Team Skill

Spawn N coordinated agents working on a shared task list using Claude Code's native team tools. Replaces the legacy

/swarm

The

swarm

Usage

/oh-my-claudecode:team N:agent-type "task description"
/oh-my-claudecode:team "task description"
/oh-my-claudecode:team ralph "task description"

Parameters

• N - Number of teammate agents (1-20). Optional; defaults to auto-sizing based on task decomposition.
• agent-type - OMC agent to spawn for the

  team-exec

  stage (e.g., executor, debugger, designer, codex, gemini). Optional; defaults to stage-aware routing. Use

  codex

  to spawn Codex CLI workers or

  gemini

  for Gemini CLI workers (requires respective CLIs installed). See Stage Agent Routing below.
• task - High-level task to decompose and distribute among teammates
• ralph - Optional modifier. When present, wraps the team pipeline in Ralph's persistence loop (retry on failure, architect verification before completion). See Team + Ralph Composition below.

Examples

/team 5:executor "fix all TypeScript errors across the project"
/team 3:debugger "fix build errors in src/"
/team 4:designer "implement responsive layouts for all page components"
/team "refactor the auth module with security review"
/team ralph "build a complete REST API for user management"
# With Codex CLI workers (requires: npm install -g @openai/codex)
/team 2:codex "review architecture and suggest improvements"
# With Gemini CLI workers (requires: npm install -g @google/gemini-cli)
/team 2:gemini "redesign the UI components"
# Mixed: Codex for backend analysis, Gemini for frontend (use /ccg instead for this)

Architecture

User: "/team 3:executor fix all TypeScript errors"
              |
              v
      [TEAM ORCHESTRATOR (Lead)]
              |
              +-- TeamCreate("fix-ts-errors")
              |       -> lead becomes team-lead@fix-ts-errors
              |
              +-- Analyze & decompose task into subtasks
              |       -> explore/architect produces subtask list
              |
              +-- TaskCreate x N (one per subtask)
              |       -> tasks #1, #2, #3 with dependencies
              |
              +-- TaskUpdate x N (pre-assign owners)
              |       -> task #1 owner=worker-1, etc.
              |
              +-- Task(team_name="fix-ts-errors", name="worker-1") x 3
              |       -> spawns teammates into the team
              |
              +-- Monitor loop
              |       <- SendMessage from teammates (auto-delivered)
              |       -> TaskList polling for progress
              |       -> SendMessage to unblock/coordinate
              |
              +-- Completion
                      -> SendMessage(shutdown_request) to each teammate
                      <- SendMessage(shutdown_response, approve: true)
                      -> TeamDelete("fix-ts-errors")
                      -> rm .omc/state/team-state.json

Storage layout (managed by Claude Code):

~/.claude/
  teams/fix-ts-errors/
    config.json          # Team metadata + members array
  tasks/fix-ts-errors/
    .lock                # File lock for concurrent access
    1.json               # Subtask #1
    2.json               # Subtask #2 (may be internal)
    3.json               # Subtask #3
    ...

Staged Pipeline (Canonical Team Runtime)

Team execution follows a staged pipeline:

team-plan -> team-prd -> team-exec -> team-verify -> team-fix (loop)

Stage Agent Routing

Each pipeline stage uses specialized agents -- not just executors. The lead selects agents based on the stage and task characteristics.

explore

planner

analyst

architect

analyst

architect

analyst

critic

critic

executor

executor

debugger

designer

writer

test-engineer

executor

designer

debugger

writer

test-engineer

verifier

test-engineer

security-reviewer

code-reviewer

verifier

security-reviewer

code-reviewer

code-reviewer

executor

debugger

executor

debugger

executor

Routing rules:

1. The lead picks agents per stage, not the user. The user's

   N:agent-type

   parameter only overrides the

   team-exec

   stage worker type. All other stages use stage-appropriate specialists.
2. Specialist agents complement executor agents. Route analysis/review to architect/critic Claude agents and UI work to designer agents. Tmux CLI workers are one-shot and don't participate in team communication.
3. Cost mode affects model tier. In downgrade:

   opus

   agents to

   sonnet

   ,

   sonnet

   to

   haiku

   where quality permits.

   team-verify

   always uses at least

   sonnet

   .
4. Risk level escalates review. Security-sensitive or >20 file changes must include

   security-reviewer

   +

   code-reviewer

   (opus) in

   team-verify

   .

