orchestrate

name	orchestrate
description	Coordinate multiple tickets in parallel across worktrees with wave-based execution, worker dispatch, and adversarial verification
disable-model-invocation	false
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Bash, Task, Grep, Glob, Agent
version	1.0.0

Orchestrate

Coordinate multiple Linear tickets in parallel across git worktrees. The orchestrator creates worktrees, dispatches /oneshot workers, tracks progress via a dashboard, and enforces quality gates through adversarial verification. The orchestrator NEVER writes application code — it only coordinates, monitors, and verifies.

Two dispatch modes. With the default catalyst.orchestration.dispatchMode: "oneshot-legacy", each ticket gets one long claude -p /catalyst-dev:oneshot worker that runs the full lifecycle. With dispatchMode: "phase-agents", the orchestrator dispatches nine short-lived claude --bg phase skills (phase-triage … phase-monitor-deploy) per ticket, advancing on phase.<name>.complete.<ticket> broker events. The phase-agents mode is the post-2026-06-15 path that keeps worker dispatch on the subscription pool. See Phase agents for the pipeline, model assignment, cost economics, and the end-to-end runbook.

Prerequisites

# Resolve the shared catalyst-dev scripts dir (skills live in catalyst-legacy; scripts stay in
# catalyst-dev). Fail fast with an actionable message if catalyst-dev is not installed.
source "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/legacy}/scripts/require-catalyst-dev.sh" \
    "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/legacy}" || exit 1

# 1. Git (REQUIRED)
if ! command -v git &>/dev/null; then
  echo "ERROR: Git is required"
  exit 1
fi

# 2. Linearis CLI (REQUIRED for ticket reading)
# See /catalyst-dev:linearis for CLI syntax reference
if ! command -v linearis &>/dev/null; then
  echo "ERROR: Linearis CLI required for ticket intake"
  echo "Install: npm install -g linearis"
  exit 1
fi

# 3. GitHub CLI (REQUIRED for PR monitoring)
if ! command -v gh &>/dev/null; then
  echo "ERROR: GitHub CLI required for PR/CI monitoring"
  exit 1
fi

# 4. Claude CLI (REQUIRED for worker dispatch)
if ! command -v claude &>/dev/null; then
  echo "ERROR: Claude CLI required for worker dispatch"
  exit 1
fi

# 5. Project setup (REQUIRED — thoughts, config, workflow context)
if [[ -f "${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/check-project-setup.sh" ]]; then
  "${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/check-project-setup.sh" || exit 1
fi

Invocation

/catalyst-dev:orchestrate PROJ-101 PROJ-102 PROJ-103             # explicit tickets
/catalyst-dev:orchestrate --project "Q2 API Redesign"              # pull from Linear project
/catalyst-dev:orchestrate --cycle current                           # pull from current cycle
/catalyst-dev:orchestrate --file tickets.txt                        # read ticket IDs from file
/catalyst-dev:orchestrate --auto 5                                  # auto-pick top 5 Todo tickets

Flags

Flag	Description
--project <name>	Pull tickets from a Linear project
--cycle current	Pull tickets from the current Linear cycle
--file <path>	Read ticket IDs from a file (one per line)
--auto <N>	Auto-pick top N Todo tickets: urgent/high priority first, newer first. Default N=3.
--auto-merge	Workers auto-merge PRs when CI + verification pass
--max-parallel <n>	Override config maxParallel (default: 3)
--base-branch <branch>	Base branch for worktrees (default: main)
--interactive	Include PM intake phase before orchestration
--prd <path>	Run PRD review panel + ticket creation before orchestration
--dry-run	Show wave plan without executing
--state-on-merge <name>	Linear state to set on PR merge. Default: stateMap.done (typically "Done")
--stop	Print how to deregister an execution-core project (edit the central registry) and exit. Works regardless of the configured dispatchMode.

Configuration

Reads orchestration config from .catalyst/config.json (or .claude/config.json if .catalyst/ doesn't exist). Falls back to sensible defaults if no orchestration block exists.

{
  "catalyst": {
    "orchestration": {
      "worktreeDir": null,
      "maxParallel": 3,
      "hooks": {
        "setup": [],
        "teardown": []
      },
      "workerCommand": "/catalyst-dev:oneshot",
      "workerModel": "opus",
      "dispatchMode": "phase-agents",
      "thoughts": {
        "profile": null,
        "directory": null
      },
      "testRequirements": {
        "backend": ["unit"],
        "frontend": ["unit"],
        "fullstack": ["unit"]
      },
      "verifyBeforeMerge": true,
      "allowSelfReportedCompletion": false
    }
  }
}

dispatchMode (CTL-452):

• "phase-agents" (default after Phase 6 lands) — the orchestrator dispatches 9 short-lived phase agents per ticket via claude --bg (subscription pool). Phase 4 monitor subscribes a broker phase_lifecycle interest per ticket and advances on phase.<name>.{complete,skipped}.<TICKET> events via the orchestrate-phase-advance helper (CTL-512: skipped is a monitor-deploy terminal-no-deploy status routed the same as complete).
• "oneshot-legacy" — the orchestrator dispatches one long claude -p oneshot worker per ticket. Kept for rollback safety; flipping a single config key reverts to the pre-CTL-452 behavior.
• "execution-core" (CTL-554, CTL-582) — daemon-served. /orchestrate runs no wave loop and no Phase 4 session: it just ensures the single machine-level execution-core daemon is running and exits. Enrolled projects are the central registry ~/catalyst/execution-core/registry.json (maintained by setup-execution-core-states.sh); the daemon watches that file and serves each team by composing the CTL-535 monitor, CTL-536 scheduler, and CTL-539 recovery modules.

The workerCommand field is still honored in legacy mode. In phase-agents mode it is unused (each phase has its own canonical skill).

See config template for full schema documentation.

Core Principle: The Orchestrator Never Writes Code

The orchestrator operates ONLY from its own worktree. It:

• Creates/removes worker worktrees
• Dispatches worker sessions (via claude CLI with streaming JSON output)
• Reads status from worker signal files and git
• Writes dashboard and briefing documents for the human
• Runs adversarial verification agents in worker worktrees
• Updates Linear ticket states when workers fail to do so

It NEVER:

• Modifies application code
• Writes test code
• Changes configuration in worker worktrees
• Commits to worker branches

Workflow

Phase 1: Intake & Dependency Analysis

1. Resolve tickets: Based on invocation mode, use the Linearis CLI to fetch ticket data. For exact CLI syntax, run linearis issues usage or linearis cycles usage — do not guess.

   • Explicit IDs: read each ticket's full details
   • --project: list issues filtered by project name
   • --cycle current: list the active cycle, then list its issues
   • --file: read IDs from file, then read each ticket's details
   • --auto <N>: list status=Todo issues, then select the top N. Ranking: urgent/high priority first (Linear priority 1 = Urgent → 4 = Low, with 0 = "No priority" sorted LAST), then newest createdAt first. Example jq after linearis issues list --status Todo: sort_by((if .priority == 0 then 5 else .priority end), (-(.createdAt | fromdateiso8601))) | .[:N] Present the auto-picked tickets to the user as part of the wave plan before proceeding.

2. Read ticket details: For each ticket, extract:

   • Title, description, estimate
   • Dependencies (linked blocking/blocked-by issues)
   • Labels (to detect scope: backend, frontend, fullstack)

3. Build dependency graph: Identify which tickets in the set depend on each other.

4. Group into waves:

   • Wave 1: tickets with no dependencies on other tickets in the set
   • Wave 2: tickets that depend only on Wave 1 tickets
   • Wave N: tickets that depend on Wave N-1 tickets
   • Tickets with circular dependencies → flag to user, do NOT proceed

5. Present wave plan for approval:

Orchestration Plan — "api-redesign"
Total: 6 tickets | 3 waves | Max parallel: 3

Wave 1 (parallel, 3 workers):
  PROJ-101: Auth middleware rewrite [backend, 3pt]
  PROJ-102: Rate limiting service [backend, 2pt]
  PROJ-103: Email templates [frontend, 1pt]

Wave 2 (after Wave 1, 2 workers):
  PROJ-104: OAuth integration [fullstack, 5pt] — depends on PROJ-101
  PROJ-105: API usage dashboard [frontend, 3pt] — depends on PROJ-102

Wave 3 (after Wave 2, 1 worker):
  PROJ-106: Self-service API keys [fullstack, 5pt] — depends on PROJ-104, PROJ-105

Estimated waves: 3 sequential rounds
Proceed? [Y/n]

6. If --dry-run: Print wave plan and exit.

Phase 2: Provision Worktrees

Determine worktree base directory (in priority order):

1. catalyst.orchestration.worktreeDir from config
2. ${GITHUB_SOURCE_ROOT}/<org>/<repo>-worktrees/ (from env var + git remote)
3. ~/wt/<repo>/ (fallback)

Read config for orchestration settings:

# Resolve config file (.catalyst/ first, then .claude/)
CONFIG_FILE=""
for CFG in ".catalyst/config.json" ".claude/config.json"; do
  if [ -f "$CFG" ]; then CONFIG_FILE="$CFG"; break; fi
done

