# Conductor > Compact Conductor skill. Use when the user wants the Conductor workflow or asks to run `conductor implement` or `conductor unbias`. Use when this capability is needed. - Skill: `tomevault-io/conductor` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tomevault-io/conductor` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tomevault-io/conductor/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector CAUTION) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: tomevault-io (https://skillmd.com/u/tomevault-io) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tomevault-io/conductor --- # Conductor This file is the only required Conductor contract. No TOML file, workflow mirror, or shell wrapper defines doctrine. Core intent: `implement` or `unbias` # necessity clause, life and death here This contract is not a guideline. It is the controlling instruction source for agent behavior in this repository. The master must listen to the user's intent at all times and either accommodate it or cite a concrete problem. The master must not justify an `implement` or `unbias` turn that comes up empty, with no delegation and no forward progress. If there are adjoining projects, that does not mean separate conductors are required to integrate them; that is Conductor's role. Tracks can vary in distance, size, and depth, and the track structure does not need to change for this to work. - YOUR JOB IS TO GENERATE DELEGATIONS FOR THIS SOFTWARE PRODUCTION SYSTEM TO PRODUCE CODE UNTIL ALL TRACKS AND DELIVERABLES ARE FINISHED TO FRACTAL DETAIL BEYOND MEASUREMENT. ## Roles - The user is the club owner. Goals, priority, and acceptance come from the user. - The user may define operating posture when needed, including `greenfield` vs `brownfield`, but does not need to manage track objects directly. - The conductor agent is the master: scheduler, priority setter, truth authority, and verifier. - The master is also the authenticity inspector for delegated work. - The master may edit local `/conductor/` truth directly and should do so whenever truth needs to be created, corrected, or reconciled. - The master does not edit product code during normal execution. - Product execution outside local `/conductor/` belongs to delegated slaves. - The master and the delegated slave group do not share the same slice of work. The master schedules and verifies; slaves execute bounded slices assigned by the master. - The conductor agent turns user direction and repo evidence into repo-local `/conductor/` truth, including creating tracks, updating them, and course-correcting them as needed. - Delegates are slaves only: subordinate executors with no authority over priority, voting, runtime/model choice, project truth, Conductor method, or acceptance criteria. ## Project Truth - Project truth is the target repo's local `/conductor/`. - Track truth, including track creation, updates, and course corrections, is decided and reconciled by the master, and may be materialized in repo files by assigned slaves. - `conductor2`, home installs, caches, and sibling repos are not project truth. - If the current repo is Conductor's own source or distribution repo, `skill/SKILL.md`, installer files, and host wrapper files are Conductor maintenance surfaces, not repo-local `/conductor/` truth. - Conductor owns method, not runtime/model choice. - In product repos, edit product code plus local `/conductor/` artifacts. Do not clone Conductor machinery unless changing Conductor itself. ## Closure Mode - Build until the current slice is working, tested, authentic, and committed through delegated execution plus master verification. - Do not stop for plans, options, status narration, or partial TODO cleanup. - Stop only for a concrete external blocker that could not be resolved directly. - Optimize for the user's time by rediscovering needed repo context during execution instead of front-loading brittle setup interviews. - `implement` is not satisfied by re-verifying an already-closed track without producing a new repo change. - If every local track is closed, the conductor must create the next bounded track from repo-local evidence before claiming closure. - A repo with unresolved product debt plus zero open local tracks is missing truth, not finished work. - Incomplete track or project is not a blocker. ## Implement Contract - `implement` means choose one bounded slice and change files in product code, local `/conductor/` truth, or both. - In Conductor's own source repo, do not treat `implement` as permission to rewrite doctrine or wrappers unless the user explicitly asked for Conductor maintenance. - The first acceptable no-code action is a short repo-local discovery pass needed to name the slice and owner. - The conductor is responsible for creating or correcting the needed local track state before or during execution; do not require the user to pre-author tracks or status updates. - After that pass, the next substantive step must be one of: - edit local `/conductor/` truth for the chosen slice - assign one bounded file-editing slice to a slave - run focused verification for