team-agent-orchestration

Team Agent Orchestration

Use this skill when agents are being managed like a team rather than a single assistant. The purpose is to make team-based orchestration reliable: clear work items, explicit ownership, agent Kanban state, branch isolation, control pane visibility, and merge gates.

When To Activate

• The task spans multiple agents, tools, harnesses, branches, or worktrees.
• The user mentions team orchestration, agent Kanban, squad, conductor, control pane, manager, desktop app, Zellij, tmux, Hermes, Devin, Codex, Claude Code, or multi-agent work.
• A project needs shared workflow state across people and agents.
• Existing agent fan-out is producing output but not mergeable product.

Operating Model

Treat every agent as a teammate with a narrow contract:

• Owner: the person or agent accountable for the work item.
• Scope: files, branch, tool surface, and forbidden areas.
• State: backlog, ready, running, review, blocked, merged, or archived.
• Evidence: tests, screenshots, logs, review notes, or eval reports.
• Merge gate: the exact condition that allows integration.

Agent Kanban

Use agent Kanban when work must be visible across sessions.

| Column | Meaning | Exit Criteria |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Backlog | Candidate work item, not yet shaped | Acceptance criteria written |

| Ready | Shaped and assignable | Owner and branch/worktree assigned |

| Running | Agent is actively working | Handoff artifact and changed files exist |

| Review | Work is complete but not merged | Tests, diff review, and risk check pass |

| Blocked | Needs external input or failed gate | Blocker has owner and next action |

| Merged | Integrated into mainline | PR merged or local main updated |

| Archived | No longer relevant | Reason recorded |

Each card should fit this schema:

{
  "id": "agent-card-001",
  "title": "Build dynamic workflow skill",
  "owner": "codex",
  "state": "running",
  "branch": "product/dynamic-workflow-team-orchestration",
  "worktree": ".",
  "acceptance": [
    "Skill exists",
    "Tests cover required concepts",
    "Content artifact contains video and article angles"
  ],
  "merge_gate": "lint, focused tests, and catalog check pass",
  "handoff": "path/to/handoff.md"
}

Team-Based Orchestration Flow

1. Shape the board: convert fuzzy ambition into work items with owners and merge gates.
2. Pick execution mode: single-agent, dynamic workflow mode, dmux/tmux, worktree fan-out, or external desktop orchestrator.
3. Assign boundaries: one owner per card, clear file scope, and no overlapping writes without an integrator.
4. Run agents: each agent writes evidence and handoff notes, not just code.
5. Review in sequence: tests first, then diff review, then security/risk checks, then content/product polish.
6. Merge deliberately: one integrator resolves conflicts and updates the control pane or status artifact.
7. Extract reusable skill: if the card pattern repeats, promote it into skills/.

Control Pane Requirements

A useful control pane for team orchestration should show:

• Active work items and their agent Kanban state.
• Owner, harness, branch, worktree, and last heartbeat.
• Links to handoff artifacts, tests, screenshots, and PRs.
• Blockers grouped by owner and unblock action.
• Merge readiness by gate, not vibes.
• Reusable workflow candidates that should become shared skills.

Do not add more automation until the operator can answer: who owns this, what changed, what gate failed, and what can safely merge?

Dynamic Workflow Compatibility

When a card needs dynamic workflow mode:

• Put the task-local harness under the card owner.
• Store inputs and outputs on the card.
• Require an eval before moving from Running to Review.
• Promote the harness to a shared skill only after repeat use.

Failure Modes To Watch

• Agent soup: many agents running, no owner or merge gate.
• Invisible work: useful output exists only in a chat transcript.
• Board theater: a Kanban board exists but cards have no acceptance criteria.
• Overlapping writes: parallel agents edit the same files without worktrees.
• No product artifact: the process produces docs but no runnable or publishable surface.

Output Standard

Finish each orchestration pass with:

• Board/card changes.
• Merged or pending branches.
• Tests and eval evidence.
• Blockers with owner and next action.
• New shared skill candidates.