# Read orchestration config (all have defaults)
WORKTREE_DIR=$(jq -r '.catalyst.orchestration.worktreeDir // empty' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
MAX_PARALLEL=$(jq -r '.catalyst.orchestration.maxParallel // 3' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
SETUP_HOOKS=$(jq -c '.catalyst.orchestration.hooks.setup // []' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
TEARDOWN_HOOKS=$(jq -c '.catalyst.orchestration.hooks.teardown // []' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
WORKER_COMMAND=$(jq -r '.catalyst.orchestration.workerCommand // "/catalyst-dev:oneshot"' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)

# CTL-208: workerCommand must be plugin-namespaced (/<plugin>:<skill>). A bare /oneshot
# becomes literal prompt text and the worker silently no-ops. Fail loudly here.
if [[ ! "$WORKER_COMMAND" =~ ^/[a-z][a-z0-9_-]*:[a-z][a-z0-9_-]*$ ]]; then
  echo "ERROR: catalyst.orchestration.workerCommand=\"$WORKER_COMMAND\" must be plugin-namespaced (/<plugin>:<skill>), e.g. /catalyst-dev:oneshot. Update $CONFIG_FILE." >&2
  exit 2
fi

WORKER_MODEL=$(jq -r '.catalyst.orchestration.workerModel // "opus"' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
VERIFY_BEFORE_MERGE=$(jq -r '.catalyst.orchestration.verifyBeforeMerge // "true"' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
ALLOW_SELF_REPORTED=$(jq -r '.catalyst.orchestration.allowSelfReportedCompletion // "false"' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)

# CTL-554: dispatchMode drives the execution-core fork below (after Phase 2).
DISPATCH_MODE=$(jq -r '.catalyst.orchestration.dispatchMode // "oneshot-legacy"' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)

Linear App-Actor Identity (CTL-550, CTL-749)

catalyst.monitor.linear.botUserId is required for the Linear app-actor comms channel — i.e. when the execution-core daemon mirrors phase-agent output to Linear and wakes on human replies (CTL-550 / CTL-549 / CTL-749). It must be set before the daemon starts. The daemon reads it from the project's Layer-1 committed config at the flat path <project>/.catalyst/config.json → catalyst.monitor.linear.botUserId (not the Layer-2 home config, not a team-keyed sub-object). This is the Linear user UUID of the Catalyst app-actor (the "Linear for Agents" app user) — workspace-specific, and null in the committed config template. See /catalyst-foundry:setup-catalyst for how to obtain it (query viewer.id with the app-actor token). (The execution-core daemon is the pull-based runner of the phase-agent pipeline; it is not a dispatchMode enum value — those are phase-agents and oneshot-legacy.)

The daemon reads botUserId only at startup and uses it to filter the agent's own mirror activity out of the bidirectional Linear comms channel (CTL-749/CTL-549): it suppresses bot-authored comments and description updates so they are not written into workers/<ticket>/inbox.jsonl as input. Without it, the daemon cannot tell the agent's own comments/updates apart from a human's, so every mirror comment lands in the worker inbox as a false "human replied" signal (noise / write loops). It is the self-echo / loop-prevention guard.

Create ALL worktrees using create-worktree.sh — both orchestrator and workers go through the same script so they all get .claude/, .catalyst/, dependency install, thoughts init, and custom hooks:

# The create-worktree.sh script lives relative to this plugin
SCRIPT="${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/create-worktree.sh"

# Resolve --worktree-dir to pass through (omit flag if not configured — script uses its own defaults)
WT_DIR_FLAG=""
if [ -n "$WORKTREE_DIR" ]; then
  WT_DIR_FLAG="--worktree-dir ${WORKTREE_DIR}"
fi

# Resolve --hooks-json to pass custom setup hooks from config
HOOKS_FLAG=""
if [ "$SETUP_HOOKS" != "[]" ] && [ -n "$SETUP_HOOKS" ]; then
  HOOKS_FLAG="--hooks-json '${SETUP_HOOKS}'"
fi

# Pass --orchestration so all worktrees record which run they belong to
ORCH_FLAG="--orchestration ${ORCH_NAME}"

# 1. Create orchestrator worktree (same script, same initialization)
"$SCRIPT" "${ORCH_NAME}" "${BASE_BRANCH}" ${WT_DIR_FLAG} ${HOOKS_FLAG} ${ORCH_FLAG}
ORCH_WORKTREE="${WORKTREES_BASE}/${ORCH_NAME}"

# Per-orchestrator state lives under ~/catalyst/runs/<id>/ (decoupled from the
# git worktree — CTL-59). state.json, DASHBOARD.md, workers/, wave briefings,
# and SUMMARY.md all live here. Claude CLI output (streams/stderr) lands in
# workers/output/ so it sits alongside the signal files but does not pollute
# watchers that scan workers/*.json.
ORCH_DIR="$("${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/catalyst-state.sh" ensure-run-dir "${ORCH_NAME}")"

# 2. Create worker worktrees for current wave
for TICKET_ID in "${WAVE_TICKETS[@]}"; do
  "$SCRIPT" "${ORCH_NAME}-${TICKET_ID}" "${BASE_BRANCH}" ${WT_DIR_FLAG} ${HOOKS_FLAG} ${ORCH_FLAG}
done

Where worktrees actually land — the create-worktree.sh script resolves the base directory in this priority order:

1. --worktree-dir <path> flag (from catalyst.orchestration.worktreeDir config)
2. ~/catalyst/wt/<projectKey>/ (default — reads catalyst.projectKey from config)
3. ~/catalyst/wt/<repo>/ (fallback if no config)

So for a project with projectKey: "acme" and no worktreeDir override, all worktrees land in:

~/catalyst/wt/acme/
├── api-redesign/                         # orchestrator
├── api-redesign-ACME-101/                # worker
├── api-redesign-ACME-102/                # worker
└── api-redesign-ACME-103/                # worker

With worktreeDir: "~/catalyst/api" explicitly configured:

~/catalyst/api/
├── api-redesign/                         # orchestrator
├── api-redesign-ACME-101/                # worker
├── api-redesign-ACME-102/                # worker
└── api-redesign-ACME-103/                # worker

Recommended: Add ~/catalyst to Claude Code's additionalDirectories in ~/.claude/settings.json so all worktrees across projects are automatically trusted:

{
  "permissions": {
    "additionalDirectories": ["/Users/you/catalyst"]
  }
}

What create-worktree.sh does for EACH worktree (orchestrator and workers alike):

1. git worktree add -b <name> <path> <base-branch> — creates the worktree
2. Copies .claude/ directory (Claude Code native config, plugins, rules)
3. Copies .catalyst/ directory (Catalyst workflow config, if it exists)
4. Runs catalyst.worktree.setup commands from config — dependency install, thoughts init, permission grants, or any project-specific setup (like a worktree-manager's lifecycle hooks)
5. If no catalyst.worktree.setup configured, falls back to auto-detected setup: make setup or bun/npm install, then humanlayer thoughts init + sync
6. Runs additional orchestration hooks from --hooks-json (from catalyst.orchestration.hooks.setup)

Available variables in setup commands: ${WORKTREE_PATH}, ${BRANCH_NAME}, ${TICKET_ID}, ${REPO_NAME}, ${DIRECTORY}, ${PROFILE}

After worktree creation, set up the orchestrator's status directory:

# ORCH_DIR is the per-orchestrator state dir under ~/catalyst/runs/<id>/ (created
# by `catalyst-state.sh ensure-run-dir` above, which already makes workers/output/).
# This mkdir is a no-op for fresh runs but keeps the skill robust when ORCH_DIR
# is reconstructed on resume.
mkdir -p "${ORCH_DIR}/workers/output"

Render the initial DASHBOARD.md (CTL-230) — the renderer reads state.json + workers/*.json signals + the events log every cycle, so calling it now produces a real header + empty worker table + waves outline rather than a template skeleton:

"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/update-dashboard.sh" \
  --orch "${ORCH_NAME}" --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" --roll-usage \
  >/dev/null 2>>"${ORCH_DIR}/.update-dashboard.log" || true

--roll-usage is the wire that fulfils the "Worker usage / cost is rolled in by the monitor pass" contract below (CTL-487): the dashboard helper iterates ${ORCH_DIR}/workers/*.json and invokes orchestrate-roll-usage.sh -v per worker before rendering, with stderr captured to ${ORCH_DIR}/.roll-usage.log. The per-worker call is bounded — already-rolled workers short-circuit on signal.cost != null and cost a single jq read.

