agile-coordinator

What this skill does

# Agile Coordinator

Orchestrates multiple worker agents to implement groomed tasks from the backlog, handling task assignment, progress monitoring, merge coordination, and verification.

## Core Principle

**Coordinate, don't implement.** The coordinator assigns tasks to workers, monitors their progress, coordinates merges, and verifies results. Workers execute the actual implementation via the `agile-workflow` skill.

## Quick Reference

### When to Use
- Multiple ready tasks in the backlog need implementation
- You want autonomous batch execution of development work
- You need coordinated merges to avoid conflicts
- You want progress tracking across multiple tasks

### Invocation

```bash
/agile-coordinator                    # Auto-discover and execute ready tasks
/agile-coordinator TASK-001 TASK-002  # Execute specific tasks
/agile-coordinator --dry-run          # Preview execution plan only
/agile-coordinator --parallel         # Run workers in parallel
/agile-coordinator --sequential       # Run workers one at a time (default)
```

### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
|------|-------------|---------|
| `--sequential` | Execute tasks one at a time | Yes |
| `--parallel` | Execute tasks concurrently | No |
| `--max-workers N` | Maximum concurrent workers | 2 |
| `--dry-run` | Show plan without executing | No |
| `--autonomous` | Auto-continue at all checkpoints | Yes |
| `--supervised` | Pause after each task completes | No |
| `--verbose` | Show all worker updates | No |
| `--summary-only` | Show major milestones only | Yes |

---

## Workflow Phases

### Phase 1: Discovery

Read the backlog to find tasks ready for implementation.

```
Actions:
1. Read context/backlog/ for task files
2. Filter to status: ready
3. Parse task metadata (priority, size, dependencies)
4. Sort by priority (high → medium → low)
5. Present findings

Output: List of ready tasks with metadata
```

### Phase 2: Planning

Create an execution plan based on task characteristics.

```
Actions:
1. Determine execution mode (sequential or parallel)
2. Check for task dependencies (A must complete before B)
3. Assign tasks to workers in priority order
4. Generate worker instructions

Output: Execution plan with task assignments
```

**Checkpoint: TASKS_DISCOVERED**
- Display: Ready tasks and proposed execution plan
- Auto-continue: If --autonomous flag and tasks found
- Options: `continue`, `reorder`, `exclude [TASK-ID]`, `stop`

### Phase 3: Execution

Spawn and monitor worker agents.

```
For SEQUENTIAL mode:
  for each task in queue:
    1. Spawn worker with Task tool
    2. Worker runs agile-workflow for the task
    3. Monitor progress via file system
    4. When complete: proceed to merge phase
    5. On failure: handle error, decide continue/stop

For PARALLEL mode:
  1. Spawn workers up to max_workers
  2. Monitor all workers concurrently
  3. As workers complete: queue their branches for merge
  4. Spawn next worker if tasks remain
  5. Continue until all tasks processed
```

**Checkpoint: WORKER_COMPLETE** (per worker)
- Display: Worker summary, branch name, next action
- Auto-continue: If successful and --autonomous
- Options: `continue`, `retry`, `skip`, `stop`

### Phase 4: Merging

Execute merges sequentially to avoid conflicts.

```
Actions:
1. For each completed task in merge queue:
   a. git checkout main && git pull
   b. Merge branch (git merge --squash)
   c. Verify merge succeeded
   d. Delete feature branch
2. If conflict: pause and alert user

Output: All branches merged to main
```

### Phase 5: Verification

Verify system integrity after all merges.

```
Actions:
1. git checkout main && git pull --rebase
2. npm run build (verify build passes)
3. npm test (run full test suite)
4. Check for regressions
5. Generate verification report

Output: Verification status (PASSED/FAILED)
```

**Checkpoint: VERIFIED**
- Display: Test results, build status
- Auto-continue: If all tests pass
- Options: `done`, `investigate`, `revert`

