agent-orchestration

name	agent-orchestration
description	Coordinate engine selection, bounded live agent dispatch, swarm integration, collaboration, delta briefs, and optional mux transport. Use when users invoke /delegate-codex, /swarm, collaboration-protocol, a delta brief, or when choosing the model, harness, or effort tier for delegated or review work.

Agent Orchestration

Coordinate live agent work through bounded packets, explicit ownership, durable collaboration records, and reviewed integration.

Route

Mode	Select when	Read
engine-selection	Choosing which model family, harness, or effort tier executes or reviews delegated work	references/engine-selection.md
delegate	One bounded task needs one agent	references/delegate.md
swarm	Independent investigations, edits, or reviews can run in parallel	references/swarm.md
collaborate	A decision needs independent passes, preserved dissent, and a critical review	references/collaborate.md
delta-brief	A settled change must update an agent already working from stale context	references/delta-brief.md
mux-adapter	The user explicitly names Zellij, tmux, or another terminal-mux transport	references/mux-adapter.md

Select exactly one dispatch mode and read only that reference. Combine modes only when the user explicitly requests a sequence, with two exceptions: engine-selection may precede any dispatch mode when the engine or effort choice is not already settled, and mux-adapter is only an adapter for a selected dispatch mode.

Do not use when

• A durable goal, phase gate, or GOAL_LEDGER.md is needed; goal-protocol owns that lifecycle and approves packets before this suite dispatches them.
• A one-shot PRD, issue slice, reviewed plan, or durable agent brief is wanted; planning-workflow owns that artifact.
• The request operates Herdr or Maestri private transport surfaces; herdr or maestri owns live tool syntax and targets.

Workflow

1. Classify the request, its evidence needs, its mutation scope, and whether one agent or a coordinated set is warranted.
2. Inspect current repository constraints and the available execution surface before assigning version-sensitive or permission-sensitive work.
3. Give each agent a self-contained packet: objective, context to read, allowed scope, non-goals, expected evidence, stop condition, and handoff.
4. Dispatch only work whose owner and integration boundary are clear. Monitor exceptions, review the returned evidence, and integrate accepted results in dependency order.
5. Return the selected mode, assignments, returned evidence, integration decision, and any blocked choice or follow-up. For a durable goal, return the evidence to goal-protocol for its ledger update.

Hard rules

• One supervisor owns task division, cross-agent decisions, and final integration; agents do not silently redefine shared contracts.
• The supervisor verifies each material handoff and integration result before dependent work proceeds.
• Parallel mutations must be file-disjoint or use explicitly coordinated isolated work surfaces; serialize shared APIs, data models, security boundaries, and other high-coupling work.
• Keep version-control, publication, and external side effects with the supervisor unless the user explicitly delegates them. Filesystem cleanup is Trash-only; permanent deletion and destructive Git remain forbidden even after confirmation or delegation.
• Do not infer an agent's permissions, tool flags, model, or terminal protocol. Verify current capability from the execution surface or report the uncertainty.
• Let a dispatched agent run to completion. Do not timebox it, cut it off, or send follow-up input while it is still producing output — a long or quiet stretch is work, not a stall. Wait on an observed terminal state (its verdict line, or a done/idle/blocked status), and when a wait call times out, re-read and keep waiting rather than intervening. Interrupt only on evidence the agent is genuinely stuck: no new output across repeated reads, a crash, or a block awaiting input you must supply. Give it the full context its task needs up front for the same reason — a truncated brief and a truncated run fail the same way.
• A material conclusion needs current evidence; a collaboration decision also needs an independent critical pass before synthesis and its selected durable ledger record.
• A delta brief points to an updated durable source of truth; a chat message is never the only record of a settled change.
• Keep credentials and secret values out of packets, transport, collaboration ledgers, and status reports.

Stop conditions

• Stop dispatching when scopes overlap without a named coordinator or when a shared decision has no owner.
• Stop and return the missing evidence when the requested agent cannot safely verify a required claim or action.
• Hand off before dispatch when a durable goal lacks an approved parent-traced packet, phase gate, or escalation boundary.

Output

Return the selected mode, active owners, bounded assignments or delta, returned evidence, integration state, ledger destination, and the next decision or blocker.