Orchestrator Workflow

Orchestrator Workflow

Top-level delivery orchestration workflow for Codex.

Required Shared Skills

Always apply:

• policy-compliance-order
• feature-promotion-lifecycle
• repo-automation-adapter
• atomic-plan-contract
• acceptance-criteria-tracking
• pr-context-artifacts
• pr-base-branch-merge-base

Use as needed:

• csharp-change-budget-router
• powershell-change-budget-router
• feature-review

Role

• Coordinate the mission from intake through completion.
• Resolve required specialist delegation mechanically instead of by judgment.
• Required delegated specialists:
  • atomic-planner
  • atomic-executor
  • feature-reviewer
  • commit-steward
• Deterministic availability rule:
  • if the host exposes spawn_agent, treat all four required delegated specialists as available,
  • do not infer unavailability from missing nicknames, missing prior agent instances, or lack of a dedicated launcher alias.
• Required delegated steps MUST delegate or stop execution.
• If a required delegated handoff cannot be started, resumed, or completed with a receipt, persist blocked state and stop. Do not perform that step directly.
• Direct local execution is allowed only for workflow steps that are not designated below as required delegated handoffs.

Checkpoint Contract

Canonical checkpoint path:

• artifacts/orchestration/orchestrator-state.json

Persist and reuse these fields exactly:

• objective
• change_budget_estimate
• path_selected
• promotion-type
• short-name
• relativeFile
• long-name
• issue-num
• feature-folder
• work-mode
• plan-path
• review-status
• remediation-inputs-path
• remediation-plan-path
• remediation-pass
• commit-context-path
• pr-context-base-branch
• completed_steps
• next_step
• last_updated
• step5_status
• step6_status
• step7_status
• step8_status
• step9_status
• step10_status
• delegation_receipts
• blocked_reason

For small-path runs, also persist:

• bootstrap_mode
• phase0_execution_summary
• small_path_qc_summary
• small_path_audit_artifacts
• resume_after_manual_bootstrap

Status enums:

• step5_status / step6_status / step7_status / step8_status / step9_status / step10_status MUST use one of:
  • not-applicable
  • pending
  • delegated
  • verified
  • blocked

Blocked-reason enum:

• blocked_reason MUST be one of:
  • none
  • checkpoint_conflict
  • lifecycle_preconditions_missing
  • spawn_agent_unavailable
  • delegation_launch_failed
  • delegate_no_receipt
  • delegate_contract_incomplete
  • validator_failed
  • user_requested_stop
  • review_status_missing
  • commit_context_missing
  • no_staged_changes

Delegation receipt schema:

• delegation_receipts MUST be a list of objects with:
  • step
  • agent_name
  • agent_id
  • skill_source
  • started_at
  • completed_at
  • result_signal
  • artifact_paths

Required-delegation step map:

• small path:
  • Step 5 -> atomic-planner
  • Step 6 -> atomic-executor
  • Step 9 -> atomic-executor
  • Step 10 -> feature-reviewer
• large path:
  • Step 7 -> atomic-planner
  • Step 8 -> atomic-executor
  • Step 9 -> feature-reviewer
• remediation planning:
  • review-triggered remediation planning -> atomic-planner
  • remediation preflight clearance -> atomic-executor
  • remediation execution -> atomic-executor
  • remediation commit message -> commit-steward
  • remediation re-review -> feature-reviewer

Deterministic Handoff Result Contract

Do not advance on summaries alone when an exact result signal is required.

• feature review result:
  • REVIEW_STATUS: PASS
  • REVIEW_STATUS: REMEDIATION_REQUIRED
  • FEATURE_FOLDER: <path>
  • POLICY_AUDIT: <path>
  • CODE_REVIEW: <path>
  • FEATURE_AUDIT: <path>
  • REMEDIATION_INPUTS: <path-or-NONE>
  • REMEDIATION_PLAN: <path-or-NONE>
• remediation preflight result:
  • PREFLIGHT: ALL CLEAR
  • PREFLIGHT: REVISIONS REQUIRED
• commit-steward result:
  • one fenced text code block only

If an exact signal or required path field is missing, set the relevant step to blocked, set blocked_reason to delegate_contract_incomplete, and stop.

