, umb-sitemap, umb-accessibility), plus an optional backup/reset and a branch setup step. The blog-posts step is purpose-built inline to showcase Conductor: a deterministic plan agent emits a typed post contract, a for_each fan-out authors every post body concurrently, then a join agent persists them to Umbraco in parallel batches (per-post content writes to distinct nodes are verified deadlock-free on LocalDB).

⚠️ Critical browser rule

The Playwright browser window is projected live to the audience. The workflow opens it ONCE (in the home-page step) and reuses it for the whole run. NEVER close the browser at any point.

Prerequisites

1. Start the Conductor's Playwright MCP server FIRST. The Conductor workflow connects to a headed Playwright server over HTTP on port 8932, separate from the traditional demo agent's server (port 8931). This gives the workflow its own visible browser window, so it can run at the same time as the traditional demo agent without sharing a window. From the repo root:

   powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/start-playwright-mcp.ps1 -Port 8932
   

   This launches a detached, headed @playwright/mcp server with --shared-browser-context on http://localhost:8932/mcp (and a per-port browser profile). It is idempotent (reuses an already-running server) and detached (the browser stays open after the run). The workflow's playwright MCP server points at this http://localhost:8932/mcp endpoint. (The traditional demo agent uses the port-8931 server from .mcp.json; if you are only running the Conductor flow you still use 8932 here.)
2. The Umbraco site must be running at CONDUCTOR_SITE_BASE_URL (see Project Configuration in copilot-instructions.md). This is the dedicated Conductor environment site (separate database from the traditional demo site, so both can run at once). If not running, start it with: dotnet run --project src/MyProject/MyProject.csproj --launch-profile Conductor -p:SiteEnv=Conductor.
3. The conductor CLI must be installed. Check with conductor --version.
   • If it is missing, install it per the Conductor skill's setup guide (/.copilot/installed-plugins/conductor/.../references/setup.md).

Launch order (important)

1. scripts/start-playwright-mcp.ps1 -Port 8932 — start the Conductor's headed browser server.
2. Start the Copilot CLI session — it connects to the server via HTTP.
3. Run the conductor workflow (below) — it connects to the port-8932 server, so every step drives the Conductor's own visible window (separate from the traditional demo agent's port-8931 window).

Running the workflow

Run from the repository root so that the MCP servers and --workspace-instructions auto-discovery resolve correctly. Always pass --web so the live dashboard (DAG graph, agent streaming, gate nodes) is visible to the audience:

conductor run .github/skills/umb-demo-conductor/umbraco-demo.yaml --workspace-instructions --web --skip-gates --no-interactive

• --web opens the real-time dashboard (DAG graph, live streaming, gate nodes). This is required for this demo — we always want to watch the workflow in the browser. After launch, open the printed Dashboard: URL in a browser window.
• --skip-gates auto-selects the first option at the human gate, which is "Yes — back up and reset to a clean slate first" — the correct default for a fresh demo build. This flag is needed because the agent launches the command non-interactively (no TTY): Conductor v0.1.18 cannot yet resolve a human gate from the browser, so a plain foreground --web run blocks on terminal stdin and fails with EOFError, and --web-bg is rejected outright when a human_gate is present. The gate node still appears in the dashboard.
• --no-interactive disables the Esc/Ctrl+G interrupt listener so the non-interactive process never blocks on stdin.
• If you DO have an interactive terminal and want to answer the gate yourself, run ... --web without --skip-gates --no-interactive and select the option at the terminal prompt.
• --workspace-instructions layers in the full repository rules at run time (.github/copilot-instructions.md and the applicable .github/instructions/**/*.instructions.md files), so the workflow does not duplicate them.
• The workflow defines its own MCP servers (umbraco-mcp, playwright, a11y-accessibility) mirroring .mcp.json. playwright is configured as an HTTP server pointing at the Conductor's headed browser started in the Prerequisites (http://localhost:8932/mcp), so the workflow drives its own browser window — separate from the traditional demo agent's port-8931 window — and that single window persists across every step. umbraco-mcp and a11y-accessibility remain stdio.
• Override the site URL if needed (defaults to CONDUCTOR_SITE_BASE_URL, see Project Configuration in copilot-instructions.md): --input site_base_url=<CONDUCTOR_SITE_BASE_URL>.

Human gate (reset prompt)

The first step is a human gate asking whether to back up and reset the site to a clean slate before building. The recommended hands-off command above passes --skip-gates, which auto-selects the first option ("Yes — back up and reset") — the right choice for a fresh demo build — while the gate node remains visible in the --web dashboard. To answer the gate manually instead, run with --web in an interactive terminal (without --skip-gates --no-interactive) and pick the option at the prompt.

Validating without running

To check the workflow without executing it:

conductor validate .github/skills/umb-demo-conductor/umbraco-demo.yaml
conductor show .github/skills/umb-demo-conductor/umbraco-demo.yaml

Error handling

Do NOT improvise workarounds. If conductor fails for any reason (installation failure, provider error, missing dependency, MCP server failure), report the exact error message to the user and stop. Do not attempt to simulate or replicate the multi-agent workflow by hand — the value of this skill is the orchestrated, multi-agent run. Likewise, if an Umbraco MCP tool is unavailable or failing, stop and notify the user rather than substituting a direct API call.