wave

name	wave
description	Expert Wave multi-agent pipeline orchestrator development including manifest configuration, pipeline authoring, persona management, and CLI operations

Wave — Multi-Agent Pipeline Orchestrator

Go CLI orchestrating multi-step AI workflows. Each pipeline step runs in an isolated workspace under a named persona with enforced permissions, artifact chaining, and contract validation.

Manifest (wave.yaml)

apiVersion: v1
kind: WaveManifest
metadata:
  name: my-project

adapters:
  claude:
    binary: claude
    mode: headless
    output_format: json
    project_files: [CLAUDE.md, .claude/settings.json]
    default_permissions:
      allowed_tools: [Read, Write, Edit, Bash]

personas:
  navigator:
    adapter: claude
    system_prompt_file: .agents/personas/navigator.md
    model: sonnet                        # opus | sonnet | haiku
    permissions:
      allowed_tools: [Read, Glob, Grep, "Bash(git log*)", "Bash(git status*)"]
      deny: ["Write(*)", "Edit(*)", "Bash(git commit*)", "Bash(git push*)"]

runtime:
  workspace_root: .agents/workspaces
  max_concurrent_workers: 5
  default_timeout_minutes: 30
  relay:
    token_threshold_percent: 80
    strategy: summarize_to_checkpoint
    summarizer_persona: summarizer

skill_mounts:
  - path: .agents/skills/

Pipeline (.agents/pipelines/<name>.yaml)

kind: WavePipeline
metadata:
  name: gh-pr-review
  release: true

steps:
  - id: analyze
    persona: navigator
    dependencies: []
    memory:
      strategy: fresh
      inject_artifacts:
        - step: prior-step
          artifact: artifact-name
          as: local-filename            # available at artifacts/<as>
    exec:
      type: prompt
      source: |
        Analyze the code for: {{ input }}
    output_artifacts:
      - name: analysis
        path: output/analysis.json
        type: json
    handover:
      contract:
        type: json_schema               # or: command
        schema_path: .agents/contracts/analysis.schema.json
        source: output/analysis.json
        must_pass: true
        on_failure: retry
        max_retries: 2

Built-in Personas

Persona	Role
navigator	Read-only codebase exploration
craftsman	Code implementation & testing
implementer	Full execution specialist
philosopher	Architecture & specification
auditor	Security review & QA
summarizer	Context compaction for relay
reviewer	Quality review & validation
github-commenter	Post GitHub issue comments

Permission syntax: Read, Write(.agents/specs/*), Bash(git log*), Bash(*) in deny

Artifacts

output_artifacts:             # produced by this step
  - name: analysis
    path: output/data.json
    type: json

memory:
  inject_artifacts:           # consumed from prior step
    - step: analyze
      artifact: analysis
      as: analysis_data       # available at artifacts/analysis_data

Key CLI Commands

wave run gh-pr-review "Review auth module"
wave run hotfix --dry-run
wave run <pipeline> --from-step <step> --force   # resume
wave do "fix the login bug"                       # ad-hoc task
wave meta "implement user auth"                   # dynamic pipeline
wave status --all
wave logs --step investigate --errors --follow
wave artifacts --step analyze --export ./out
wave list pipelines
wave list runs --limit 20 --run-status completed
wave validate --pipeline gh-pr-review
wave clean --all --keep-last 5 --dry-run
wave cancel --force

Key Patterns

• Template vars: {{ input }}, {{ timestamp }}
• Parallel steps: Steps with independent dependencies run concurrently
• Contract retry: Failed contracts feed errors back to persona (up to max_retries)
• Output formats: auto (TUI on TTY), json (NDJSON), text, quiet

Development

go test ./...
go test -race ./...
go run ./cmd/wave run hello-world "test"
wave run hello-world "test" --mock

Complete Reference

For exhaustive patterns, examples, and advanced usage see:

references/full-reference.md