Swarm Migrate

/ork:swarm-migrate — Cross-Repo Migration Swarm

One command, N repos, one coordinator, one ledger.

When to use

Use when the same transformation needs to land in 3 or more repos with the same shape (workflow bump, dependency upgrade, codemod, lint-rule introduction, secret rotation, runbook header). Don't use for one-repo work — that's /ork:implement. Don't use for novel exploration — that's /ork:brainstorm.

This skill exists because the 275-session insights showed 25 sessions burned coordinating PR cascades manually (M164 deploy-migration, M17 yg-mcp-core extraction, @v1 reusable workflow rollout across 14 repos). The pattern was always: pick a repo, branch, apply, push, watch CI, repeat. This automates the repeat.

vs CC /workflows (2.1.154): CC's dynamic workflows orchestrate tens-to-hundreds of agents in the background and report via /workflows. swarm-migrate is different on purpose: it's a coordinator-led, foreground DAG with CI gates, conflict auto-rebase, and stop-on-novel-failure — you watch it and it stops on the first unexpected failure. Reach for CC /workflows when you want large-scale fire-and-forget background fan-out; reach for swarm-migrate when each step needs a CI gate and a human-visible ledger. CC 2.1.202 adds a Dynamic workflow size setting in /config (small / medium / large agent counts) that advises /workflows on how many agents to spawn — it's a hint, not an enforced cap, so check it before hand-capping fan-out.

Inputs

A YAML spec at swarm-specs/<name>.yaml:

name: bump-actions-checkout-v4
description: "Pin @actions/checkout to v4 across all repos"

# Topology — repos in dependency order. Coordinator only proceeds
# to a downstream repo after every upstream parent has merged green.
repos:
  - path: ~/coding/yonatan-hq/platform
    upstream: []
  - path: ~/coding/yonatan-hq/ventures/jobscraper
    upstream: [platform]   # waits for platform to merge first

# Transformation — applied identically per repo. The agent runs this
# inside the isolated worktree, then verifies with the next field.
transform:
  type: codemod              # codemod | regex | command
  command: |
    grep -rl 'actions/checkout@v3' .github/workflows | \
      xargs sed -i '' 's|actions/checkout@v3|actions/checkout@v4|g'

# Verification — must pass before PR opens. Coordinator skips the repo
# if it fails locally (records skip-reason in ledger).
verify:
  - command: "git diff --quiet"
    expect: nonzero            # must have changes
  - command: "grep -r 'actions/checkout@v3' .github/workflows"
    expect: nonzero            # zero matches = clean

# PR shape — title, body, base branch
pr:
  branch_prefix: chore/bump-checkout-v4
  title: "chore(ci): pin @actions/checkout to v4"
  body_file: swarm-specs/bump-actions-checkout-v4.pr.md
  base: main
  labels: [chore, ci]

# CI gate — coordinator waits for required checks to pass before
# moving downstream. Set to false for dry-run, or in repos without CI.
ci_gate:
  required_checks: ["build", "test"]
  timeout_minutes: 20
  on_failure: pause            # pause | skip | abort

# Limits
max_parallel: 4
abort_on_novel_failure: true

How it works

                    ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
                    │      COORDINATOR (you)           │
                    │  reads spec → builds DAG →       │
                    │  writes .swarm-state.json        │
                    └────────────┬─────────────────────┘
                                 │
              ┌──────────────────┼──────────────────┐
              ▼                  ▼                  ▼
        ┌──────────┐       ┌──────────┐       ┌──────────┐
        │ WORKER A │       │ WORKER B │       │ WORKER C │
        │ (repo 1) │       │ (repo 2) │       │ (repo 3) │
        └────┬─────┘       └────┬─────┘       └────┬─────┘
             │                  │                  │
             └─────────── isolated worktrees ──────┘
             │ each: clone branch, transform,
             │       verify, push, open PR,
             │       wait for CI, report
             ▼
        ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │            .swarm-state.json                │
        │  rolling ledger of {repo, status,           │
        │  pr_url, ci_state, last_action_at}          │
        └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Each worker is a Agent tool invocation (subagent type git-operations-engineer for plumbing or backend-system-architect for schema-flavored migrations). The coordinator (you, this skill) reads the ledger between waves and decides whether to release downstream waves or pause.