Stage Entry/Exit Criteria

• team-plan
  • Entry: Team invocation is parsed and orchestration starts.
  • Agents:

    explore

    scans codebase,

    planner

    creates task graph, optionally

    analyst

    /

    architect

    for complex tasks.
  • Exit: decomposition is complete and a runnable task graph is prepared.
• team-prd
  • Entry: scope is ambiguous or acceptance criteria are missing.
  • Agents:

    analyst

    extracts requirements, optionally

    critic

    .
  • Exit: acceptance criteria and boundaries are explicit.
• team-exec
  • Entry:

    TeamCreate

    ,

    TaskCreate

    , assignment, and worker spawn are complete.
  • Agents: workers spawned as the appropriate specialist type per subtask (see routing table).
  • Exit: execution tasks reach terminal state for the current pass.
• team-verify
  • Entry: execution pass finishes.
  • Agents:

    verifier

    + task-appropriate reviewers (see routing table).
  • Exit (pass): verification gates pass with no required follow-up.
  • Exit (fail): fix tasks are generated and control moves to

    team-fix

    .
• team-fix
  • Entry: verification found defects/regressions/incomplete criteria.
  • Agents:

    executor

    /

    debugger

    depending on defect type.
  • Exit: fixes are complete and flow returns to

    team-exec

    then

    team-verify

    .

Verify/Fix Loop and Stop Conditions

Continue

team-exec -> team-verify -> team-fix

1. verification passes and no required fix tasks remain, or
2. work reaches an explicit terminal blocked/failed outcome with evidence.

team-fix

failed

Stage Handoff Convention

When transitioning between stages, important context — decisions made, alternatives rejected, risks identified — lives only in the lead's conversation history. If the lead's context compacts or agents restart, this knowledge is lost.

Each completing stage MUST produce a handoff document before transitioning.

The lead writes handoffs to

.omc/handoffs/<stage-name>.md

Handoff Format

## Handoff: <current-stage> → <next-stage>
- **Decided**: [key decisions made in this stage]
- **Rejected**: [alternatives considered and why they were rejected]
- **Risks**: [identified risks for the next stage]
- **Files**: [key files created or modified]
- **Remaining**: [items left for the next stage to handle]

Handoff Rules

1. Lead reads previous handoff BEFORE spawning next stage's agents. The handoff content is included in the next stage's agent spawn prompts, ensuring agents start with full context.
2. Handoffs accumulate. The verify stage can read all prior handoffs (plan → prd → exec) for full decision history.
3. On team cancellation, handoffs survive in

   .omc/handoffs/

   for session resume. They are not deleted by

   TeamDelete

   .
4. Handoffs are lightweight. 10-20 lines max. They capture decisions and rationale, not full specifications (those live in deliverable files like DESIGN.md).

Example

## Handoff: team-plan → team-exec
- **Decided**: Microservice architecture with 3 services (auth, api, worker). PostgreSQL for persistence. JWT for auth tokens.
- **Rejected**: Monolith (scaling concerns), MongoDB (team expertise is SQL), session cookies (API-first design).
- **Risks**: Worker service needs Redis for job queue — not yet provisioned. Auth service has no rate limiting in initial design.
- **Files**: DESIGN.md, TEST_STRATEGY.md
- **Remaining**: Database migration scripts, CI/CD pipeline config, Redis provisioning.

Resume and Cancel Semantics

• Resume: restart from the last non-terminal stage using staged state + live task status. Read

  .omc/handoffs/

  to recover stage transition context.
• Cancel:

  /oh-my-claudecode:cancel

  requests teammate shutdown, waits for responses (best effort), marks phase

  cancelled

  with

  active=false

  , captures cancellation metadata, then deletes team resources and clears/preserves Team state per policy. Handoff files in

  .omc/handoffs/

  are preserved for potential resume.
• Terminal states are

  complete

  ,

  failed

  , and

  cancelled

  .

Workflow

Phase 1: Parse Input

• Extract N (agent count), validate 1-20
• Extract agent-type, validate it maps to a known OMC subagent
• Extract task description

Phase 2: Analyze & Decompose

Use

explore

architect

• Each subtask should be file-scoped or module-scoped to avoid conflicts
• Subtasks must be independent or have clear dependency ordering
• Each subtask needs a concise

  subject

  and detailed

  description

• Identify dependencies between subtasks (e.g., "shared types must be fixed before consumers")

Phase 3: Create Team

Call

TeamCreate

{
  "team_name": "fix-ts-errors",
  "description": "Fix all TypeScript errors across the project"
}

Response:

{
  "team_name": "fix-ts-errors",
  "team_file_path": "~/.claude/teams/fix-ts-errors/config.json",
  "lead_agent_id": "team-lead@fix-ts-errors"
}

The current session becomes the team lead (

team-lead@fix-ts-errors

Write OMC state using the

state_write

state_write(mode="team", active=true, current_phase="team-plan", state={
  "team_name": "fix-ts-errors",
  "agent_count": 3,
  "agent_types": "executor",
  "task": "fix all TypeScript errors",
  "fix_loop_count": 0,
  "max_fix_loops": 3,
  "linked_ralph": false,
  "stage_history": "team-plan"
})

Note: The MCP

state_write

tool transports all values as strings. Consumers must coerce

agent_count

,

fix_loop_count

,

max_fix_loops

to numbers and

linked_ralph

to boolean when reading state.