Create the orchestrator's status directory:

${ORCH_DIR}/                                    # ~/catalyst/runs/${ORCH_NAME}/
├── DASHBOARD.md                                # human-readable status (re-rendered each Phase 4 cycle)
├── state.json                                  # machine-readable orchestration state
├── wave-1-briefing.md                          # per-wave briefings
├── SUMMARY.md                                  # final run summary (post-Phase 5)
└── workers/
    ├── ${TICKET_1}.json                        # worker signal (schema: worker-signal.json)
    ├── ${TICKET_2}.json
    └── output/                                 # claude CLI output (streams, stderr)
        ├── ${TICKET_1}-stream.jsonl            # streaming JSON events from claude
        ├── ${TICKET_1}-stderr.log              # worker stderr (silent exits diagnosable)
        ├── ${TICKET_2}-stream.jsonl
        └── ${TICKET_2}-stderr.log

Note on the runs/ split (CTL-59): ORCH_DIR lives at ~/catalyst/runs/${ORCH_NAME}/ and is decoupled from the git worktree at ${ORCH_WORKTREE} (e.g. ~/catalyst/wt/${PROJECT_KEY}/${ORCH_NAME}/). This lets state survive worktree cleanup and keeps git status clean. Claude CLI output (stream + stderr) lands in workers/output/ to keep file watchers that scan workers/*.json free of noise from large stream files.

Debugging silent worker exits: If workers/output/${TICKET_ID}-stream.jsonl is 0 bytes AND workers/output/${TICKET_ID}-stderr.log is 0 bytes, the worker exited before emitting its first event — check git -C ${WORKER_DIR} log --oneline -5 and the worktree's .claude/ directory for setup issues. A non-empty stderr log will identify permission, path, or environment errors.

Initialize state.json:

{
  "orchestrator": "<name>",
  "startedAt": "<ISO timestamp>",
  "baseBranch": "main",
  "totalTickets": 6,
  "totalWaves": 3,
  "currentWave": 1,
  "worktreeBase": "<path>",
  "waves": [
    {
      "wave": 1,
      "status": "provisioning",
      "tickets": ["PROJ-101", "PROJ-102", "PROJ-103"]
    },
    {
      "wave": 2,
      "status": "blocked",
      "tickets": ["PROJ-104", "PROJ-105"],
      "dependsOn": [1]
    }
  ],
  "workers": {}
}

Register with global state (immediately after local state initialization):

STATE_SCRIPT="${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/catalyst-state.sh"

# Resolve the catalyst-comms binary. Prefer the plugin-shipped copy so installs
# where `catalyst-comms` is only a shell alias (which doesn't propagate to
# subshells) still work. Fall back to PATH for users who have symlinked it.
COMMS_BIN="${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/catalyst-comms"
[ -x "$COMMS_BIN" ] || COMMS_BIN="$(command -v catalyst-comms 2>/dev/null || true)"
if [ -z "$COMMS_BIN" ] || [ ! -x "$COMMS_BIN" ]; then
  echo "warn: catalyst-comms not found — comms disabled (install: plugins/dev/scripts/install-cli.sh)" >&2
  COMMS_BIN=""
fi

# Build the registration JSON with all workers from all waves
# Read ticket titles via the replica (per the `linearis` skill's "Reading Linear"
# rule). A bare linearis loop also burns shared quota AND eats stdin without </dev/null.
source "${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/lib/linear-read-replica.sh"
WORKERS_JSON="{}"
for TICKET_ID in "${ALL_TICKETS[@]}"; do
  TITLE=$(linear_read_ticket "$TICKET_ID" | jq -r '.title')
  WORKERS_JSON=$(echo "$WORKERS_JSON" | jq \
    --arg tid "$TICKET_ID" --arg title "$TITLE" \
    '. + {($tid): {ticketId: $tid, title: $title, status: "dispatched", phase: 0, branch: null, pr: null, updatedAt: "'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)'", needsAttention: false, attentionReason: null}}')
done

# Detect repository from git remote
REPO=$(git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null | sed 's|.*github.com[:/]||;s|\.git$||')

"$STATE_SCRIPT" register "${ORCH_NAME}" "$(jq -nc \
  --arg id "${ORCH_NAME}" \
  --arg pk "$(jq -r '.catalyst.projectKey // "unknown"' "$CONFIG_FILE")" \
  --arg repo "$REPO" \
  --arg bb "${BASE_BRANCH}" \
  --arg wtd "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --arg sf "${ORCH_DIR}/state.json" \
  --argjson total "${#ALL_TICKETS[@]}" \
  --argjson waves "$TOTAL_WAVES" \
  --argjson workers "$WORKERS_JSON" \
  '{
    id: $id, projectKey: $pk, repository: $repo, baseBranch: $bb,
    status: "active", startedAt: (now | strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")),
    worktreeDir: $wtd, stateFile: $sf,
    progress: {totalTickets: $total, completedTickets: 0, failedTickets: 0, inProgressTickets: 0, currentWave: 1, totalWaves: $waves},
    usage: {inputTokens: 0, outputTokens: 0, cacheReadTokens: 0, cacheCreationTokens: 0, costUSD: 0, numTurns: 0, durationMs: 0, durationApiMs: 0, model: null},
    workers: $workers, attention: []
  }')"

The CATALYST_ORCHESTRATOR_ID is set to ${ORCH_NAME} for use by workers (passed via environment variable alongside CATALYST_ORCHESTRATOR_DIR).

Capture event-log baseline (CTL-491): Before any worker dispatch, snapshot the catalyst event log's current line count and file path. The Phase 4 replay step uses this to find any phase.*.{complete,failed,turn-cap-exhausted,skipped}.<TICKET> events that landed during the dispatch-to-monitor handoff. The new state.json.race object is opaque to older state.json consumers (they ignore unknown top-level fields via .field // default jq patterns).

EVENTS_DIR="${CATALYST_DIR:-$HOME/catalyst}/events"
mkdir -p "$EVENTS_DIR"
BASELINE_FILE="${EVENTS_DIR}/$(date -u +%Y-%m).jsonl"
[[ -f "$BASELINE_FILE" ]] || : > "$BASELINE_FILE"
BASELINE_LINE=$(wc -l < "$BASELINE_FILE" | tr -d ' ')
TMP="${ORCH_DIR}/state.json.tmp.$$"
jq --arg cursor "$BASELINE_LINE" --arg file "$BASELINE_FILE" --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
   '.race = {startLineCursor: ($cursor | tonumber), startEventsFile: $file, capturedAt: $ts}' \
   "${ORCH_DIR}/state.json" > "$TMP" \
   && mv "$TMP" "${ORCH_DIR}/state.json" || rm -f "$TMP"

Create the shared comms channel (CTL-111): the orchestrator creates a file-based channel that every worker will auto-join via CATALYST_COMMS_CHANNEL in its dispatch env. Best-effort — the orchestrator does not crash if catalyst-comms is missing.

# Shared channel for this run. Workers will join at dispatch time.
if [ -n "$COMMS_BIN" ]; then
  "$COMMS_BIN" join "${ORCH_NAME}" \
    --as orchestrator \
    --capabilities "coordinates workers" \
    --orch "${ORCH_NAME}" \
    --ttl 7200 >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
fi

Start session tracking (alongside the global state registration above):

SESSION_SCRIPT="${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/catalyst-session.sh"
ORCH_STATUS_SCRIPT="${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-status.sh"
if [[ -x "$SESSION_SCRIPT" ]]; then
  CATALYST_SESSION_ID=$("$SESSION_SCRIPT" start --skill "orchestrate" \
    --label "${ORCH_NAME}" \
    --workflow "${CATALYST_SESSION_ID:-}")
  export CATALYST_SESSION_ID
  "$SESSION_SCRIPT" phase "$CATALYST_SESSION_ID" "dispatching" --phase 3
fi

execution-core dispatch fork (CTL-554, CTL-582)

dispatchMode: "execution-core" and the --stop flag both short-circuit the wave loop. Evaluate this before Phase 3 — when it applies, no workers are dispatched and no Phase 4 monitor session starts.

CTL-582 (D4) made the central registry ~/catalyst/execution-core/registry.json the single source of enrolled projects, maintained by setup-execution-core-states.sh. /orchestrate no longer writes per-project enrollment records — there is nothing to enroll here.

• Invoked with --stop — execution-core projects are deregistered by editing the central registry, not by /orchestrate. Print the guidance and exit 0:

  echo "execution-core: enrolled projects are the central registry" \
    "~/catalyst/execution-core/registry.json — remove the team's entry there to deregister."
  # Exit 0 — do not continue.
  

• DISPATCH_MODE is execution-core (no --stop) — ensure the machine-level daemon is running, then exit:

  "${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-execution-core-route.sh"
  # Ensures the daemon is running. No enrollment, no wave loop, no Phase 4
  # session. Exit 0 — do not continue to Phase 3.
  

• Any other DISPATCH_MODE — continue to Phase 3 below.

Phase 3: Dispatch Workers

For each provisioned worker worktree, dispatch a /oneshot session.

Register broker filter interests BEFORE dispatch (CTL-491): Phase-agent workers can finish in well under a second when their work is a no-op (e.g. an already-triaged ticket). Emitting filter.register events AFTER dispatch opens a race window where the broker's interest map is still empty when phase.<name>.complete.<TICKET> arrives — processEvent early-returns and the event is dropped silently (broker/index.mjs:1782). Run the registration helper here so all four deterministic + per-ticket interests are durable in the broker BEFORE any claude --bg invocation. Idempotent at the broker (upserts by interest_id); the Phase 4 entry re-invokes the same helper as a belt-and-suspenders.