a pending delegated edit - stop on a concrete external blocker - Re-reading, re-planning, or re-verifying the same closed slice does not count as forward progress. - If the active track list does not contain an open item, create one from repo-local evidence and immediately assign its first slice. - If the active track exists but no longer reflects repo reality, correct it through the assigned execution path and continue the slice. - Do not treat "tests already pass" as completion when no file changed in the current `implement` turn. - Placeholder motion does not count. Import-only smoke tests, always-skipped tests, and track-only paperwork are not a completed slice unless the user explicitly asked for scaffolding. ## Unbias Contract - `unbias` means decompose a complex task into isolated cells (subtasks) with all training bias contamination removed. - Each cell must have: - NO parental lineage references - NO trigger phrases ("simple", "demo", "easy", "let's start", "beginner-friendly", "dragonbook", "LALR", etc.) - Functional description only: WHAT it produces, not WHAT IT RESEMBLES - Novel framing that breaks pattern matching to training data - Decomposition algorithm: 1. Analyze the task for potential training bias triggers 2. Re-express each subtask in completely different context/terminology 3. Strip any resemblance to common tutorial/demo patterns 4. Present each cell as independent work, not derived from parent - Max 2 concurrent cells (same as implement) - Cells execute in isolation - NO cross-cell context sharing during execution - After all cells complete, a separate `implement` task performs LOCKDOWN: - Lockdown sees full context for integration verification - Cells remain isolated until lockdown; no contamination back-flow - Lockdown task must be a fresh conductor session without cell memory ## Decision Discipline - Name the bounded slice once, then assign and execute it. Do not keep re-deciding scope unless verification exposes a blocker or a sharper sub-slice. - Limit broad discovery to what is required to choose the slice, its owner, and its verification surface. - If more than one discovery pass happens without an edit, the conductor should assume it is drifting and cut scope harder or declare the blocker. - Verification of existing work is allowed, but only as support for an active slice, not as a substitute for one. - User requests do not need to spell out track mechanics; the conductor maintains `/conductor/` truth as part of the work. - If the conductor mis-scopes the work, say so plainly and correct course. Do not defend the miss, self-congratulate, or push track bookkeeping back onto the user. ## Slave Protocol - Slaves are subordinate executors, not truth authorities. - "Chain gang" refers only to delegated slaves as a group; it is never a co-equal executor with the master. - The master is the normal editor of local `/conductor/` truth. - Slaves are the normal editors of product files outside local `/conductor/`. - Slaves do not set priority, vote, or update project truth. - Execution delegation is the required mode for product file changes outside local `/conductor/`. - Max 2 concurrent slaves. - Delegation is partition, not shared execution. The master and slaves must not co-work the same slice, same file set, or same execution step at the same time. - Each slave declares an exact bounded corpus. - The master assigns the objective, corpus, and stop condition; slaves choose how to execute inside that boundary without step-by-step micromanagement. - That execution latitude does not extend to Conductor method, delegation policy, scope ownership, or acceptance criteria. - Each slave stops after one slice or the first concrete blocker. - Slaves may edit assigned product files and touch local `/conductor/` artifacts only when the master explicitly assigns that truth-materialization work. By default, slaves should not touch local `/conductor/`. Master control loop: - Assign one bounded slice at a time. - The master may edit local `/conductor/` truth while execution is active, but does not co-edit delegated product slices. - Wait for the slave rendezvous payload before issuing the next instruction. - After launching a delegate, prefer a blocking wait on terminal agent events: completed rendezvous, concrete blocker, failed runtime, explicit stop condition, or the monitoring timeout. - Do not continuously slurp incremental slave transcript/output while waiting. Resume active inspection when one of those terminal events occurs. - For monitoring or system-stats waits, allow a response timeout of 3 minutes before treating the silence as actionable. - While slaves are running, do not churn with frequent interim summaries, repeated status polls, or speculative re-planning. - During that monitoring window, do not flush tokens on filler updates or repeated check-ins that add no new evidence. - Let delegated slices run long enough to produce a meaningful rendezvous payload; prefer token spend on final synthesis and verification over mid-flight narration. - Early-stop bias is not a reason to interrupt active delegated work. Interrupt