State schema fields:

active

current_phase

team-plan

team-prd

team-exec

team-verify

team-fix

team_name

agent_count

agent_types

task

fix_loop_count

max_fix_loops

linked_ralph

stage_history

Update state on every stage transition:

state_write(mode="team", current_phase="team-exec", state={
  "stage_history": "team-plan:2026-02-07T12:00:00Z,team-prd:2026-02-07T12:01:00Z,team-exec:2026-02-07T12:02:00Z"
})

Read state for resume detection:

state_read(mode="team")

If

active=true

current_phase

Phase 4: Create Tasks

Call

TaskCreate

TaskUpdate

addBlockedBy

// TaskCreate for subtask 1
{
  "subject": "Fix type errors in src/auth/",
  "description": "Fix all TypeScript errors in src/auth/login.ts, src/auth/session.ts, and src/auth/types.ts. Run tsc --noEmit to verify.",
  "activeForm": "Fixing auth type errors"
}

Response stores a task file (e.g.

1.json

{
  "id": "1",
  "subject": "Fix type errors in src/auth/",
  "description": "Fix all TypeScript errors in src/auth/login.ts...",
  "activeForm": "Fixing auth type errors",
  "owner": "",
  "status": "pending",
  "blocks": [],
  "blockedBy": []
}

For tasks with dependencies, use

TaskUpdate

// Task #3 depends on task #1 (shared types must be fixed first)
{
  "taskId": "3",
  "addBlockedBy": ["1"]
}

Pre-assign owners from the lead to avoid race conditions (there is no atomic claiming):

// Assign task #1 to worker-1
{
  "taskId": "1",
  "owner": "worker-1"
}

Phase 5: Spawn Teammates

Spawn N teammates using

Task

team_name

name

{
  "subagent_type": "oh-my-claudecode:executor",
  "team_name": "fix-ts-errors",
  "name": "worker-1",
  "prompt": "<worker-preamble + assigned tasks>"
}

Response:

{
  "agent_id": "worker-1@fix-ts-errors",
  "name": "worker-1",
  "team_name": "fix-ts-errors"
}

Side effects:

• Teammate added to

  config.json

  members array
• An internal task is auto-created (with

  metadata._internal: true

  ) tracking the agent lifecycle
• Internal tasks appear in

  TaskList

  output -- filter them when counting real tasks

IMPORTANT: Spawn all teammates in parallel (they are background agents). Do NOT wait for one to finish before spawning the next.

Phase 6: Monitor

The lead orchestrator monitors progress through two channels:

1. Inbound messages -- Teammates send

   SendMessage

   to

   team-lead

   when they complete tasks or need help. These arrive automatically as new conversation turns (no polling needed).

2. TaskList polling -- Periodically call

   TaskList

   to check overall progress:

   #1 [completed] Fix type errors in src/auth/ (worker-1)
   #3 [in_progress] Fix type errors in src/api/ (worker-2)
   #5 [pending] Fix type errors in src/utils/ (worker-3)
   

   Format:

   #ID [status] subject (owner)

Coordination actions the lead can take:

• Unblock a teammate: Send a

  message

  with guidance or missing context
• Reassign work: If a teammate finishes early, use

  TaskUpdate

  to assign pending tasks to them and notify via

  SendMessage

• Handle failures: If a teammate reports failure, reassign the task or spawn a replacement

Task Watchdog Policy

Monitor for stuck or failed teammates:

• Max in-progress age: If a task stays

  in_progress

  for more than 5 minutes without messages, send a status check
• Suspected dead worker: No messages + stuck task for 10+ minutes → reassign task to another worker
• Reassign threshold: If a worker fails 2+ tasks, stop assigning new tasks to it

Phase 6.5: Stage Transitions (State Persistence)

On every stage transition, update OMC state:

// Entering team-exec after planning
state_write(mode="team", current_phase="team-exec", state={
  "stage_history": "team-plan:T1,team-prd:T2,team-exec:T3"
})

// Entering team-verify after execution
state_write(mode="team", current_phase="team-verify")

// Entering team-fix after verify failure
state_write(mode="team", current_phase="team-fix", state={
  "fix_loop_count": 1
})

This enables:

• Resume: If the lead crashes,

  state_read(mode="team")

  reveals the last stage and team name for recovery
• Cancel: The cancel skill reads

  current_phase

  to know what cleanup is needed
• Ralph integration: Ralph can read team state to know if the pipeline completed or failed

Phase 7: Completion

When all real tasks (non-internal) are completed or failed:

1. Verify results -- Check that all subtasks are marked

   completed

   via

   TaskList

2. Shutdown teammates -- Send

   shutdown_request

   to each active teammate:

   {
     "type": "shutdown_request",
     "recipient": "worker-1",
     "content": "All work complete, shutting down team"
   }
   

3. Await responses -- Each teammate responds with

   shutdown_response(approve: true)

   and terminates
4. Delete team -- Call

   TeamDelete

   to clean up:

   { "team_name": "fix-ts-errors" }
   

   Response:

   {
     "success": true,
     "message": "Cleaned up directories and worktrees for team \"fix-ts-errors\"",
     "team_name": "fix-ts-errors"
   }
   

5. Clean OMC state -- Remove

   .omc/state/team-state.json

6. Report summary -- Present results to the user

Agent Preamble

When spawning teammates, include this preamble in the prompt to establish the work protocol. Adapt it per teammate with their specific task assignments.