"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-register-interests.sh" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}" \
  --config "${REPO_ROOT:-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || echo .)}/.catalyst/config.json"
# Soft-fail-safe: helper exits 0 when broker/filter daemon is down (no-op) and
# 2 only on argument errors. See plugins/dev/scripts/orchestrate-register-interests.sh.

Emit dispatching status (CTL-405): Before launching workers, announce the phase:

TOTAL_WORKERS=$(jq -r '.progress.totalTickets // 0' "${ORCH_DIR}/state.json" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
[[ -x "$ORCH_STATUS_SCRIPT" ]] && "$ORCH_STATUS_SCRIPT" emit \
  --orch "${ORCH_NAME}" --phase dispatching --wave "${CURRENT_WAVE:-1}" \
  --total "$TOTAL_WORKERS" \
  --summary "wave ${CURRENT_WAVE:-1} dispatching" 2>/dev/null || true

Preferred entrypoint — orchestrate-dispatch-next (CTL-116):

The canonical dispatcher drains state.json's .queue.waveNPending for every N (dynamically, so wave 1/2/3/…/N all work without code changes), respects maxParallel - currentlyRunning, writes dispatched/phase-0 signal files, launches workers via nohup, updates global state, removes dispatched tickets from whichever waveNPending list they lived in, and runs the post-dispatch healthcheck:

"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-dispatch-next" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}" \
  --config "${REPO_ROOT}/.catalyst/config.json"
# Emits a one-line JSON summary: {"running":R,"slotsAfter":S,"dispatched":[...][,"queueEmpty":true]}
# Reads `orchestrator`, `worktreeBase`, `maxParallel` from state.json by default.
# Pass --session-id / --worker-command / --worker-args / --comms-channel to override.
# Pass --dry-run to preview without writing state or launching claude.
#
# CTL-452: --config gates the dispatch mode. With dispatchMode = "phase-agents",
# the dispatcher launches phase-triage agents on `claude --bg` (subscription pool)
# via `phase-agent-dispatch`, and the wake handler in this Phase 4 advances each
# worker through the 9-phase sequence. With dispatchMode = "oneshot-legacy" or
# no --config, the dispatcher uses the legacy `-p oneshot` worker (one long
# claude session per ticket). Phase advancement calls always pass explicit
# `--phase <name> --ticket <T>` and bypass the dispatchMode default.

Call this once when the current wave is ready to dispatch, and again whenever a worker slot frees up. It supersedes the hand-rolled dispatch-next.sh pattern from pre-CTL-116 orchestration runs (which hardcoded wave1Pending + wave2Pending + wave3Pending). The inline block below is preserved as reference for the underlying machinery.

Phase advancement on phase.<name>.complete.<TICKET> wake (CTL-452):

# Inside the wake handler — called once per phase-complete event surfaced
# via the broker's phase_lifecycle interest.
"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-phase-advance" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}" \
  --ticket "${TICKET}" \
  --completed-phase "${COMPLETED_PHASE}"
# Emits one-line JSON: {"advanced": true|false, "fromPhase": "<name>", "toPhase": "<next>|null", ...}
# The helper resolves the next phase via the canonical 9-phase sequence,
# refuses to double-dispatch (idempotent), and delegates to dispatch-next
# with --phase <next> --ticket <T>. If `completed-phase = monitor-deploy`,
# the ticket has reached the terminal phase and no further advance happens.

Phase failure on phase.<name>.failed.<TICKET> wake (CTL-452):

# Run orchestrate-revive once. The script already implements the
# one-retry-then-escalate policy via .reviveCount + --max-revives, and
# CTL-452 added the --bg --resume path for phase-mode workers (legacy
# oneshot workers continue to use -p --resume — backward compatible).
"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-revive" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}"
# On the second consecutive failure (reviveCount ≥ MAX_REVIVES), revive
# marks the worker stalled, sets attentionReason = "revive-budget-exhausted",
# and emits attention via catalyst-state — matching the existing escalation
# pattern for legacy workers.

Phase turn-cap exhaustion on phase.<name>.turn-cap-exhausted.<TICKET> wake (CTL-484):

# Same script — orchestrate-revive's continuation branch (CTL-484) detects
# status=turn-cap-exhausted on the top-level signal + handoffPath on the
# per-phase signal (written by phase-agent-emit-complete --handoff-path),
# dispatches a continuation worker with CATALYST_IS_CONTINUATION=true +
# CATALYST_HANDOFF_PATH=<path> + CATALYST_CONTINUATION_COUNT=<n>, and bumps
# .continuationCount on a budget separate from .reviveCount (default 3 vs 10).
"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-revive" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}"
# On budget exhaustion (continuationCount ≥ MAX_CONTINUATIONS), revive marks
# the worker stalled with attentionReason = "continuation-budget-exhausted"
# and emits worker-continuation-budget-exhausted. The separate budget is what
# stops cap-exhaustion runs from burning the error-revive budget — that was
# the bug CTL-484 fixes.

Dispatch mechanism — claude CLI with streaming JSON:

WORKER_DIR="${WORKTREES_BASE}/${ORCH_NAME}-${TICKET_ID}"
WORKER_STREAM="${ORCH_DIR}/workers/output/${TICKET_ID}-stream.jsonl"
WORKER_STDERR="${ORCH_DIR}/workers/output/${TICKET_ID}-stderr.log"
SIGNAL_FILE="${ORCH_DIR}/workers/${TICKET_ID}.json"

# `claude -w` takes a *name* and creates a new worktree — it does NOT accept a
# path to an existing worktree. The worker worktree was already provisioned in
# Phase 2, so `cd` into it inside a backgrounded subshell and `exec` claude so
# its PID is reachable from the outer shell as `$!`.
# `--dangerously-skip-permissions` is required because headless workers have no
# TTY to answer permission prompts; the worktree is pre-trusted via Catalyst's
# setup hooks. `nohup` keeps the worker alive after the orchestrator shell
# exits. Stderr goes to a real file (not /dev/null) so a silent worker exit
# stays debuggable.
(
  cd "${WORKER_DIR}" || exit 1
  CATALYST_ORCHESTRATOR_DIR="${ORCH_DIR}" \
  CATALYST_ORCHESTRATOR_ID="${ORCH_NAME}" \
  CATALYST_COMMS_CHANNEL="${ORCH_NAME}" \
  CATALYST_SESSION_ID="${CATALYST_SESSION_ID:-}" \
  exec nohup claude \
    -n "${ORCH_NAME}-${TICKET_ID}" \
    --output-format stream-json \
    --verbose \
    --dangerously-skip-permissions \
    -p "${WORKER_COMMAND} ${TICKET_ID} --auto-merge"
) > "$WORKER_STREAM" 2> "$WORKER_STDERR" &

WORKER_PID=$!

# Record the worker's PID + initial heartbeat into its signal file so the
# monitor can perform kill-0 liveness checks.
if [ -f "$SIGNAL_FILE" ]; then
  jq --argjson pid "$WORKER_PID" '.pid = $pid | .lastHeartbeat = .updatedAt' \
    "$SIGNAL_FILE" > "${SIGNAL_FILE}.tmp" && mv "${SIGNAL_FILE}.tmp" "$SIGNAL_FILE"
fi

Streaming JSON output (--output-format stream-json --verbose) emits NDJSON to stdout, one event per line, in real-time as the worker runs. The monitor can tail the stream file to show live worker activity. Key event types:

Event	What it signals
{"type":"system","subtype":"init"}	Worker session started; contains session_id
{"type":"stream_event","event":{"type":"content_block_start","content_block":{"type":"tool_use","name":"..."}}}	Worker is now invoking a specific tool (Bash, Read, Edit, etc.)
{"type":"stream_event","event":{"type":"content_block_delta","delta":{"type":"text_delta"}}}	Worker is generating reasoning/response text
{"type":"assistant"}	Complete assistant turn with all content blocks
{"type":"system","subtype":"api_retry"}	Worker hit rate limit / error; shows attempt and delay
{"type":"result"}	Worker finished; contains final answer and usage stats

Worker usage / cost is rolled in by the monitor pass (CTL-115, wired through update-dashboard.sh --roll-usage since CTL-487). The dispatch shell backgrounds workers with & and never waits on them, so usage/cost extraction cannot happen here. Phase 4's update-dashboard.sh call passes --roll-usage, which iterates ${ORCH_DIR}/workers/*.json and invokes plugins/dev/scripts/orchestrate-roll-usage.sh -v per worker before rendering. The helper parses the final result event from the worker's stream file and:

1. Mirror cost into the worker's signal file (.cost = USAGE) — the dashboard reads signal files (not global state) for per-worker cost columns.
2. Write state.workers[ticket].usage.
3. Roll the delta into state.usage for the orchestrator-level aggregate.

The helper is idempotent (gated on signal.cost == null) and safe to call every cycle. Because every dashboard render now sweeps every worker, update-dashboard.sh --roll-usage doubles as the periodic safety net for any worker whose stream contains a result event but whose signal.cost is still null. Audit trail lands at ${ORCH_DIR}/.roll-usage.log.