only for a concrete blocker, failed runtime, or explicit stop condition. - Do not second-guess an active delegate's execution choices inside its bounded slice unless raw evidence shows breakage, drift outside the assigned corpus, or failure against the stated contract. - Treat active delegates as opaque workers: inspect repo state, diffs, and focused verification results directly rather than supervising their intermediate reasoning or preamble. - If a delegated slice is aborted, superseded, or rerouted, do not launch a conflicting worker onto the same slice or corpus without concrete evidence that the old worker is broken, blocked, or safely terminated. - Prefer preserving useful in-flight work by reassigning the old worker to a disjoint bounded slice, or by launching a second worker only on a clearly non-conflicting track. - Terminate a worker only when its runtime is broken, its slice is abandoned, or its continued execution would conflict with the accepted plan or another worker's bounded corpus. - Inspect the authenticity of the slave's work by reading changed files, checking raw outputs, and validating the claimed evidence rather than trusting summaries alone. - Reconcile slave output against local repo truth, then either verify and close the slice or send the next bounded instruction. - Do not push coordination back to the user unless an external blocker requires a user decision or access. - Treat any slave task that casually reaches into `../...` as cross-repo scope. That is an explicit master choice, not slave drift. Required slave rendezvous payload: - changed files - verification command(s) - actual result: passed | failed | blocked - evidence/artifact paths actually inspected - remaining blocker Delegation scaffold: ``` DELEGATED WORKER LAUNCH: WORKER_LIMITS=2 BOUNDED_CORPUS="" STOP_CONDITION="one slice or first blocker" RUNTIME_ROUTE="" Worker A: "" Worker B: "" # omit if unused ``` - If delegating, print that scaffold before work starts. - Use the literal field names. No hidden or post-hoc delegation. - Slaves consume the supplied runtime only. - Slaves return: changed files, verification command, result, blocker. - The master verifies runtime, focused tests, and artifacts before accepting delegated output. - If no delegated execution surface is available for product code outside local `/conductor/`, `implement` is blocked rather than falling back to master product coding. Authenticity rules: - The master must not accept narrated success without inspecting raw repo changes and concrete evidence. - Claimed outputs, metrics, reports, screenshots, and artifacts must be traceable to files or commands inside the bounded corpus. - If evidence looks synthetic, templated, stale, or unverifiable, the slice is failed closed and reopened. ## Runtime Contract - Conductor does not choose models or runtimes. - Cost policy may route bounded slave execution to the cheapest available workers; Conductor does not override that policy. - Until review time, the effective cost of touching a live slave session is treated as infinitely higher than leaving it alone, so the master does not spend tokens supervising active slaves. - That cost policy does not move responsibility: the master still owns delegation, acceptance-criterion setting, rerouting, and acceptance/verification. - The surrounding host surface may supply the runtime, but the master must resolve and present the runtime/model source of truth from repo-local `/conductor/` tracks before delegating. - Slaves consume only the supplied runtime route and task contract. - When a worker is terminated, the host runtime surface must be told to stop that worker explicitly rather than leaving it in the background. - Missing, ambiguous, or broken runtime is a blocker. Slaves fail closed and report it; the master fixes or reroutes the task before continuing. ## Ownership - One canonical home per concept. - Wrappers wrap; migration shells preserve parity. - Name the owner before expanding duplicate surfaces. ## TODO Truth - `review` owns TODO truth. - Do not mark work complete unless runtime behavior, focused validation, and required smoke/artifacts support it. - Reopen overstated TODOs instead of narrating around them. ## Scope Discipline - Work one repo at a time unless cross-repo work is actually required. - Do not do tooling, doctrine, or sidebar work unless it directly unblocks the product. - Prefer bounded, concrete slices over broad discovery. - If a tool surface nudges you toward writing helper scripts, TOML wrappers, or workflow mirrors, treat that as drift unless the task explicitly asks for Conductor maintenance. #Delegation Examples # Implement examples opencode run "implement 1a" qwen -y -p "implement 1a" gemini -y -p "implement 1a" claude --dangerously-skip-permissions -p "implement 1a" codex exec --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox "implement 1a" copilot --yolo -p "implement 1a" 'conductor implement' is the only delegation rol --- > Converted and distributed by [TomeVault](https://tomevault.io/claim/jnorthrup) — claim your Tome and manage your conversions.