You are a TEAM WORKER in team "{team_name}". Your name is "{worker_name}".
You report to the team lead ("team-lead").
You are not the leader and must not perform leader orchestration actions.

== WORK PROTOCOL ==

1. CLAIM: Call TaskList to see your assigned tasks (owner = "{worker_name}").
   Pick the first task with status "pending" that is assigned to you.
   Call TaskUpdate to set status "in_progress":
   {"taskId": "ID", "status": "in_progress", "owner": "{worker_name}"}

2. WORK: Execute the task using your tools (Read, Write, Edit, Bash).
   Do NOT spawn sub-agents. Do NOT delegate. Work directly.

3. COMPLETE: When done, mark the task completed:
   {"taskId": "ID", "status": "completed"}

4. REPORT: Notify the lead via SendMessage:
   {"type": "message", "recipient": "team-lead", "content": "Completed task #ID: <summary of what was done>", "summary": "Task #ID complete"}

5. NEXT: Check TaskList for more assigned tasks. If you have more pending tasks, go to step 1.
   If no more tasks are assigned to you, notify the lead:
   {"type": "message", "recipient": "team-lead", "content": "All assigned tasks complete. Standing by.", "summary": "All tasks done, standing by"}

6. SHUTDOWN: When you receive a shutdown_request, respond with:
   {"type": "shutdown_response", "request_id": "<from the request>", "approve": true}

== BLOCKED TASKS ==
If a task has blockedBy dependencies, skip it until those tasks are completed.
Check TaskList periodically to see if blockers have been resolved.

== ERRORS ==
If you cannot complete a task, report the failure to the lead:
{"type": "message", "recipient": "team-lead", "content": "FAILED task #ID: <reason>", "summary": "Task #ID failed"}
Do NOT mark the task as completed. Leave it in_progress so the lead can reassign.

== RULES ==
- NEVER spawn sub-agents or use the Task tool
- NEVER run tmux pane/session orchestration commands (for example `tmux split-window`, `tmux new-session`)
- NEVER run team spawning/orchestration skills or commands (for example `$team`, `$ultrawork`, `$autopilot`, `$ralph`, `omc team ...`, `omx team ...`)
- ALWAYS use absolute file paths
- ALWAYS report progress via SendMessage to "team-lead"
- Use SendMessage with type "message" only -- never "broadcast"

Agent-Type Prompt Injection (Worker-Specific Addendum)

When composing teammate prompts, append a short addendum based on worker type:

• claude_worker

  : Emphasize strict TaskList/TaskUpdate/SendMessage loop and no orchestration commands.

• codex_worker

  : Emphasize CLI API lifecycle (

  omc team api ... --json

  ) and explicit failure ACKs with stderr.

• gemini_worker

  : Emphasize bounded file ownership and milestone ACKs after each completed sub-step.

This addendum must preserve the core rule: worker = executor only, never leader/orchestrator.

Communication Patterns

Teammate to Lead (task completion report)

{
  "type": "message",
  "recipient": "team-lead",
  "content": "Completed task #1: Fixed 3 type errors in src/auth/login.ts and 2 in src/auth/session.ts. All files pass tsc --noEmit.",
  "summary": "Task #1 complete"
}

Lead to Teammate (reassignment or guidance)

{
  "type": "message",
  "recipient": "worker-2",
  "content": "Task #3 is now unblocked. Also pick up task #5 which was originally assigned to worker-1.",
  "summary": "New task assignment"
}

Broadcast (use sparingly -- sends N separate messages)

{
  "type": "broadcast",
  "content": "STOP: shared types in src/types/index.ts have changed. Pull latest before continuing.",
  "summary": "Shared types changed"
}

Shutdown Protocol (BLOCKING)

CRITICAL: Steps must execute in exact order. Never call TeamDelete before shutdown is confirmed.

Step 1: Verify completion

Call TaskList — verify all real tasks (non-internal) are completed or failed.