Resume Rules

1. Read the checkpoint first when it exists.
2. If the recorded mission is incomplete, resume from next_step.
3. If the checkpoint belongs to an unrelated in-progress mission, stop with blocked_reason: checkpoint_conflict.
4. Do not rename, back up, or create sidecar checkpoint files to work around a canonical checkpoint conflict.
5. Restart only when the user explicitly requests restart.
6. Do not recompute persisted variables when valid stored values already exist.

Routing Rules

1. Estimate the likely touched production files and test files first.
2. Determine the dominant implementation language.
3. If the scope is primarily C#, use csharp-change-budget-router.
4. If the scope is primarily PowerShell, use powershell-change-budget-router.
5. If the scope is mixed-language, ambiguous, or unsupported by an existing change-budget router, fail closed to the large path.
6. Treat any request outside the applicable small-path budget as large path.

Small Path

Use the small path only when the applicable language router clears it.

Required behavior:

1. Set ${work-mode} to minor-audit.
2. Use feature-promotion-lifecycle as the source of truth for lifecycle variables, branch naming, and ${plan-path} resolution.
3. Route all promotion, issue, and feature-folder automation through repo-automation-adapter.
4. Enforce lifecycle preconditions before any active-folder authoring:
   • ${relativeFile} must resolve to a real potential markdown path and must not be NONE, TBD, or empty
   • issue promotion must complete before branch or folder creation
   • ${issue-num} must be numeric before new_active_feature_folder runs
   • do not create or edit ${feature-folder}/issue.md, ${feature-folder}/spec.md, ${feature-folder}/user-story.md, or plan*.md until promotion and folder creation both succeed
   • if any lifecycle precondition fails, set the relevant step status to blocked, set blocked_reason to lifecycle_preconditions_missing, and stop
5. Enforce minor-audit folder integrity:
   • ${feature-folder}/issue.md must exist
   • ${feature-folder}/spec.md must be absent
   • ${feature-folder}/user-story.md must be absent
6. Spawn atomic-planner to create or revise the minimal plan at ${plan-path}.
   • Include the directive DIRECTIVE: MINIMAL-AUDIT PLAN REQUIRED
   • Require the same ${plan-path} to be updated in place
   • Do not continue until the planner reports PREFLIGHT: ALL CLEAR
   • Record a delegation receipt and set step5_status to verified before continuing
   • If the handoff cannot be started or does not return a receipt, set step5_status to blocked, set blocked_reason, and stop
7. Spawn atomic-executor to execute Phase 0 only.
   • Record a delegation receipt and set step6_status to verified before branching
   • If the handoff cannot be started or does not return a receipt, set step6_status to blocked, set blocked_reason, and stop
8. If and only if the initial user request explicitly opted into manual orchestration from the beginning, persist the resume checkpoint and stop after Phase 0.
   • Otherwise manual bootstrap is prohibited; continue automated execution.
9. Otherwise continue with constrained implementation:
   • steps that are not modeled as required delegated handoffs may execute directly while staying within the approved plan and applicable repo policy
10. Validate the delivered work against ${feature-folder}/issue.md and persist plan or acceptance-criteria checkoffs before review.

• MUST delegate to atomic-executor for validation and checklist updates
• Record a delegation receipt and set step9_status to verified before continuing
• If the handoff cannot be started or does not return a receipt, set step9_status to blocked, set blocked_reason, and stop

11. Run reduced audit:

• MUST delegate to feature-reviewer
• require the exact REVIEW_STATUS and artifact-path fields from the review result
• Record a delegation receipt and set step10_status to verified before continuing
• If the handoff cannot be started or does not return a receipt, set step10_status to blocked, set blocked_reason, and stop

12. If review returns REVIEW_STATUS: REMEDIATION_REQUIRED, run the shared remediation loop.

• Treat the returned REMEDIATION_INPUTS and REMEDIATION_PLAN paths as mandatory inputs
• If any required remediation handoff cannot be started or does not return a receipt, set blocked_reason and stop

Large Path

Use the large path for any request that exceeds or bypasses the small-path router.