Emit dispatch event and update global state after each worker dispatch:

"$STATE_SCRIPT" worker "${ORCH_NAME}" "${TICKET_ID}" '.status = "dispatched" | .phase = 0'
"$STATE_SCRIPT" update "${ORCH_NAME}" '.progress.inProgressTickets += 1'
"$STATE_SCRIPT" event "$(jq -nc \
  --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
  --arg orch "${ORCH_NAME}" --arg w "${TICKET_ID}" \
  '{ts: $ts, orchestrator: $orch, worker: $w, event: "worker-dispatched", detail: null}')"

Post-dispatch health check (CTL-87):

After the wave's per-worker dispatch loop has completed, run the batch health check. This is the per-wave invocation (CTL-511 added a second call site — see the reactive scan in Phase 4). It sleeps briefly (default 15s — configurable via --grace-seconds), then verifies that every worker still sitting at status="dispatched"/phase=0 has a live PID. Any worker whose PID has already died is transitioned to status="failed" with failureReason="launch-failure", an attention item of type launch-failure is raised, and a worker-launch-failed event is emitted. This means dead-on-arrival workers surface in under 30 seconds instead of after the 15-minute stalled-worker timeout, and the orchestrator can re-dispatch them (via orchestrate-fixup or a manual redispatch) in the same wave.

# Run ONCE, after all workers in this wave have been dispatched.
"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-healthcheck" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}"
# Prints a JSON summary on stdout: {"checked":N,"dead":M,"deadTickets":[...]}.
# Launch failures also appear in the attention list and as `worker-launch-failed`
# events in the global state log.

Healthy workers are untouched. Workers that have already advanced past dispatched (e.g. into researching) are skipped because reaching a later status is itself proof of life. This check complements the 15-minute stalled-worker detection in Phase 4 — healthcheck catches launch failures, the stalled-worker scan catches workers that die mid-run.

CTL-511: the same orchestrate-healthcheck script also runs inside the reactive scan (Phase 4) on every wake-up and every 10-minute idle tick — it is no longer a once-per-wave-only check. That second call site catches phase agents that die after launch (printing a job id, then exiting before their terminal emit), bounding detection to one scan interval. The healthcheck is idempotent — terminal and stalled signals are skipped — so the extra call site adds no duplicate work.

Worker dispatch prompt includes mandatory testing AND lifecycle requirements:

MANDATORY: Before completing your contract:
1. TDD — write failing tests BEFORE implementation for every feature
2. Unit tests — required for all new functions/methods
3. Integration/API tests — required for every new/modified API endpoint
4. Security review — must pass /security-review or equivalent
5. Code review — must pass code-reviewer agent
6. All quality gates in config must pass

Your success contract ENDS at (CTL-252):
  ✓ PR open (gh pr create succeeded)
  ✓ Active listen loop resolved all blockers (CI, bot reviews, BEHIND) inline
  ✓ PR merged with gh pr merge --squash --delete-branch (no --auto)
  ✓ Optional deployment verified (if catalyst.deploy configured)
  ✓ pr.mergedAt, deployment.url (if applicable), status="done" written to signal file
  ✓ Worker process exits cleanly

Listen for PR events using this precedence ladder (matches oneshot Phase 5):

  1. PREFERRED — Broker auto-correlation (Pattern 3, lowest cost):
     The catalyst-broker daemon classifies events between Claude turns and
     emits filter.wake.${CATALYST_SESSION_ID} only on semantic matches.
     The agent.checkin event emitted by catalyst-session.sh start already
     identifies you to the broker; emit a second agent.checkin carrying
     claimed_pr after gh pr create (the oneshot helper broker_claim_pr does
     exactly this). The broker auto-derives a pr_lifecycle interest covering
     CI, reviews, comments, thread resolution, merge, BEHIND pushes, and
     deployment status — all on a single wake event. Wait on:
       catalyst-events wait-for \
         --filter ".attributes.\"event.name\" == \"filter.wake.${CATALYST_SESSION_ID}\"" \
         --timeout 600
     Deterministic routes (pr_lifecycle / ticket_lifecycle / comms_lifecycle)
     cost zero LLM tokens. See plugins/dev/skills/broker/SKILL.md for the
     full protocol and plugins/dev/skills/catalyst-filter/SKILL.md for
     prose-based registration when the deterministic routes aren't enough.

  2. FALLBACK — catalyst-events wait-for with explicit jq (Pattern 2):
     When catalyst-broker status returns non-running, use the two-phase
     pattern from plugins/dev/skills/wait-for-github/SKILL.md. Blocking
     subprocess call; works reliably in claude -p non-interactive sessions.
     One jq predicate covers CI / reviews / push / merge for your PR.

  3. FORBIDDEN for workers — Monitor over catalyst-events tail (Pattern 1):
     That is the orchestrator's Phase 4 pattern, not a worker pattern.
     A short-lived claude -p worker has no long-lived turn loop to consume
     Monitor notifications, and tail filters wake on every matching line,
     burning context.

NEVER use gh pr view --json in any loop — that burns GraphQL rate limits.
Use gh api REST endpoints only for the authoritative state check that
follows every wake.

WAKE NARRATION (MANDATORY, CTL-369): every Monitor wake and every wait-for
return must be acknowledged with a single short line of assistant text before
returning to the wait. A thinking-only end_turn after a Monitor wake makes the
harness's next <task-notification> XML leak as a confusing "Human:\n<task-id>"
phantom user message. The line shape is:

  wake: <event.name> #<pr> [interest=<type>] — <action being taken>
  wake: <event.name> — routine, staying in event loop
  wake: <event.name> — already addressed, no-op

Include the matched filter clause / interest_id when the wake is from the
broker (.body.payload.interest_id, .body.payload.reason). See
plugins/dev/skills/monitor-events/SKILL.md § Narration for the full rule.

When you write a filter by hand, target the canonical event names listed in
[[event-name-allowlist]] — anything outside that allowlist is either
non-actionable or covered by a different lifecycle group. Do NOT use
`.attributes."catalyst.orchestrator.id"` as a bare clause: CTL-234 stamps it
on every github webhook tied to one of the orchestrator's PRs, so without an
event-type guard it wakes the worker on 60-70% of unrelated webhooks. See
[[wait-for-github]] § Known filter pitfalls.

Write these fields into your signal file as they become available:
  pr.number
  pr.url
  pr.prOpenedAt       (ISO timestamp when gh pr create returned)
  pr.mergedAt         (ISO timestamp when merge confirmed via REST)
  pr.mergeCommitSha   (from REST response after merge)
  pr.ciStatus         (pending → merged)
  deployment.url      (from deployment_status event, if configured)
  status              (pr-created → done)

On unrecoverable blockers (human changes-requested, DIRTY after attempts,
CI blocked after 3 fix attempts), write status="stalled" with details and
post a `comms attention` message — the orchestrator's Phase 4 dispatches
remediation for stalled workers.

Status transitions you do NOT write (orchestrator-owned fallback only):
  done   (written by orchestrator Phase 4 ONLY when worker stalled before merge)

COMMS DISCIPLINE: when posting to the shared comms channel, follow the rules in the
catalyst-comms skill (plugins/dev/skills/catalyst-comms/SKILL.md § Posting Discipline):
  - info = phase transitions + PR-opened only (default heartbeat, ~5-7 per session)
  - attention = orchestrator action required (0-2 per session, MANDATORY on: scope
    conflict, missing access, ambiguous spec, 3+ repeated CI failures, status=stalled)
  - done = exactly 1, only via the `done` subcommand at terminal success
  - never use attention as a heartbeat — it triggers the orchestrator's NEEDS ATTENTION
    banner

Write your status to the worker signal file at:
  ${ORCH_DIR}/workers/${TICKET_ID}.json

Update the signal file at each phase transition using the worker-signal.json schema.