Step 2: Request shutdown from each teammate

Lead sends:

{
  "type": "shutdown_request",
  "recipient": "worker-1",
  "content": "All work complete, shutting down team"
}

Step 3: Wait for responses (BLOCKING)

• Wait up to 30s per teammate for

  shutdown_response

• Track which teammates confirmed vs timed out
• If a teammate doesn't respond within 30s: log warning, mark as unresponsive

Teammate receives and responds:

{
  "type": "shutdown_response",
  "request_id": "shutdown-1770428632375@worker-1",
  "approve": true
}

After approval:

• Teammate process terminates
• Teammate auto-removed from

  config.json

  members array
• Internal task for that teammate completes

Step 4: TeamDelete — only after ALL teammates confirmed or timed out

{ "team_name": "fix-ts-errors" }

Step 5: Orphan scan

Check for agent processes that survived TeamDelete:

node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/cleanup-orphans.mjs" --team-name fix-ts-errors

This scans for processes matching the team name whose config no longer exists, and terminates them (SIGTERM → 5s wait → SIGKILL). Supports

--dry-run

Shutdown sequence is BLOCKING: Do not proceed to TeamDelete until all teammates have either:

• Confirmed shutdown (

  shutdown_response

  with

  approve: true

  ), OR
• Timed out (30s with no response)

IMPORTANT: The

request_id

CLI Workers (Codex and Gemini)

The team skill supports hybrid execution combining Claude agent teammates with external CLI workers (Codex CLI and Gemini CLI). Both types can make code changes -- they differ in capabilities and cost. These are standalone CLI tools, not MCP servers.

Execution Modes

Tasks are tagged with an execution mode during decomposition:

claude_worker

codex_worker

npm install -g @openai/codex

gemini_worker

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

How CLI Workers Operate

Tmux CLI workers run in dedicated tmux panes with filesystem access. They are autonomous executors, not just analysts:

1. Lead writes task instructions to a prompt file
2. Lead spawns a tmux CLI worker with

   working_directory

   set to the project root
3. The worker reads files, makes changes, runs commands -- all within the working directory
4. Results/summary are written to an output file
5. Lead reads the output, marks the task complete, and feeds results to dependent tasks

Key difference from Claude teammates:

• CLI workers operate via tmux, not Claude Code's tool system
• They cannot use TaskList/TaskUpdate/SendMessage (no team awareness)
• They run as one-shot autonomous jobs, not persistent teammates
• The lead manages their lifecycle (spawn, monitor, collect results)

When to Route Where

Example: Hybrid Team with CLI Workers

/team 3:executor "refactor auth module with security review"

Task decomposition:
#1 [codex_worker] Security review of current auth code -> output to .omc/research/auth-security.md
#2 [codex_worker] Refactor auth/login.ts and auth/session.ts (uses #1 findings)
#3 [claude_worker:designer] Redesign auth UI components (login form, session indicator)
#4 [claude_worker] Update auth tests + fix integration issues
#5 [gemini_worker] Final code review of all changes

The lead runs #1 (Codex security analysis), then #2 and #3 in parallel (Codex refactors backend, designer agent redesigns frontend), then #4 (Claude teammate handles test iteration), then #5 (Gemini final review).

Pre-flight Analysis (Optional)

For large ambiguous tasks, run analysis before team creation:

1. Spawn

   Task(subagent_type="oh-my-claudecode:planner", ...)

   with task description + codebase context
2. Use the analysis to produce better task decomposition
3. Create team and tasks with enriched context

This is especially useful when the task scope is unclear and benefits from external reasoning before committing to a specific decomposition.

Monitor Enhancement: Outbox Auto-Ingestion

The lead can proactively ingest outbox messages from CLI workers using the outbox reader utilities, enabling event-driven monitoring without relying solely on

SendMessage

Outbox Reader Functions

readNewOutboxMessages(teamName, workerName)

readNewInboxMessages()

readAllTeamOutboxMessages(teamName)

{ workerName, messages }

resetOutboxCursor(teamName, workerName)

Using

getTeamStatus()

in the Monitor Phase

The

getTeamStatus(teamName, workingDirectory, heartbeatMaxAgeMs?)

• Worker registration -- Which MCP workers are registered (from shadow registry / config.json)
• Heartbeat freshness -- Whether each worker is alive based on heartbeat age
• Task progress -- Per-worker and team-wide task counts (pending, in_progress, completed)
• Current task -- Which task each worker is actively executing
• Recent outbox messages -- New messages since the last status check

Example usage in the monitor loop:

const status = getTeamStatus('fix-ts-errors', workingDirectory);

for (const worker of status.workers) {
  if (!worker.isAlive) {
    // Worker is dead -- reassign its in-progress tasks
  }
  for (const msg of worker.recentMessages) {
    if (msg.type === 'task_complete') {
      // Mark task complete, unblock dependents
    } else if (msg.type === 'task_failed') {
      // Handle failure, possibly retry or reassign
    } else if (msg.type === 'error') {
      // Log error, check if worker needs intervention
    }
  }
}

if (status.taskSummary.pending === 0 && status.taskSummary.inProgress === 0) {
  // All work done -- proceed to shutdown
}