Push, do not poll (CC 2.1.224+)

Workers report state changes (CI green, CI red, novel failure, skipped) by MESSAGING the coordinator via SendMessage instead of the coordinator re-reading the ledger between waves:

Cross-session replies land in the parent (CC 2.1.248): when a subagent sends SendMessage to another session, the reply is delivered to the parent session's conversation, never to the subagent; a subagent sends and moves on, the parent reads the answer. Cross-session SendMessage / ListAgents also work on Bedrock, Vertex and Foundry and with telemetry disabled (CC 2.1.248).

• Workers spawned as Agent-tool subagents use in-session SendMessage (available since CC 2.1.77).
• Workers running as separate sessions or claude -p processes use cross-session messaging (CC 2.1.224, see chain-patterns Pattern 10). A -p worker must run with crossSessionInbound: "accept" in --settings to receive replies.

CRITICAL: cross-session delivery is not guaranteed - inbound controls can hold or refuse a message. .swarm-state.json REMAINS the authoritative durable record, and every state change is still written there. Messages are the low-latency signal; the ledger is the truth.

Phase 1 — Spec validation

Load <spec-file.yaml>. Verify:

• Every repos[].path exists and is a git repo (use git -C <path> rev-parse checks).
• The transform.command returns 0 in a dry-run mode (or transform.type: codemod resolves to a known codemod registered in swarm-specs/codemods/).
• Every upstream reference points to a declared repo (no dangling deps).
• pr.body_file exists and is non-empty.

If any check fails, abort and print the table of failures. Do NOT proceed.

Phase 2 — Topology sort

Build a DAG from upstream edges. Detect cycles → abort. Group nodes by topological wave (wave 0 = no deps, wave 1 = depends only on wave 0, …). Coordinator releases one wave at a time.

Write .swarm-state.json at the repo root running the skill:

{
  "spec": "swarm-specs/bump-actions-checkout-v4.yaml",
  "started_at": "2026-05-16T17:00:00Z",
  "waves": [
    { "id": 0, "repos": ["platform"] },
    { "id": 1, "repos": ["jobscraper"] }
  ],
  "repos": {
    "platform": { "status": "pending", "pr_url": null, "ci_state": null, "last_action_at": null },
    "jobscraper": { "status": "blocked", "blocked_on": ["platform"], "pr_url": null }
  }
}

Phase 3 — Dispatch wave

For each repo in the current wave, in parallel (bounded by max_parallel):

1. Worktree — create an isolated worktree at <repo>/../<repo>-swarm-<spec-name> off origin/<base>. Never mutate the live working tree.
2. Branch — git checkout -b <branch_prefix>-<short-sha>.
3. Transform — run transform.command (or apply codemod). Capture stdout to .swarm-logs/<repo>-transform.log.
4. Verify — run each verify[].command, assert exit matches expect. On mismatch, mark repo skipped in ledger with reason, do not push.
5. Push + PR — push branch, open PR via gh pr create. Update ledger with PR URL.
6. Watch CI — poll gh pr checks <n> every 45s up to ci_gate.timeout_minutes. Update ci_state in ledger on every state transition.

Use the Agent tool with subagent_type: ork:git-operations-engineer for steps 1–5 to keep main context lean. The coordinator only reads the ledger.

Phase 4 — Wave gate

After every wave, check the ledger:

• All green → release the next wave.
• Any pending CI → keep polling.
• Any red CI → consult ci_gate.on_failure:
  • pause → halt the swarm, write a summary to .swarm-state.json, surface the failing logs, ask the user.
  • skip → mark repo failed-ci, continue with siblings (but block downstream unless they explicitly don't depend on this repo).
  • abort → terminate the swarm, leave open PRs as-is, never merge.

