pan-start

name	pan-start
description	pan start <id> — spawn a work agent for an issue in its own tmux session and workspace
triggers	["pan start","start working on","work on issue","spawn agent","create workspace"]
allowed-tools	["Bash","Read"]

pan start

Run the command now:

pan start <issue-id>

Usage

pan start PAN-123          # Spawn agent for issue PAN-123
pan start MIN-456          # Works with any tracker prefix
pan start PAN-123 --force  # Clear a paused agent gate and start anyway
pan start PAN-123 --host   # Break-glass: bypass workspace Docker stack-health gate
pan start PAN-123 --fresh  # Drop the saved session and start a new one (e.g. switch model)
pan start PAN-123 --harness codex  # Explicitly use the Codex harness
pan start PAN-123 --model gpt-5.6-sol --swarm off --review-mode full
pan start PAN-123 --review-model gpt-5.6-sol  # Pin the convoy review model
pan start PAN-123 --plan-model k3 --model k3  # Auto-plan AND work on Kimi k3
pan start PAN-123 --remote --tier durable  # Remote Fly.io workspace with persistent volume
pan start PAN-123 --remote --tier ephemeral  # Remote Fly.io workspace that winds down on stale heartbeat

What It Does

pan start <id> is the single paved-road entry point: it takes an issue from whatever state it is in to running work.

• No plan exists — pan start auto-plans (non-interactive), materializes xBRIEF tasks, and starts the work agent when planning finalizes.
• Plan exists — pan start creates the workspace if needed and spawns the work agent from the existing xBRIEF and xBRIEF tasks.
• Already running — pan start exits 0 with a no-op message naming pan tell <id> for messaging and the tmux attach command.

Planning depth is controlled by --plan:

pan start PAN-1071 --plan interactive   # Q&A planning first, then work
pan start PAN-1071 --plan auto          # non-interactive planning, then work (default)
pan start PAN-1071 --plan skip          # synthesize a minimal xBRIEF and xBRIEF tasks, then work

The default planning mode comes from planning.default_mode in ~/.overdeck/config.yaml; the shipped default is auto. The legacy --auto flag is deprecated and is now an alias for --plan skip.

Start-time policy flags are persisted on the issue before planning or work begins. --model sets the durable work-model override used by later respawns, --swarm accepts off, auto, or always, --review-mode accepts quick, full, or none, and --review-model pins the model used by the review convoy. Omitted flags leave existing and inherited policy untouched. When this start also kicks off planning (no plan exists yet), --plan-model <model> overrides the planning agent's model for that session only — it is a one-shot override, not persisted policy, and it never changes the work agent's model (--model).

If an agent is paused, pan start <id> refuses to spawn until you run pan unpause <id>. Use --force only when you intentionally want to clear that pause gate and start anyway.

For projects with workspace Docker configured, pan start checks stack health before spawning. Use --host only as an explicit break-glass override; interactive shells always prompt, while non-interactive callers must pass --yes to confirm.

If a stopped agent has a saved Claude session, pan start refuses and points you to pan resume <id> (continue that session). Use --fresh to deliberately discard the saved session and start a brand-new one — for example, to relaunch a stopped agent on a different model, where the existing session can't resume under different provider routing. --fresh is non-destructive: it clears only the resume pointer, never the JSONL transcript, and refuses while the agent is still running (stop it first with pan kill <id>).

Slow or hanging workspace prep

Workspace preparation bounds its slow external phases with these default budgets:

Phase	Budget	Timeout behavior
state-reconcile	60s	Fail fast
sync-main	240s	Warn and continue to spawn
tracker-context	60s	Warn, use empty tracker context, and continue to spawn
spawn	600s	Fail fast

Ora spinner text updates render only on a TTY, so non-interactive callers receive plain progress lines and a heartbeat every 15 seconds while a phase is still running:

[prep] still running: sync-main (45s elapsed)

A fail-fast timeout exits with the step name and budget. A degraded timeout warns and keeps preparation moving toward agent spawn. Supervisors that invoke pan start non-interactively should allow an outer budget of at least 300 seconds under load; RUN-35 completed after earlier 120-second and 200-second supervisors timed out while workspace preparation was still making progress.

When to Use

• Starting work on a new issue
• Launching an agent after planning is complete

See Also

• pan plan <id> — create an execution plan before starting
• pan show <id> — inspect agent state while it works
• pan tell <id> — send a message to the running agent
• pan done <id> — signal the agent has completed its work