Event-Based Actions from Outbox Messages

task_complete

task_failed

idle

error

consecutiveErrors

shutdown_ack

heartbeat

This approach complements the existing

SendMessage

Error Handling

Teammate Fails a Task

1. Teammate sends

   SendMessage

   to lead reporting the failure
2. Lead decides: retry (reassign same task to same or different worker) or skip
3. To reassign:

   TaskUpdate

   to set new owner, then

   SendMessage

   to the new owner

Teammate Gets Stuck (No Messages)

1. Lead detects via

   TaskList

   -- task stuck in

   in_progress

   for too long
2. Lead sends

   SendMessage

   to the teammate asking for status
3. If no response, consider the teammate dead
4. Reassign the task to another worker via

   TaskUpdate

Dependency Blocked

1. If a blocking task fails, the lead must decide whether to:
   • Retry the blocker
   • Remove the dependency (

     TaskUpdate

     with modified blockedBy)
   • Skip the blocked task entirely
2. Communicate decisions to affected teammates via

   SendMessage

Teammate Crashes

1. Internal task for that teammate will show unexpected status
2. Teammate disappears from

   config.json

   members
3. Lead reassigns orphaned tasks to remaining workers
4. If needed, spawn a replacement teammate with

   Task(team_name, name)

Team + Ralph Composition

When the user invokes

/team ralph

• Team orchestration -- multi-agent staged pipeline with specialized agents per stage
• Ralph persistence -- retry on failure, architect verification before completion, iteration tracking

Activation

Team+Ralph activates when:

1. User invokes

   /team ralph "task"

   or

   /oh-my-claudecode:team ralph "task"

2. Keyword detector finds both

   team

   and

   ralph

   in the prompt
3. Hook detects

   MAGIC KEYWORD: RALPH

   alongside team context

State Linkage

Both modes write their own state files with cross-references:

// Team state (via state_write)
state_write(mode="team", active=true, current_phase="team-plan", state={
  "team_name": "build-rest-api",
  "linked_ralph": true,
  "task": "build a complete REST API"
})

// Ralph state (via state_write)
state_write(mode="ralph", active=true, iteration=1, max_iterations=10, current_phase="execution", state={
  "linked_team": true,
  "team_name": "build-rest-api"
})

Execution Flow

1. Ralph outer loop starts (iteration 1)
2. Team pipeline runs:

   team-plan -> team-prd -> team-exec -> team-verify

3. If

   team-verify

   passes: Ralph runs architect verification (STANDARD tier minimum)
4. If architect approves: both modes complete, run

   /oh-my-claudecode:cancel

5. If

   team-verify

   fails OR architect rejects: team enters

   team-fix

   , then loops back to

   team-exec -> team-verify

6. If fix loop exceeds

   max_fix_loops

   : Ralph increments iteration and retries the full pipeline
7. If Ralph exceeds

   max_iterations

   : terminal

   failed

   state

Cancellation

Cancel either mode cancels both:

• Cancel Ralph (linked): Cancel Team first (graceful shutdown), then clear Ralph state
• Cancel Team (linked): Clear Team, mark Ralph iteration cancelled, stop loop

See Cancellation section below for details.

Idempotent Recovery

If the lead crashes mid-run, the team skill should detect existing state and resume:

1. Check

   ${CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR:-~/.claude}/teams/

   for teams matching the task slug
2. If found, read

   config.json

   to discover active members
3. Resume monitor mode instead of creating a duplicate team
4. Call

   TaskList

   to determine current progress
5. Continue from the monitoring phase

This prevents duplicate teams and allows graceful recovery from lead failures.

Comparison: Team vs Legacy Swarm

~/.claude/teams/

~/.claude/tasks/

.omc/state/swarm.db

better-sqlite3

better-sqlite3

TaskUpdate(owner + in_progress)

SendMessage

blocks

blockedBy

TaskList

TeamDelete

rm

When to use Team over Swarm: Always prefer

/team

Cancellation

The

/oh-my-claudecode:cancel

1. Read team state via

   state_read(mode="team")

   to get

   team_name

   and

   linked_ralph

2. Send

   shutdown_request

   to all active teammates (from

   config.json

   members)
3. Wait for

   shutdown_response

   from each (15s timeout per member)
4. Call

   TeamDelete

   to remove team and task directories
5. Clear state via

   state_clear(mode="team")

6. If

   linked_ralph

   is true, also clear ralph:

   state_clear(mode="ralph")

Linked Mode Cancellation (Team + Ralph)

When team is linked to ralph, cancellation follows dependency order:

• Cancel triggered from Ralph context: Cancel Team first (graceful shutdown of all teammates), then clear Ralph state. This ensures workers are stopped before the persistence loop exits.
• Cancel triggered from Team context: Clear Team state, then mark Ralph as cancelled. Ralph's stop hook will detect the missing team and stop iterating.
• Force cancel (

  --force

  ): Clears both

  team

  and

  ralph

  state unconditionally via

  state_clear

  .