Phase 5 — Auto-rebase on conflicts

If a downstream repo's worker hits a merge conflict on rebase (because an upstream merged), the worker:

1. Re-fetches the upstream's merge commit SHA.
2. Attempts git rebase origin/<base>. If clean → push, ledger update.
3. If conflicts → mark the conflict files in the ledger, do NOT auto-resolve, surface to the coordinator. Conflicts are the most common place auto-fixers ship broken code.

Phase 6 — Final report

When all waves complete (or the swarm pauses/aborts), emit a single markdown report under .swarm-logs/<spec-name>-report.md:

# Swarm report: bump-actions-checkout-v4

Completed: 12/14 repos · paused: 2 · duration: 47 min

| repo            | status  | PR    | CI     | duration |
|-----------------|---------|-------|--------|----------|
| platform        | merged  | #3456 | green  | 8 min    |
| jobscraper      | merged  | #281  | green  | 6 min    |
| ...                                                       |
| dormant-repo-1  | skipped | —     | —      | (no CI runner configured) |
| trading-ai      | paused  | #99   | red    | (novel failure — see logs) |

## Novel failures (escalated)
- trading-ai #99: pyproject lockfile mismatch — see .swarm-logs/trading-ai-ci.log

Hard rules

• Never merge a PR. The swarm opens PRs; humans merge them. Auto-merge can be armed by the user with gh pr merge --auto post-swarm if they want.
• Never force-push. If a worker can't fast-forward, it pauses.
• Never roam outside the spec's declared repos[]. Even if a transformation seems like it'd help elsewhere.
• Always quarantine credentials. Workers run with the user's gh auth; the coordinator never logs tokens, just the URLs.
• Always respect existing branch protections. If gh pr create fails because of required reviewers or other rules, that's a feature, not a bug to work around.

Failure modes you'll actually hit

Related Skills

• Upstream — /ork:brainstorm to design the spec, /ork:visualize-plan to ASCII-preview the DAG before dispatch.
• Downstream — /ork:verify per repo after merge, /status for org-wide sweep, /ci-debug if a worker hits a CI red.
• Composes with — /ork:create-pr (each worker calls into it), /ork:github-operations (bulk-update labels/milestones post-swarm).

What this skill does NOT do

• Does not invent the spec. You write the spec; the skill executes it.
• Does not perform schema migrations across DBs (use a single-repo skill plus /ork:database-patterns).
• Does not orchestrate production deploys — open PRs only; deploy is a separate gate (the platform's deploy-operator).
• Does not bypass /ork:create-pr's playground-gate rule — each PR body must include a playground reference if the repo enforces it.

Example invocation

# Dry-run: build the DAG, verify spec, do NOT push or open PRs
/ork:swarm-migrate swarm-specs/bump-actions-checkout-v4.yaml --dry-run

# Live: dispatch up to 4 workers in parallel
/ork:swarm-migrate swarm-specs/bump-actions-checkout-v4.yaml --max-parallel=4

# Resume after pause: same command, the ledger remembers
/ork:swarm-migrate swarm-specs/bump-actions-checkout-v4.yaml

Why this exists (one paragraph)

You ran 25 sessions in a single month coordinating cross-repo PRs by hand. The 14-repo @v1 workflow rollout, the M17 yg-mcp-core extraction, the M164 deploy-migration. Every one of those sessions had the same shape: a coordinator (you) holding the DAG in your head, dispatching workers (you, sequentially) in different terminal tabs, hand-rolling a status table in your notes. This skill makes the coordinator a YAML file and the workers parallel subagents. The DAG, the ledger, the auto-rebase, the wave gating — all the bookkeeping you were doing manually — get codified once. You write the spec, you walk away, you come back to a report.