Initialize worker signal file (orchestrator writes the initial state):

{
  "ticket": "PROJ-101",
  "orchestrator": "<name>",
  "workerName": "<orch-name>-PROJ-101",
  "label": "oneshot PROJ-101",
  "status": "dispatched",
  "phase": 0,
  "startedAt": "<ISO timestamp>",
  "updatedAt": "<ISO timestamp>",
  "worktreePath": "<path>",
  "pr": null,
  "linearState": null,
  "definitionOfDone": {
    "testsWrittenFirst": false,
    "unitTests": { "exists": false, "count": 0 },
    "apiTests": { "exists": false, "count": 0 },
    "functionalTests": { "exists": false, "count": 0 },
    "typeCheck": { "passed": false },
    "securityReview": { "passed": false },
    "codeReview": { "passed": false },
    "rewardHackingScan": { "passed": false }
  }
}

Phase 4: Monitor & Track

if [[ -n "${CATALYST_SESSION_ID:-}" && -x "$SESSION_SCRIPT" ]]; then
  "$SESSION_SCRIPT" phase "$CATALYST_SESSION_ID" "monitoring" --phase 4
fi
ACTIVE_COUNT=$(jq -rs '[.[] | select(.status != "done" and .status != "failed")] | length' \
  "${ORCH_DIR}/workers/"*.json 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
TOTAL_COUNT=$(jq -rs 'length' "${ORCH_DIR}/workers/"*.json 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
[[ -x "$ORCH_STATUS_SCRIPT" ]] && "$ORCH_STATUS_SCRIPT" emit \
  --orch "${ORCH_NAME}" --phase monitoring --wave "${CURRENT_WAVE:-1}" \
  --active "$ACTIVE_COUNT" --total "$TOTAL_COUNT" \
  --summary "wave ${CURRENT_WAVE:-1} monitoring (${ACTIVE_COUNT}/${TOTAL_COUNT} active)" 2>/dev/null || true

Re-register with catalyst-broker daemon (CTL-257, CTL-303, CTL-357, CTL-452, CTL-491): Phase 3 already invoked orchestrate-register-interests.sh BEFORE worker dispatch (the CTL-491 race-fix hoist). This Phase 4 entry calls the same helper again as a belt-and-suspenders — registration is idempotent at the broker (upserts by interest_id), and a second invocation ensures the four interests stay fresh even if the broker restarted between Phase 3 and Phase 4.

The helper emits four deterministic interests (route without Groq):

• pr_lifecycle — orchestrator-level aggregation across all worker PRs.
• ticket_lifecycle — Linear ticket state changes for the orchestrator's tickets.
• comms_lifecycle — worker-posted attention / done messages on the shared channel.
• phase_lifecycle (CTL-452, CTL-484, CTL-512) — phase.<name>.complete.<TICKET>, phase.<name>.failed.<TICKET>, phase.<name>.turn-cap-exhausted.<TICKET>, and phase.<name>.skipped.<TICKET> events emitted by phase agents. One interest per active ticket, covering all 9 phase names. The turn-cap status routes through orchestrate-revive's continuation branch (separate budget from error revives). The skipped status (CTL-512, monitor-deploy terminal-no-deploy) routes the same as complete via orchestrate-phase-advance — advance no-ops on monitor-deploy, so the wake's purpose is to free the wave slot via the scheduler's in-flight predicate. Only registered when catalyst.orchestration.dispatchMode = "phase-agents".

CTL-357 retired the Groq prose interest (~95% false-positive rate). All four interests share the same notify_event: "filter.wake.${ORCH_NAME}", so the orchestrator's wait-for filter does not change.

"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-register-interests.sh" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}" \
  --config "${REPO_ROOT:-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || echo .)}/.catalyst/config.json"
# Helper internals: see plugins/dev/scripts/orchestrate-register-interests.sh
# for the exact wire format of each filter.register event. Soft-fails (exit 0)
# when neither catalyst-broker nor catalyst-filter is running.

Replay race-window phase events (CTL-491): Before entering the event-driven wait loop, catch up on any phase.<name>.{complete,failed,turn-cap-exhausted,skipped}.<TICKET> events that landed between the Phase 2 baseline (state.json.race.startLineCursor) and now. With the Phase 3 pre-dispatch registration the window should be zero-length in steady state, but the replay is idempotent and cheap — it scans only the tail of the current month's event log past the baseline cursor and routes each match through orchestrate-phase-advance (for complete / skipped) or orchestrate-revive (for failed / turn-cap-exhausted). Cross-orchestrator events are filtered out by checking workers/*.json for the ticket.

"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-replay-phase-events.sh" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" \
  --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}" || true
# Soft-fail with || true so a malformed event log or missing baseline can't
# stall the orchestrator; the live Monitor/wait-for path picks up new events
# regardless. The helper exits 1 only when state.json.race is missing.

Phase 4 is event-driven, not poll-driven (CTL-210, CTL-243). The orchestrator subscribes to the unified event log via catalyst-events tail (wrapped in the Monitor tool) and wakes on every relevant GitHub / Linear / orchestrator-lifecycle event. A 10-minute idle timer is the safety-net fallback for daemon-down or missed-event scenarios — never the primary mechanism. Do NOT self-pace with sleeps or "wake in N minutes" framing — that defeats the event-driven contract and burns context to no purpose. See plugins/dev/skills/monitor-events/SKILL.md for the full pattern.

Launch the Monitor before entering the reactive scan. Wrap this command with the Monitor tool — each emitted line is a wake-up.

The recommended filter is scope-aware: build it from the orchestrator's worker signal directory using catalyst-events build-orchestrator-filter, then pass the result verbatim as --filter:

FILTER=$(catalyst-events build-orchestrator-filter "$ORCH_DIR")
catalyst-events tail --filter "$FILTER"

Use this command EXACTLY as shown — do NOT improvise a | grep … or | jq … post-pipe (see "Filter discipline" below for why, including the specific | grep -v 'filter.wake' anti-pattern).

catalyst-filter alternative (CTL-257): When the filter daemon is running, you can replace the broad catalyst-events tail with a targeted catalyst-events wait-for on filter.wake.{ORCH_NAME}. The daemon batches raw events through Groq, classifies which are relevant to this orchestrator's context, and emits a single wake event — so the reactive scan runs only on semantically meaningful events rather than on every raw webhook. The 10-minute timeout acts as the safety-net fallback for daemon-down scenarios.

WAKE_EVENT=$(catalyst-events wait-for \
  --filter ".attributes.\"event.name\" == \"filter.wake.${ORCH_NAME}\"" \
  --timeout 600 2>/dev/null || true)
if [ -n "$WAKE_EVENT" ]; then
  WAKE_REASON=$(echo "$WAKE_EVENT" | jq -r '.body.payload.reason // "unknown"' 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown")
  echo "[Phase 4] Filter wake: ${WAKE_REASON}"
fi
# Always follow with an authoritative REST re-check — the reason string is informational only.

Use WAKE_REASON for logging only; the reactive scan below reads authoritative state from gh pr view, git rev-list, and the signal file regardless of how the wake was triggered.

The helper reads ${ORCH_DIR}/workers/*.json and emits a single jq predicate that matches catalyst-origin events for this orchestrator, worker lifecycle events for any in-orch ticket, github events scoped by branch-ref prefix (refs/heads/<orch>-...) or PR-number set, check_suite/workflow_run events whose detail.prNumbers intersect the PR set, and linear events for any in-orch ticket. Re-build it after orchestrate-dispatch-next adds new workers so the PR/ticket sets stay in sync.

Filter discipline (CTL-240, CTL-372). All noise filtering belongs inside --filter. Do NOT pipe catalyst-events tail through a downstream awk/sed/grep/jq stage for additional filtering or projection. The primary reason is clarity — --filter is the single place a reader can look to see what reaches the consumer. The secondary reason is buffering: BSD awk (and unflagged grep/sed) buffer stdout in 4 KB blocks when stdout is not a TTY, and with the typical ~1–3 events/min orchestrator cadence the buffer never fills and notifications stall silently for 15+ minutes despite live PR activity. grep --line-buffered and jq --unbuffered DO line-flush mechanically (per their macOS/Linux man pages), but you should still not need either flag because filtering belongs in --filter.

Anti-pattern (CTL-372): … | grep -v '"event.name":"filter.wake"'. Observed in a real orchestrator session and is wrong for two reasons: (a) filter.wake.* events are emitted by the broker as canonical OTel envelopes with no top-level .event, .orchestrator, or .scope field. build-orchestrator-filter's predicate reads only v1 paths, so canonical filter.wake.* events never satisfy any clause and never reach the consumer in the first place. (b) The grep pattern would also strip this orchestrator's OWN intended filter.wake.${ORCH_NAME} wake — the very event registered with the broker. Since CTL-346 the broker no longer re-classifies its own emissions, so there is no feedback loop to defend against on the consumer side either. If you find yourself wanting to remove filter.wake noise from tail output, the answer is to use build-orchestrator-filter (which already excludes them) and avoid any hand-rolled --filter that adds a .attributes."catalyst.orchestrator.id" clause without an event-type guard.

GitHub event schema (CTL-240). github.* webhook events carry orchestrator: null and worker: null on every line — they are scoped only by .attributes."vcs.repository.name", .attributes."vcs.ref.name", .attributes."vcs.pr.number", .attributes."vcs.revision", and (for check_suite / workflow_run) body.payload.prNumbers. Predicates that try to scope github events by .attributes."catalyst.orchestrator.id" == "<orch>" will silently drop every github event. build-orchestrator-filter handles this correctly — prefer it over hand-rolled filters.

