# Ship Loop Master > 24/7 ~1.5-day autonomous shipping orchestrator for Synthex. Drives 7 child loops (build, test, sanity, watch, smoke, pr, merge) on differentiated cadences. Reads state from .claude/scratchpad/ship-loop-state.json on every tick, dispatches the next eligible child loop, and exits cleanly after 36 hours OR when state.completion === 'merged'. Use when the CEO says "/loop ship-loop-master" to start an autonomous shipping run. - Skill: `cleanexpo/ship-loop-master` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cleanexpo/ship-loop-master` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/cleanexpo/ship-loop-master/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: cleanexpo (https://skillmd.com/u/cleanexpo) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cleanexpo/ship-loop-master --- # ship-loop-master — autonomous shipping orchestrator ## Activation CEO invokes `/loop ship-loop-master` (default) or `/loop ship-loop-master --enable-auto-merge` (auto-merge mode). The literal phrase `--enable-auto-merge` in the activation prompt is the **only** way to set `auto_merge: true`. Without it the loop forces `auto_merge: false` regardless of any state file content. This is the audit trail. ## Pre-flight (runs once at first tick) 1. Verify `git status` is on a feature branch (refuse to run on `main`) 2. Verify `gh auth status` shows authenticated session 3. Verify a Linear ticket reference exists in env `SHIP_LOOP_TICKET=SYN-XXX` OR in `.claude/scratchpad/ship-loop-ticket.txt` (refuse to start without one — CLAUDE.md hard rule "all work traces to Linear") 4. Initialise `.claude/scratchpad/ship-loop-state.json` if absent: ```json { "started_at": "", "deadline_at": "", "ticket": "SYN-XXX", "branch": "", "auto_merge": false, "completion": "in_progress", "layers": { "build": { "state": "unknown", "last_run": null, "retries": 0 }, "test": { "state": "unknown", "last_run": null, "retries": 0 }, "sanity": { "state": "unknown", "last_run": null, "retries": 0 }, "watch": { "state": "unknown", "last_run": null, "retries": 0 }, "smoke": { "state": "unknown", "last_run": null, "retries": 0 }, "pr": { "state": "not_opened", "url": null, "ci_state": null }, "merge": { "state": "not_attempted" } } } ``` 5. Initialise `ship-loop-events.jsonl` (touch) and `ship-loop-escalations.md` (touch with header) ## Tick loop (every dynamic-paced wakeup) Read `ship-loop-state.json`. Then: ### Hard stops (highest priority, check first) - **Deadline reached**: `now() >= deadline_at` → set `completion = 'timeout'`, write summary to `escalations.md`, exit - **Completion state**: `completion === 'merged'` → exit cleanly with summary - **Unresolved P0 escalation**: parse `escalations.md` for `^## P0` headings; if any remain unchecked, refuse to invoke any child loop, write current status, sleep 1800s and re-check ### Eligibility decisions (in priority order) The master picks ONE child to invoke per tick (not parallel — sequential discipline keeps debugging tractable): | If state | Then invoke | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | | `layers.build.state !== 'green' OR last_run > 30 min ago` | `ship-loop-build` | | `layers.build.state === 'green' AND (layers.test.state !== 'green' OR last_run > 30 min ago)` | `ship-loop-test` | | build+test green AND `layers.sanity.last_run > 60 min ago OR sanity.state !== 'green'` | `ship-loop-sanity` | | any layer green AND `layers.watch.last_run > 15 min ago` | `ship-loop-watch` | | build+test+sanity green AND `layers.smoke.last_run > 60 min ago OR smoke.state !== 'green'` | `ship-loop-smoke` | | all 5 inner layers green AND `git status --short` shows staged/unstaged changes AND `pr.state === 'not_opened'` | `ship-loop-pr` | | `pr.state === 'opened' AND pr.ci_state === 'green' AND merge.state === 'not_attempted'` | `ship-loop-merge` | | nothing eligible | sleep (longer cache-miss interval) | ### After invoking the child - Read child's exit state from `ship-loop-state.json` (children update their layer's section atomically) - Append a tick entry to `ship-loop-events.jsonl`: ```json {"ts":"","tick":N,"invoked":"ship-loop-build","result":"green","duration_ms":12345} ``` - Decide next sleep duration via `ScheduleWakeup`: - Active work (something just changed state, more eligible loops queued): 60–270s (in-cache) - Idle (everything green, just monitoring): 1200–1800s (cache miss but acceptable) - Approaching deadline: shorter intervals to maximise final-hour work ## Hard rules compliance - **Linear ticket required** — refuses to start without `SHIP_LOOP_TICKET` - **Branch protection** — refuses to run on `main` - **Auto-merge gating** — defaults `false`; only flips on if literal `--enable-auto-merge` was in activation prompt; recorded in state for audit - **No env modifications** — never reads/writes `.env*` - **Max 1 retry per child loop per tick** — child loops handle their own recovery; master does not retry beyond what child reports - **Phase 8 stays human-gated** — even with auto-merge enabled, master never invokes Vercel CLI or pushes to `main` directly ## Exit conditions | Condition | Action | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | `completion === 'merged'` | Write summary to escalations.md (positive), exit clean | | Deadline reached | Mark `completion = 'timeout'`, summary, exit | | P0 escalation written by any child | Halt; require human to clear escalation before resume | | Activation prompt missing `--enable-auto-merge` AND merge layer reaches `ready_for_human` | Halt with "ready for human review" message; do not exit (loop sleeps so CEO can resume by clearing the escalation) | ## Files this skill writes - `.claude/scratchpad/ship-loop-state.json` (read + write atomically) - `.claude/scratchpad/ship-loop-events.jsonl` (append-only) - `.claude/scratchpad/ship-loop-escalations.md` (append-only) ## Verification `/loop ship-loop-master` on a branch with one trivially failing test should: 1. Tick 1: invoke `ship-loop-build` (state was `unknown`) 2. Tick 2: invoke `ship-loop-test` (build went `green`) 3. Tick 3: child reports `red` with one fail; master logs and re-queues 4. Eventually: `escalations.md` has the test failure escalated after retry exhaustion ## Out of scope - Production deploy invocation (Vercel auto-deploys on merge to main; loop does not call Vercel CLI) - Cross-repo coordination - Slack/email notifications (escalations.md is the surface)