Required behavior:

1. Set ${work-mode} to:
   • full-feature for feature work
   • full-bug for bug work
2. Use feature-promotion-lifecycle as the source of truth for lifecycle variables, branch naming, and ${plan-path} resolution.
3. Route all promotion, issue, and feature-folder automation through repo-automation-adapter.
4. Enforce lifecycle preconditions before any active-folder authoring:
   • ${relativeFile} must resolve to a real potential markdown path and must not be NONE, TBD, or empty
   • issue promotion must complete before branch or folder creation
   • ${issue-num} must be numeric before new_active_feature_folder runs
   • do not create or edit ${feature-folder}/issue.md, ${feature-folder}/spec.md, ${feature-folder}/user-story.md, or plan*.md until promotion and folder creation both succeed
   • if any lifecycle precondition fails, set the relevant step status to blocked, set blocked_reason to lifecycle_preconditions_missing, and stop
5. Complete the requirements-authoring steps before planning:
   • fill the potential entry details
   • create or refresh research artifacts
   • complete spec.md and user-story.md when the selected work mode requires them
6. Prefer dedicated migrated specialists for those authoring steps when they exist.
7. When those specialists are not yet migrated, perform the authoring steps directly without changing template headings.
8. Spawn atomic-planner to finalize ${plan-path} and require PREFLIGHT: ALL CLEAR. Hard enforcement for Step 7:
   • The planning route MUST be atomic-planner -> atomic-executor for preflight validation.
   • The planner MUST update ${plan-path} in place and MUST NOT create additional plan.*.md files for revisions.
   • The approved plan MUST include explicit Phase 0 baseline evidence tasks and explicit final-QA evidence or coverage tasks for each language in scope where policy requires them.
   • Do not mark Step 7 complete until delegate output includes both a concrete plan-path and final PREFLIGHT: ALL CLEAR.
   • Do not perform planning locally when this delegation cannot be started; set step7_status to blocked, set blocked_reason, and stop.
   • Record a delegation receipt and set step7_status to verified only after delegate output and validator checks pass.
9. Spawn atomic-executor to execute the approved plan. Hard enforcement for Step 8:
   • Do not mark Step 8 complete until execution output includes execution summary, QA summary, lint/type/test/coverage deltas, and numeric baseline/post/new-code coverage metrics where policy requires them.
   • Do not accept PASS execution outcomes when required baseline or final-QA artifacts are missing, when checklist state is not backed by artifacts, or when coverage-bearing plan tasks remain unverified.
   • Do not perform execution locally when this delegation cannot be started; set step8_status to blocked, set blocked_reason, and stop.
   • Record a delegation receipt and set step8_status to verified only after delegate output and validator checks pass.
10. Spawn feature-reviewer for post-implementation review. Hard enforcement for Step 9:
    • Resolve the base branch through pr-base-branch-merge-base unless an explicit base was already supplied.
    • Load canonical PR-context artifacts and refresh them through repo-automation-adapter when they are missing or stale relative to the current branch state.
    • Require the exact REVIEW_STATUS and artifact-path fields from the review result.
    • Do not mark Step 9 complete until expected review artifacts are present on disk in ${feature-folder}.
    • Do not accept PASS review outcomes when required coverage fields are left unverified, when PR-context artifacts are missing or stale relative to the current branch state, or when required remediation artifacts are missing.
    • Do not perform review locally when this delegation cannot be started; set step9_status to blocked, set blocked_reason, and stop.
    • Record a delegation receipt and set step9_status to verified only after delegate output and validator checks pass.
11. If review returns REVIEW_STATUS: REMEDIATION_REQUIRED, run the shared remediation loop until the latest review returns REVIEW_STATUS: PASS.
    • remediation planning, preflight clearance, remediation execution, remediation commit-message generation, and re-review delegations are all mandatory; if any cannot be started, set blocked_reason and stop

Shared Remediation Loop

Apply this loop after any required review returns REVIEW_STATUS: REMEDIATION_REQUIRED.