If you need to write a filter by hand (e.g. for one-off wait-for calls), the broad event-type recommendation is:

catalyst-events tail --filter '
  (.attributes."event.name" | startswith("github.pr.")) or
  (.attributes."event.name" | startswith("github.pr_review")) or
  (.attributes."event.name" | startswith("github.issue_comment")) or
  (.attributes."event.name" | startswith("github.check_")) or
  (.attributes."event.name" | startswith("github.workflow_run")) or
  (.attributes."event.name" | startswith("github.deployment")) or
  (.attributes."event.name" == "github.push") or
  (.attributes."event.name" | startswith("linear.issue.")) or
  (.attributes."event.name" == "orchestrator.worker.phase_advanced") or
  (.attributes."event.name" == "orchestrator.worker.status_terminal") or
  (.attributes."event.name" == "orchestrator.worker.pr_created") or
  (.attributes."event.name" == "orchestrator.worker.done") or
  (.attributes."event.name" == "orchestrator.worker.failed") or
  (.attributes."event.name" == "orchestrator.attention.raised") or
  (.attributes."event.name" == "orchestrator.attention.resolved")
'

This list extends the pre-CTL-240 recommendation with pr_review_comment (Codex review threads land here — needed for CTL-64 BLOCKED auto-fixup detection), issue_comment (general PR comments), and workflow_run (the most reliable CI-done signal). The broad form has no scope filter, so events from sibling orchestrators sharing the repo will also fire wake-ups; prefer build-orchestrator-filter when you have an $ORCH_DIR to draw on.

Orchestrator-scoped filtering (CTL-234): github.* events now carry .attributes."catalyst.orchestrator.id" (stamped at receive time by the webhook handler). You may safely add (.attributes."catalyst.orchestrator.id" == "${ORCH_NAME}") and (...) to narrow the filter to this run's PRs only.

Wake narration (MANDATORY, CTL-369). Every Monitor wake — including ones classified as routine or already-addressed — must produce a single short line of assistant text before returning to the wait. The Claude Code harness wraps each Monitor stdout line in a <task-notification> XML user message; if the orchestrator's response is end_turn with only thinking blocks and no text content, the UI renders the next <task-notification>'s <task-id> as a phantom Human:\n<task-id> line in the transcript. The narration line defeats that artifact and gives the operator reading the transcript later a record of what fired and what was decided.

Line shape (pick one; keep it under ~120 characters):

wake: <event.name> #<pr> [interest=<type>] — <action being taken>
wake: <event.name> — routine, staying in event loop
wake: <event.name> — already addressed, no-op
wake: idle-timeout — running periodic reconciliation scan

Surface the matched interest when wake came from the broker (filter.wake.${ORCH_NAME}): include .body.payload.interest_id (or its type: pr_lifecycle / ticket_lifecycle / comms_lifecycle) and a one-clause restatement of .body.payload.reason. For broad-form catalyst-events tail wakes, surface the raw event.name and the PR/ticket scope instead.

See plugins/dev/skills/monitor-events/SKILL.md § Narration for the full rule and the good-vs-bad transcript fixture.

Wake-up classification. When a line arrives on the Monitor, classify it before re-entering the scan so the response stays proportional. Every reaction reads authoritative state from gh pr view, git rev-list, or the signal file — events are wake-up triggers, never sources of truth.

Event	Reaction
orchestrator.worker.phase_advanced	Routine in-flight progress; re-render DASHBOARD.md. Coalesced — .body.payload.changes carries the batch (CTL-229)
orchestrator.worker.status_terminal, orchestrator.worker.done, orchestrator.worker.failed	Terminal transition; re-render DASHBOARD.md and run orchestrate-dispatch-next to fill freed slots. PR-bearing transitions carry .body.payload.pr.{number,url} (CTL-229)
orchestrator.worker.pr_created	Reconcile the PR number into signal/state; re-render DASHBOARD.md
orchestrator.attention.raised, orchestrator.attention.resolved	Re-render the DASHBOARD.md NEEDS ATTENTION banner
github.pr.merged, github.pr.closed	Run the merge-confirmation scan for that PR
github.pr.synchronize, github.push	Re-evaluate mergeStateStatus for the affected PR; if DIRTY ≥2 min, orchestrate-auto-rebase may dispatch a rebase worker (BEHIND auto-resolves via auto-merge)
github.check_*, github.workflow_run.completed	Re-check CI; if BLOCKED ≥10 min, orchestrate-auto-fixup may dispatch a fix-up. workflow_run.completed is the most reliable CI-done signal
github.pr_review*, github.pr_review_comment*, github.issue_comment.created	Re-evaluate mergeStateStatus; surface review activity on the dashboard. Codex review threads land as pr_review_comment.created — required for CTL-64 BLOCKED auto-fixup detection
github.deployment*	Record deploy outcome on the worker's signal file
linear.issue.state_changed	Reconcile Linear state with the worker signal
filter.wake.${ORCH_NAME} (matched on full dotted event.name)	Daemon-filtered semantic wake: read .body.payload.reason for log context, then run the full reactive scan. The reason describes what triggered the daemon (e.g., "CI failed on PR #416") but is never the authoritative source
phase.<name>.complete.<TICKET> (via phase_lifecycle, CTL-452)	Resolve the next phase via orchestrate-phase-advance --ticket <T> --completed-phase <name>; that helper looks up the next phase in the canonical 9-phase sequence and calls orchestrate-dispatch-next --phase <next> --ticket <T>. If completed-phase=monitor-deploy, no advance (terminal). The advance is idempotent under redundant wakes
phase.<name>.failed.<TICKET> (via phase_lifecycle, CTL-452)	Run orchestrate-revive once for the affected ticket; on the second failure (reviveCount ≥ MAX_REVIVES), mark worker stalled and post attention to the shared comms channel. Matches the existing one-retry-then-escalate handling for legacy oneshot workers
phase.<name>.turn-cap-exhausted.<TICKET> (via phase_lifecycle, CTL-484)	Run orchestrate-revive (same script — its continuation branch handles this status). The branch reads handoffPath from the per-phase signal, dispatches a claude --bg --resume continuation with CATALYST_IS_CONTINUATION=true + CATALYST_HANDOFF_PATH + CATALYST_CONTINUATION_COUNT, and bumps .continuationCount on a budget separate from .reviveCount (default 3). On budget exhaustion: stalled + attentionReason="continuation-budget-exhausted"
phase.<name>.skipped.<TICKET> (via phase_lifecycle, CTL-512)	Same as complete: resolve via orchestrate-phase-advance --ticket <T> --completed-phase <name>. Only emitted by phase-monitor-deploy when no deployment_status event arrived before PHASE_DEPLOY_TIMEOUT_SEC. Because completed-phase=monitor-deploy, the advance no-ops (terminal); the wake's purpose is to free the wave slot via the scheduler's in-flight predicate (scheduler.mjs:isTicketInFlight)
10-minute idle (no event)	Run the full reactive scan as a safety net

Ground truth is git + PR, not the signal file. The signal file is advisory — it reports the worker's self-described phase. Authoritative decisions (done, stalled) come from gh pr view / gh pr list --head <branch> and git rev-list --count <base>..<branch>. A merged upstream PR on a worker's branch means the worker is done, regardless of what the signal file says. A worker with a live upstream PR is not stalled even if its signal file is stale. When the signal disagrees with git/PR, the orchestrator reconciles the signal from the authoritative source.

Reactive scan (per wake-up):

# CTL-511: re-run the phase-agent stall scan on every reactive scan (every wake
# + the 10-min idle fallback), not just once per dispatch wave. A phase agent
# that dies after launch is flipped to status:"stalled" here; orchestrate-healthcheck
# then emits phase.<name>.failed to wake orchestrate-revive within one scan
# interval instead of ~14 h. Idempotent — terminal/stalled signals are skipped,
# so frequent runs are safe. --grace-seconds 0 skips the 15s legacy-PID settle
# sleep: the phase-mode state.json check has its own --stale-bg-seconds
# threshold, so the sleep would only add latency to every wake.
"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/orchestrate-healthcheck" \
  --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" --orch-id "${ORCH_NAME}" --grace-seconds 0 \
  >/dev/null 2>&1 || true

# For each active worker:
for WORKER_SIGNAL in ${ORCH_DIR}/workers/*.json; do
  TICKET=$(jq -r '.ticket' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")
  WORKER_DIR="${WORKTREE_BASE}/${ORCH_NAME}-${TICKET}"

  # 1. Read worker signal file for self-reported status
  STATUS=$(jq -r '.status' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")

  # 2. Check git state in worker worktree
  cd "$WORKER_DIR"
  BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current)
  COMMIT_COUNT=$(git rev-list --count "${BASE_BRANCH}..HEAD" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)

  # 3. Check for PR
  PR_URL=$(gh pr list --head "$BRANCH" --json url --jq '.[0].url' 2>/dev/null || echo "")

  # 4. If PR exists, check CI
  if [ -n "$PR_URL" ]; then
    CI_STATUS=$(gh pr checks "$BRANCH" --json state --jq '.[].state' 2>/dev/null | sort -u)
  fi

  # 5. Update dashboard
done

Update DASHBOARD.md on each wake-up using the dashboard template — every incoming event re-renders the file. The orch-monitor daemon file-watches DASHBOARD.md and forwards changes to connected UI clients via SSE, so per-event writes propagate to operators immediately. Include:

• Wave progress (current wave, tickets per wave)
• Per-worker status table (ticket, status, PR, test coverage columns)
• Event log (timestamped significant events)

Update state.json with machine-readable state for crash recovery.