### Phase 6: Persist Progress

Update source-of-truth documentation to reflect completed work.

```
Actions:
1. For each completed task:
   a. Update task status in the backlog epic file (ready → complete)
   b. Recalculate epic-level progress (e.g., "22/28 complete" → "24/28 complete")
   c. Unblock dependent tasks (blocked → ready) if blockers are now satisfied
2. Update project status file (context/status.md):
   a. Current project phase
   b. Epic progress table
   c. Recently completed work
   d. Active/upcoming work summary
3. Commit and push documentation updates

Output: Backlog and project status files reflect actual progress
```

**Why this phase exists:** Internal tracking (`.coordinator/state.json`, worker progress files) is session-scoped and ephemeral. The backlog epic files and project status are the persistent source of truth that humans and future sessions rely on. Without this phase, completed tasks remain marked "ready" in backlog files — in one real-world case, 22 merged tasks were never updated in the backlog.

### Phase 7: Summary

Generate comprehensive completion report.

```
Output:
- Tasks completed with PR numbers and commits
- Metrics (workers spawned, PRs merged, tests added)
- Verification status
- Documentation updates applied
- Remaining backlog tasks
```

---

## Worker Protocol

Workers are spawned using Claude Code's Task tool and run `agile-workflow` for their assigned task.

### Worker Instruction Template

See [templates/worker-instruction.md](templates/worker-instruction.md)

Key requirements for workers:
1. Run `agile-workflow` with autonomous mode
2. Write progress to `.coordinator/workers/{worker-id}/progress.json`
3. Do NOT self-merge - signal ready-to-merge status instead
4. Handle all agile-workflow checkpoints automatically

### Progress Tracking

Workers report progress via file system:

```json
// .coordinator/workers/worker-1/progress.json
{
  "worker_id": "worker-1",
  "task_id": "TASK-006",
  "status": "in_progress|completed|failed|ready-to-merge",
  "phase": "implement|review|merge-prep|merge-complete",
  "commit": null,
  "branch": "task/TASK-006-description",
  "last_update": "2026-01-20T10:15:00Z",
  "milestones": [
    {"phase": "implement", "timestamp": "..."},
    {"phase": "review", "timestamp": "..."}
  ]
}
```

---

## State Tracking

The coordinator maintains state in `.coordinator/state.json`:

```json
{
  "session_id": "coord-2026-01-20-abc123",
  "state": "EXECUTING",
  "config": {
    "execution_mode": "sequential",
    "autonomy_level": "autonomous"
  },
  "tasks": {
    "queued": ["TASK-008"],
    "in_progress": ["TASK-007"],
    "completed": ["TASK-006"],
    "failed": []
  },
  "workers": [...],
  "merge_queue": [],
  "verification": null
}
```

See [references/state-tracking.md](references/state-tracking.md) for details.

---

## Failure Handling

| Failure Type | Detection | Recovery |
|--------------|-----------|----------|
| Worker fails | Progress shows `failed` | Offer retry, skip, or abort |
| Tests fail | npm test exits non-zero | Worker retries up to 2x |
| Merge conflict | git merge fails | Pause, alert user |
| Verification fails | Post-merge tests fail | Offer investigate or revert |

See [references/failure-handling.md](references/failure-handling.md) for details.

---

## Integration with agile-workflow

The coordinator spawns workers that execute `agile-workflow`:

```
agile-coordinator (orchestrator)
    │
    ├── Worker 1 → agile-workflow --task TASK-006
    ├── Worker 2 → agile-workflow --task TASK-007
    └── Worker 3 → agile-workflow --task TASK-008
```

Key integration points:
- Workers run agile-workflow in autonomous mode
- Coordinator handles merges (workers create PRs but don't merge)
- Progress synced via file system
- Coordinator runs verification after all merges

---

## Anti-Patterns

### AP1: Parallel Merges
**Pattern**: Merging multiple PRs simultaneously
**Problem**: Creates merge conflicts, corrupts main branch
**Fix**: Always m