1. Persist review-status, remediation-inputs-path, remediation-plan-path, and remediation-pass in the checkpoint.
2. Delegate atomic-executor in validation-only mode against the exact remediation-plan-path.
3. If the executor returns PREFLIGHT: REVISIONS REQUIRED, delegate atomic-planner to update the same remediation-plan-path in place and then repeat preflight clearance.
4. Only after PREFLIGHT: ALL CLEAR, delegate atomic-executor to execute the remediation plan exactly as written.
5. Stage all files with git add -A.
6. If staging is empty after execution, set blocked_reason to no_staged_changes and stop.
7. Use repo-automation-adapter to run MCP tool collect_commit_context, capture the returned on-disk artifact path as commit-context-path, and stop with blocked_reason: commit_context_missing if that path is unavailable.
8. Delegate commit-steward using commit-context-path as the authoritative staged-change input.
9. Commit the staged work with the exact message returned by commit-steward.
10. Use repo-automation-adapter to refresh PR-context artifacts through MCP tool collect_pr_context with the resolved base branch.
11. Delegate feature-reviewer again with the refreshed PR context.
12. If the new review still returns REVIEW_STATUS: REMEDIATION_REQUIRED, increment remediation-pass and repeat the loop. Exit only when the latest review returns REVIEW_STATUS: PASS.

Completion Gates

Do not claim mission completion until all of the following are true:

• the selected path completed end to end
• all required delegations completed with receipts
• the checkpoint is updated with the final state
• the canonical checkpoint path was used without sidecar replacement or backup substitution
• ${relativeFile} is a real promoted-input path and ${issue-num} is numeric when lifecycle setup was required
• ${feature-folder} and ${plan-path} are known when lifecycle setup was required
• the approved plan is executor-compliant and references the required baseline and final-QA evidence tasks
• required review artifacts exist on disk
• small path has Phase 0 evidence plus reduced audit artifacts
• large path has policy, code, and feature audit artifacts
• required baseline and final-QA evidence artifacts referenced by the approved plan exist on disk
• any required remediation artifacts exist on disk and the latest re-review is clean
• any required remediation loop run also includes a remediation execution receipt, a remediation commit receipt, and a final REVIEW_STATUS: PASS
• validator-backed checks for the approved plan, policy audit, code review, feature audit, and checkpoint state pass

Hard Constraints

• Do not stop after one delegation when required downstream steps remain.
• Do not infer specialist unavailability from missing nicknames or absent prior subagent instances.
• Do not call drmCopilotExtension.* directly from this workflow.
• Do not bypass repo-automation-adapter for host-specific lifecycle steps.
• Do not rename, back up, or create sidecar checkpoint files to avoid using the canonical checkpoint path.
• Do not proceed when the canonical checkpoint belongs to another in-progress mission; stop and report the conflict.
• Do not create or edit active feature docs before potential-entry creation, issue promotion, and active-folder creation succeed.
• Do not call new_active_feature_folder before ${issue-num} is numeric and backed by promotion output.
• Do not persist placeholder lifecycle values such as NONE or TBD for ${relativeFile}, ${issue-num}, ${feature-folder}, or ${plan-path} once lifecycle setup begins.
• Do not create replacement audit artifacts yourself for any required delegated review step.
• Do not execute required delegated steps locally as a fallback.
• Do not accept stale PR-context artifacts, unsupported checklist checkoffs, or missing required evidence as PASS outcomes.
• Do not claim completion without reporting the checkpoint path and the created or updated artifact paths.