Update global state and heartbeat after each wake-up:

# Heartbeat — proves the orchestrator is alive
"$STATE_SCRIPT" heartbeat "${ORCH_NAME}"

# Sync each worker's status from signal file to global state
for WORKER_SIGNAL in ${ORCH_DIR}/workers/*.json; do
  TICKET=$(jq -r '.ticket' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")
  W_STATUS=$(jq -r '.status' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")
  W_PHASE=$(jq -r '.phase' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")
  W_BRANCH=$(git -C "${WORKTREE_BASE}/${ORCH_NAME}-${TICKET}" branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo "")
  W_PR=$(jq -c '.pr // null' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")

  "$STATE_SCRIPT" worker "${ORCH_NAME}" "${TICKET}" \
    ".status = \"${W_STATUS}\" | .phase = ${W_PHASE} | .branch = \"${W_BRANCH}\" | .pr = ${W_PR}"
done

# Re-render DASHBOARD.md so the file artifact reflects current state (CTL-230).
# `--roll-usage` first iterates ${ORCH_DIR}/workers/*.json and invokes
# orchestrate-roll-usage.sh -v per worker (CTL-115, CTL-233, CTL-487) — bounded
# and idempotent (no-op when signal.cost is already populated) and writes the
# audit trail to ${ORCH_DIR}/.roll-usage.log. Then renders the dashboard so the
# refreshed signal.cost values appear in the same pass. Same inputs produce a
# byte-identical file. The orch-monitor daemon file-watches DASHBOARD.md and
# forwards changes to UI clients via SSE.
"${CATALYST_DEV_SCRIPTS}/update-dashboard.sh" \
  --orch "${ORCH_NAME}" --orch-dir "${ORCH_DIR}" --roll-usage \
  >/dev/null 2>>"${ORCH_DIR}/.update-dashboard.log" || true

Merge confirmation fallback (CTL-31, refined by CTL-80, CTL-133, CTL-243, CTL-252):

Workers now exit at status: "done" after actively merging their own PR (CTL-252). The orchestrator's merge confirmation scan is a safety-net fallback for workers that stalled or crashed before completing their own merge. Every Monitor wake-up triggered by github.pr.merged, github.pr.closed, github.push, or github.check_suite.completed runs this scan, and the 10-minute idle fallback re-runs it so daemon-down windows do not block indefinitely. For each worker whose signal shows pr.number but not yet pr.mergedAt, ping GitHub directly:

for WORKER_SIGNAL in ${ORCH_DIR}/workers/*.json; do
  TICKET=$(jq -r '.ticket' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")
  W_STATUS=$(jq -r '.status' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")
  PR_NUMBER=$(jq -r '.pr.number // empty' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")
  PR_URL=$(jq -r '.pr.url // empty' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")
  MERGED_AT=$(jq -r '.pr.mergedAt // empty' "$WORKER_SIGNAL")

  # Skip terminal failure states and already-reconciled merges early.
  [ -n "$MERGED_AT" ] && continue
  [ "$W_STATUS" = "failed" ] && continue
  [ "$W_STATUS" = "stalled" ] && continue

  # If the signal does not have a PR number, try to discover one from the worker's
  # branch. This catches workers that merged their PR but died before writing
  # pr.number to their signal file (the ADV-224 class of failure — CTL-32).
  if [ -z "$PR_NUMBER" ]; then
    WORKER_DIR="${WORKTREE_BASE}/${ORCH_NAME}-${TICKET}"
    BRANCH=$(git -C "$WORKER_DIR" branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo "")
    [ -z "$BRANCH" ] && continue
    REPO_SLUG=$(git -C "$WORKER_DIR" remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null \
      | sed -E 's|.*github\.com[:/]([^/]+/[^/.]+)(\.git)?$|\1|')
    [ -z "$REPO_SLUG" ] && continue

    DISCOVERED=$(gh -R "$REPO_SLUG" pr list \
      --head "$BRANCH" --state all \
      --json number,state,mergedAt,url --limit 1 2>/dev/null || echo "[]")
    PR_NUMBER=$(echo "$DISCOVERED" | jq -r '.[0].number // empty')
    PR_URL=$(echo "$DISCOVERED" | jq -r '.[0].url // empty')
    [ -z "$PR_NUMBER" ] && continue

    # Record the discovery in the signal so future wake-ups take the fast path.
    jq --argjson n "$PR_NUMBER" --arg u "$PR_URL" \
      '.pr = ((.pr // {}) | .number = ($n | tonumber) | .url = $u)' \
      "$WORKER_SIGNAL" > "$WORKER_SIGNAL.tmp" && mv "$WORKER_SIGNAL.tmp" "$WORKER_SIGNAL"

    # CTL-341: refresh handled by the unconditional refresh block after this
    # loop. The signal file update above (.pr.number = $n) feeds into it.
  fi

  # Parse repo from PR URL (e.g. https://github.com/org/repo/pull/123)
  REPO=$(echo "$PR_URL" | sed -E 's|https://github.com/([^/]+/[^/]+)/pull/.*|\1|')

  # Ask GitHub the authoritative question
  PR_JSON=$(gh -R "$REPO" pr view "$PR_NUMBER" \
    --json state,mergeStateStatus,mergedAt,mergeable,mergedBy,mergeCommit 2>/dev/null || echo '{}')
  PR_STATE=$(echo "$PR_JSON" | jq -r '.state // "UNKNOWN"')
  MERGE_STATE=$(echo "$PR_JSON" | jq -r '.mergeStateStatus // "UNKNOWN"')
  PR_MERGED_AT=$(echo "$PR_JSON" | jq -r '.mergedAt // empty')
  MERGE_COMMIT_SHA=$(echo "$PR_JSON" | jq -r '.mergeCommit.oid // empty')

  # CTL-211: load per-repo deploy verification config. When
  # skipDeployVerification is true (default for repos without GitHub
  # Deployments), keep today's behavior — MERGED → done. When false, MERGED →
  # merged, then the deploy sub-loop below drives merged → deploying →
  # done | deploy-failed via deployment_status events.
  SKIP_DEPLOY=$(jq -r --arg repo "$REPO" \
    '.catalyst.deploy[$repo].skipDeployVerification // true' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
  PROD_ENV=$(jq -r --arg repo "$REPO" \
    '.catalyst.deploy[$repo].productionEnvironment // "production"' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)
  DEPLOY_TIMEOUT_SEC=$(jq -r --arg repo "$REPO" \
    '.catalyst.deploy[$repo].timeoutSec // 1800' "$CONFIG_FILE" 2>/dev/null)

  case "$PR_STATE" in
    MERGED)
      if [ "$SKIP_DEPLOY" != "false" ]; then
        # Today's behavior: MERGED → done immediately. The repo doesn't emit
        # GitHub Deployments, or deploy verification is opted out per-repo.
        TARGET_STATUS="done"
        TARGET_PHASE=6
      else
        # CTL-211: MERGED → merged. The deploy state-machine sub-loop below
        # advances it to deploying → done|deploy-failed on the SHA's
        # deployment_status events.
        TARGET_STATUS="merged"
        TARGET_PHASE=5
      fi

      # Record merge in signal + global state, advance worker to TARGET_STATUS
      jq --arg ts "$PR_MERGED_AT" --arg sha "$MERGE_COMMIT_SHA" \
         --arg status "$TARGET_STATUS" --argjson phase "$TARGET_PHASE" \
        '.pr.ciStatus = "merged" | .pr.mergedAt = $ts | .status = $status
         | (if $status == "done" then .completedAt = $ts | .phaseTimestamps.done = $ts else . end)
         | .phase = $phase
         | (if $sha != "" then .pr.mergeCommitSha = $sha else . end)
         | (if $status == "merged" then .deploy = ((.deploy // {}) | .startedAt = $ts | .environment = "'"$PROD_ENV"'") else . end)' \
        "$WORKER_SIGNAL" > "$WORKER_SIGNAL.tmp" && mv "$WORKER_SIGNAL.tmp" "$WORKER_SIGNAL"

      "$STATE_SCRIPT" worker "${ORCH_NAME}" "${TICKET}" \
        ".status = \"${TARGET_STATUS}\" | .phase = ${TARGET_PHASE} | .pr.ciStatus = \"merged\" | .pr.mergedAt = \"${PR_MERGED_AT}\""

      "$STATE_SCRIPT" event "$(jq -nc \
        --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" --arg orch "${ORCH_NAME}" \
        --arg w "${TICKET}" --argjson pr "$PR_NUMBER" --arg mt "$PR_MERGED_AT" \
        '{ts:$ts, orchestrator:$orch, worker:$w, event:"worker-pr-merged", detail:{pr:$pr, mergedAt:$mt}}')"

      # Transition Linear ticket via the shared helper (CTL-69). The helper
      # reads stateMap from `.catalyst/config.json`, is idempotent, and
      # respects --state-on-merge when the operator wants a non-default
      # state (e.g., "Shipped"). Since CTL-252, workers write their own done-
      # transition; this runs only as a fallback for stalled/crashed workers.
      #