arena

# Arena Fan out N parallel attempts at the same task. Read every candidate end to end. Pick the strongest as the base. Graft the best ideas from the others into it. Verify the synthesized result. Companion to `swarm`, which covers different slices or races and returns a report. Arena synthesizes one artifact. ## Authorized Scope Act only within the user's request and existing approval; loading this skill grants no new authority. Keep report-only requests report-only, honor the caller's target, host, provider, and cost limits, ask before expanding scope, and forward these limits to delegates. ## Contract Inputs: - A task whose first attempt would lock in the wrong shape - Optional N and a shared grounding pack Outputs: - One synthesized artifact - A short synthesis note: base, grafts, rejections, dropouts, verification Creates/Modifies: - Candidate outputs in separate worktrees or `.tmp/arena-<slug>/candidate-<n>/` - The synthesized artifact External Side Effects: - None beyond local files unless the caller lands the result Confirmation Required: - None for the bakeoff itself Delegates To: - `worktree` when candidates need isolated checkouts - `verification-before-completion` before claiming the result works ## Phases Open a todo list: Frame, Fan out, Cross-judge, Pick, Graft, Verify. ### A. Frame State the artifact. Derive a rubric of 3-6 concrete gradeable criteria. Candidates see the task, not the rubric. Pick runners across capability tiers and, when possible, different families. Same-tier N times only when the work is generation-bound. Assign each candidate its own output path. Shared writes fail Separate Before Serializing Shared State. ### B. Fan out Spawn all N subagents in one message. Each produces the artifact and a rationale naming alternatives it rejected. A dropout proceeds as N-1. ### C. Cross-judge After candidates complete, spawn one read-only judge on a different tier or family from the parent. It scores each criterion and recommends a base. ### D. Pick Read every candidate end to end. Score criterion by criterion. Compare against the cross-judge. Prefer the cleaner boundary when two feel tied. ### E. Graft Walk each loser once. Port one or two things, by hand, so the result stays coherent. Record rejections. Wild divergence means Phase A was under-specified. Reframe and re-run. ### F. Verify The synthesized artifact holds up under the same scrutiny as any other output. A miss here is a re-frame or a missed graft, not a paper-over. ## Arena procedure Read [arena procedure](references/arena-procedure.md) when running this workflow. Apply the authorized scope and mode of this entry point to every step. Resolve other skills through this distribution’s active catalog; resolve resources relative to the installed skill directory.