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