pivoshenko Spec Dispatch
openspec queue -> wave plan -> agents -> verify -> tick -> commit.
openspec-apply-change walks tasks one at a time in one context. This replaces that loop only. Planning artifacts (proposal / specs / design / tasks) stay sequential and stay with you — never fan those out; they need whole-repo context and each depends on the last.
Everything here is substrate-independent. Inside Herdr (HERDR_ENV=1) subagents are panes per the Herdr instruction, and the mechanics — budget, split, start, brief, collect, blocked, cleanup — belong to herdr-dispatch. Outside it, dispatch the same waves with the Agent tool. Either way this skill owns only what is OpenSpec-specific.
Preconditions
test "${HERDR_ENV:-}" = 1 # decides the substrate only, never whether to proceed
openspec status --change "<name>" --json
Read applyRequires and isPlanningComplete. Tasks artifact missing -> send the user to /opsx:propose or /opsx:continue. Never author planning artifacts here.
Store-based work -> pass --store <id> on every openspec command and keep it sticky.
Read the Queue
openspec instructions apply --change "<name>" --json
Returns progress {total, complete, remaining} and tasks[] of {id, description, done}.
The list is flat. No dependency edges, no file ownership — the ## 1. Backend / ## 2. Frontend grouping in tasks.md is flattened away. This JSON alone cannot tell you what is safe to run concurrently, and two agents on one file silently clobber each other.
Make It Parallel-Safe at Authoring Time
Do not infer disjointness at dispatch. Force it when tasks are written, in the change root's openspec/config.yaml:
rules:
tasks:
- "Every task MUST declare `files:` listing the paths it will touch."
- "Every task MUST declare `needs:` listing task ids it depends on (empty if none)."
These surface under rules in openspec instructions tasks --json, so the agent writing the tasks artifact is bound by them.
Rules absent, or tasks written without the markers -> stop and say so. Offer to add the rules and re-run the tasks artifact. Guessing which tasks are disjoint is how two agents end up editing one file.
Plan the Wave
Wave = unchecked tasks whose needs: are all complete and whose files: sets are pairwise disjoint. This is multi-agent-dispatch's independence rule, made checkable — the markers do the work you would otherwise be guessing at.
Cap the wave at the pane budget from herdr-dispatch inside Herdr; outside it, cap at what you can brief and verify in one pass. Everything else waits.
Prefer domain and feature boundaries. Never split work that touches one file from two directions — that is a merge conflict authored on purpose.
Brief each worker with: the change name, the exact task text, the files: it owns, the paths it must not touch, and the repo's verify command.
Collect, Verify, Tick
Per finished task, in this order:
- Read the worker's result file.
- Run the repo's verify command yourself —
just check,just lint, the test suite, whatever the repo actually uses. This is a shell command, not an agent. - Green -> tick
- [ ]to- [x]intasks.md. Red -> leave it unticked, report, and do not tick to "keep moving". - Commit via
git-commit.
Tick only after verify passes. The checkbox is the durable progress record — it outlives the session, and a false tick makes the next run skip real work. Never tick a box on a worker's claim alone.
A reviewing agent — spec conformance, second opinion, cross-model check — is just another dispatch. Same contract, same cleanup.
Loop
Wave done -> re-read openspec instructions apply --json. Never trust an in-memory copy; workers mutate tasks.md. Plan the next wave. Repeat until remaining: 0.
All done -> hand off to /opsx:archive. Do not archive from here.
A change that "applies" without commits and then gets archived leaves a spec claiming a feature the working tree has never seen. Commit each wave before starting the next.
Rules
- Planning artifacts are sequential and yours. Only tasks fan out.
- One task per agent.
- Stop rather than guess disjointness.
- Verify before tick, tick before commit, commit before the next wave.
- Re-read the queue between waves.