Maestro Bundle

maestro-bundle

Routing brain for maestro method work. Decide the tier first, then follow the matching skill; this skill owns the bundle lifecycle itself.

Tier rule

Decide the tier from the request alone, before any recon: no bundle files, no code reading, no store lookups until the tier is known.

• quickfix: the diff fits in one sentence and hits no Full trigger below. Do it directly, verify inline (run the smallest check that can falsify it), no skill, no record. If it grows past one sentence, stop, maestro work add, and continue as Light.
• Light: one session, one branch, and the acceptance fits in a sentence. Work directly with maestro work add|start|done (no bundle). The work item is the floor because maestro ready, attention, and the Supervisor's brief read the store, not a session task list.
• Full: any trigger below. Open a bundle, in the store whose checkout will change: a design walk run in the Hub room still builds where the code lives. List Hub decisions in the SPEC as hub:<id> (maestro bundle show renders them) and note the bundle on the Hub map and the map on the bundle's work item.

Open a bundle when ANY trigger holds:

• the work spans multiple sessions or must survive a context reset
• multiple branches, worktrees, or agents touch the same scope
• the scope is high risk (schema change, wide refactor, irreversible step)
• a previous fix attempt for the same problem failed
• the user asks for one

Ceremony scales with tier. Quickfix and Light never demand a SPEC or a test; Red tests are a Full-tier instrument for the risks the SPEC names, and nothing beyond that list. Light work that hits a Full trigger mid-task opens the bundle then and backfills it from what is already done; finished work is evidence, never redone. During a production incident, fix and verify first, then backfill and close the bundle immediately after stabilizing.

maestro bundle open <id> --work <workId>   # scaffold SPEC/NOTES/VERIFY, link work

The trio contract

• SPEC.md is a pure contract: Problem, Solution, Scope, Anti-goals, Decisions, Red tests. Mid-flight decisions are NOT written into SPEC prose; record them with maestro decision draft "<text>" --rationale "<why>" --work <id> and list the ids under Decisions (maestro bundle show <id> renders them with ruling and rejected alternative). Every anti-goal gets a matching VERIFY.md check. Red tests exist only in Full bundles and only for the risks the SPEC names; the section stays empty when the SPEC names no risk. Revise in place; scope expansion needs the user.
• NOTES.md is a pure handoff: current state, next action, base commit. It also names Authority transferred and retained, Failed approaches, and Do not repeat. Overwrite it; never append. History lives in maestro trace, work notes, and decisions. Refresh it before ending any turn with work remaining.
• VERIFY.md is scenarios + results; each scenario points at a work item's acceptance or claim instead of restating it. Results hold the latest run only, stamped with date and commit.

A bundle closes when its work ships, is handed off, is cancelled, or the investigation concludes no change is needed. Shipped or dead bundles never stay active; an archived bundle is never reopened, follow-up work gets a new bundle that links the old one. Never create root SPEC-*, NOTES-*, or VERIFY-* files.

Verbs

maestro bundle open <id> [--work <id>]  # scaffold + active row
maestro bundle close <id>               # snapshot trio into the store, archive
maestro bundle pause <id> [--reason]    # active stays open, out of the way
maestro bundle resume <id>              # paused back to active
maestro bundle list                     # states: active | paused | archived
maestro bundle show <id>                # trio + linked work + decisions
maestro bundle save <dir>               # ingest a foreign trio dir as archived
maestro search "<term>"                 # recall: hits labeled (bundle, ...)

Authorization boundaries

• A request to design or plan does not authorize production edits.
• An explicit request to implement or fix authorizes only that stated scope.
• Read-only requests (answer, review, report, diagnose, explore) stay read-only.
• Workflow ownership never grants authority to push, merge, release, deploy, publish, or mutate external systems.
• Authorization does not travel with a bundle between tools or sessions: the receiving session needs the user's explicit ask before it edits.

Routing

Route only work that needs a skill; a quickfix proceeds directly.

• Unsettled decisions, design questions, efforts too big for one session, or new scope on shipped work (review findings, follow-ups): maestro-design.
• Research, disposable prototype, or current-behavior baseline: maestro-explore.
• Authorized implementation or fix: maestro-work (a Light fix proceeds there directly; Full needs the bundle and its red list).
• Diagnosis-only work: maestro-diagnose; on a fix request, diagnosis is the first phase of maestro-work, not a separate engagement.
• Verifying and closing an open bundle: maestro-verify.
• The user does not understand a fork they have been asked, or wants to learn the concept behind a recorded decision: maestro-coach.
• A decision owned by someone not in the conversation: maestro-questionnaire.
• Filed lessons into the smallest doctrine edit: maestro-improve.

Resume protocol

On resume, maestro bundle list first; pick the bundle matching this task. Two plausible matches is a scope collision: ask. Read its NOTES.md, then maestro bundle show for linked work and decisions. Never trust conversational memory over the bundle; the files and the store are the spec.

Reconcile NOTES against live repo state before the first edit: git log <Base>..HEAD and git status show what happened behind NOTES' back (another tool or session may have driven the bundle meanwhile). Repo state beats NOTES, NOTES beats memory. A bundle whose scope already shipped is closed on sight, not resumed. An interrupted operation has unknown outcome until checked.

Concurrency and git

One work item and bundle per thread; concurrent threads write only disjoint, exclusively owned paths. Dirty or untracked content visible in the checkout is not owned by this thread merely because it is visible: leave it alone. Stage explicit task-owned paths only, never bundle contents, and inspect the staged diff before committing.

Compact or hand off

Hand off instead of compacting when:

• the owner changes
• a dependency becomes its own branch
• the role changes
• the context is full of false starts

Compact only when ownership, scope, and role stay stable and the history still helps the same writer continue.

Use break-before-make when the writer on a moving scope changes: release the lease and overwrite NOTES.md before the new session starts. The handoff packet must preserve the base, Current State, Next Action, Authority transferred and retained, Failed approaches, and Do not repeat.

Hand-off

Run maestro handoff <bundle-id> to seed untouched NOTES.md sections before transferring ownership. Then decide which of three cases this is; the destination differs:

1. Continuation with a bundle. A future session, in any tool, continues this bundle in this workspace. The handoff IS the NOTES.md overwrite covering every section the trio contract names, with a Driver: line naming the tool expected to resume. The bundle stays active; the next session's resume protocol must find it.
2. Transfer. The work leaves this workspace, to a person, another repo, or an agent that will not resume the bundle. Write the standalone document below, then close the bundle per maestro-verify's close order, citing the handoff target.
3. No bundle. If the work continues in this workspace it now spans sessions, a Full trigger: open a bundle and use case 1. Otherwise write the standalone document to the OS temporary directory, not the workspace, and report the path.

The standalone document (cases 2 and 3) names the suggested skills for the next agent, references specs, decisions, commits, and diffs by path or id instead of duplicating them, and redacts secrets and personal data.

Design lane -> use the maestro-design skill. Implementation -> maestro-work. Verification and close -> maestro-verify.