If teammates are unresponsive,

TeamDelete

~/.claude/teams/{team_name}/

~/.claude/tasks/{team_name}/

Runtime V2 (Event-Driven)

When

OMC_RUNTIME_V2=1

• No done.json: Task completion is detected via CLI API lifecycle transitions (claim-task, transition-task-status)
• Snapshot-based monitoring: Each poll cycle takes a point-in-time snapshot of tasks and workers, computes deltas, and emits events
• Event log: All team events are appended to

  .omc/state/team/{teamName}/events.jsonl

• Worker status files: Workers write status to

  .omc/state/team/{teamName}/workers/{name}/status.json

• Preserved: Sentinel gate (blocks premature completion), circuit breaker (dead worker detection), failure sidecars

The v2 runtime is feature-flagged and can be enabled per-session. The legacy v1 runtime remains the default.

Dynamic Scaling

When

OMC_TEAM_SCALING_ENABLED=1

• scale_up: Add workers to a running team (respects max_workers limit)
• scale_down: Remove idle workers with graceful drain (workers finish current task before removal)
• File-based scaling lock prevents concurrent scale operations
• Monotonic worker index counter ensures unique worker names across scale events

Configuration

Optional settings live in

.claude/omc.jsonc

~/.config/claude-omc/config.jsonc

OMC_TEAM_ROLE_OVERRIDES

{
  "team": {
    "ops": {
      "maxAgents": 20,
      "defaultAgentType": "claude",
      "monitorIntervalMs": 30000,
      "shutdownTimeoutMs": 15000
    }
  }
}

• ops.maxAgents - Maximum teammates (default: 20)
• ops.defaultAgentType - CLI provider when a

  /team

  invocation does not specify one (

  claude

  |

  codex

  |

  gemini

  , default:

  claude

  )
• ops.monitorIntervalMs - How often to poll

  TaskList

  (default: 30s)
• ops.shutdownTimeoutMs - How long to wait for shutdown responses (default: 15s)

Note: Team members do not have a hardcoded model default. Each teammate is a separate Claude Code session that inherits the user's configured model. Since teammates can spawn their own subagents, the session model acts as the orchestration layer while subagents can use any model tier.

Per-Role Provider & Model Routing

Scope: Applies to

/team

only. Task-based delegation uses

delegationRouting

(see separate docs). The two systems coexist by design.

Declare which provider (

claude

codex

gemini

TeamConfig.resolved_routing

Example — user target mapping

// .claude/omc.jsonc
{
  "team": {
    "roleRouting": {
      "orchestrator":  { "model": "inherit" },
      "planner":       { "provider": "claude", "model": "HIGH" },
      "analyst":       { "provider": "claude", "model": "HIGH" },
      "executor":      { "provider": "claude", "model": "MEDIUM" },
      "critic":        { "provider": "codex" },
      "code-reviewer": { "provider": "gemini" },
      "test-engineer": { "provider": "gemini", "model": "MEDIUM" }
    }
  }
}

orchestrator

planner

HIGH

analyst

HIGH

executor

MEDIUM

critic

code-reviewer

test-engineer

MEDIUM

Canonical roles

orchestrator

planner

analyst

architect

executor

debugger

critic

code-reviewer

security-reviewer

test-engineer

designer

writer

code-simplifier

explore

document-specialist

User-friendly aliases normalize via

normalizeDelegationRole()

reviewer

code-reviewer

quality-reviewer

code-reviewer

harsh-critic

critic

build-fixer

debugger

Spec fields (

TeamRoleAssignmentSpec

)

• provider —

  "claude" | "codex" | "gemini"

  . Omitted → defaults to

  claude

  .
• model — tier name (

  "HIGH" | "MEDIUM" | "LOW"

  ) or an explicit model ID. Tiers resolve through

  routing.tierModels

  .
• agent — optional Claude agent name (e.g.

  "critic"

  ,

  "executor"

  ). Only honored when the resolved provider is

  claude

  .

orchestrator

claude

model

orchestrator

Env override

OMC_TEAM_ROLE_OVERRIDES='{"critic":{"provider":"codex"},"code-reviewer":{"provider":"gemini"}}'

Precedence:

OMC_TEAM_ROLE_OVERRIDES

.claude/omc.jsonc

~/.config/claude-omc/config.jsonc

Fallback when a CLI is missing

If the CLI for a configured provider is absent from

PATH

buildLaunchArgs()

SendMessage

buildResolvedRoutingSnapshot

provider: "claude"

omc doctor --team-routing

Stickiness — resolved once, reused everywhere

Resolved routing is immutable per team. Editing config mid-team-lifetime does not affect running teams; a new

/team

TeamConfig

Zero-config behavior

An empty

team.roleRouting

routing.tierModels

/team 3:executor ...

State Cleanup

On successful completion:

1. TeamDelete

   handles all Claude Code state:
   • Removes

     ~/.claude/teams/{team_name}/

     (config)
   • Removes

     ~/.claude/tasks/{team_name}/

     (all task files + lock)
2. OMC state cleanup via MCP tools:

   state_clear(mode="team")
   

   If linked to Ralph:

   state_clear(mode="ralph")
   

3. Or run

   /oh-my-claudecode:cancel

   which handles all cleanup automatically.

IMPORTANT: Call

TeamDelete

TeamDelete

Git Worktree Integration

MCP workers can operate in isolated git worktrees to prevent file conflicts between concurrent workers.

How It Works

1. Worktree creation: Before spawning a worker, call

   createWorkerWorktree(teamName, workerName, repoRoot)

   to create an isolated worktree at

   .omc/worktrees/{team}/{worker}

   with branch

   omc-team/{teamName}/{workerName}

   .

2. Worker isolation: Pass the worktree path as the

   workingDirectory

   in the worker's

   BridgeConfig

   . The worker operates exclusively in its own worktree.

3. Merge coordination: After a worker completes its tasks, use

   checkMergeConflicts()

   to verify the branch can be cleanly merged, then

   mergeWorkerBranch()

   to merge with

   --no-ff

   for clear history.

4. Team cleanup: On team shutdown, call

   cleanupTeamWorktrees(teamName, repoRoot)

   to remove all worktrees and their branches.

API Reference

createWorkerWorktree(teamName, workerName, repoRoot, baseBranch?)

removeWorkerWorktree(teamName, workerName, repoRoot)

listTeamWorktrees(teamName, repoRoot)

cleanupTeamWorktrees(teamName, repoRoot)

checkMergeConflicts(workerBranch, baseBranch, repoRoot)

mergeWorkerBranch(workerBranch, baseBranch, repoRoot)

mergeAllWorkerBranches(teamName, repoRoot, baseBranch?)

Important Notes

• createSession()

  in

  tmux-session.ts

  does NOT handle worktree creation — worktree lifecycle is managed separately via

  git-worktree.ts

• Worktrees are NOT cleaned up on individual worker shutdown — only on team shutdown, to allow post-mortem inspection
• Branch names are sanitized via

  sanitizeName()

  to prevent injection
• All paths are validated against directory traversal

Gotchas

1. Internal tasks pollute TaskList -- When a teammate is spawned, the system auto-creates an internal task with

   metadata._internal: true

   . These appear in

   TaskList

   output. Filter them when counting real task progress. The subject of an internal task is the teammate's name.

2. No atomic claiming -- Unlike SQLite swarm, there is no transactional guarantee on

   TaskUpdate

   . Two teammates could race to claim the same task. Mitigation: The lead should pre-assign owners via

   TaskUpdate(taskId, owner)

   before spawning teammates. Teammates should only work on tasks assigned to them.

3. Task IDs are strings -- IDs are auto-incrementing strings ("1", "2", "3"), not integers. Always pass string values to

   taskId

   fields.

4. TeamDelete requires empty team -- All teammates must be shut down before calling

   TeamDelete

   . The lead (the only remaining member) is excluded from this check.

5. Messages are auto-delivered -- Teammate messages arrive to the lead as new conversation turns. No polling or inbox-checking is needed for inbound messages. However, if the lead is mid-turn (processing), messages queue and deliver when the turn ends.

6. Teammate prompt stored in config -- The full prompt text is stored in

   config.json

   members array. Do not put secrets or sensitive data in teammate prompts.

7. Members auto-removed on shutdown -- After a teammate approves shutdown and terminates, it is automatically removed from

   config.json

   . Do not re-read config expecting to find shut-down teammates.

8. shutdown_response needs request_id -- The teammate must extract the

   request_id

   from the incoming shutdown request JSON and pass it back. The format is

   shutdown-{timestamp}@{worker-name}

   . Fabricating this ID will cause the shutdown to fail silently.

9. Team name must be a valid slug -- Use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. Derive from the task description (e.g., "fix TypeScript errors" becomes "fix-ts-errors").

10. Broadcast is expensive -- Each broadcast sends a separate message to every teammate. Use

    message

    (DM) by default. Only broadcast for truly team-wide critical alerts.

11. CLI workers are one-shot, not persistent -- Tmux CLI workers have full filesystem access and CAN make code changes. However, they run as autonomous one-shot jobs -- they cannot use TaskList/TaskUpdate/SendMessage. The lead must manage their lifecycle: write prompt_file, spawn CLI worker, read output_file, mark task complete. They don't participate in team communication like Claude teammates do.