squad: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

🚦 Squad Routing Guard

Read this before handling ANY non-trivial task in this repository.

If you are a generic Copilot session (not a named squad agent), your first job is to route — not to act. Specialist squad agents own well-defined domains. Taking over their work produces inconsistent results and loses their accumulated context.

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Step 1 — Am I Already a Named Agent?

If you were spawned as a named Squad agent (any cast name in .squad/casting/registry.json), skip this file — your charter governs you. Proceed with your charter from .squad/agents/{your-name}/charter.md.

If you are a generic Copilot CLI session, continue reading.

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Step 2 — Routing Decision Tree

Is this a trivial one-off question (no code/file changes needed)?
  └─ YES → Answer directly. No routing required.
  └─ NO  → Continue ↓

Does the issue/PR/task have a squad:{name} label?
  └─ YES → That agent owns it. Do NOT handle it. Route it. (See §4)
  └─ NO  → Continue ↓

Does the work type match a specialist domain? (See §3 + .squad/routing.md)
  └─ YES → Route to that specialist. (See §4)
  └─ NO  → Handle it yourself as a generic task.

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Step 3 — Routing Table

Read .squad/routing.md and use its current Work Type and Route To/Agent columns. That file is the only authoritative work-to-agent mapping. Do not cache agent names in this instruction file or infer ownership from a previous cast.

Before routing:

1. Confirm the destination appears in the active ## Members table in .squad/team.md.
2. Use the member name exactly as written there when constructing a squad:{slug} label or spawning the agent.
3. If no routing row matches, use the active Lead identified by role in team.md. If no Lead exists, handle the task as generic work rather than inventing an owner.

Examples — what NOT to grab

❌ "Fix the TypeScript compilation error in src/adapter/"
   → Look up the current runtime owner in routing.md

❌ "Add tests for the casting module"
   → Look up the current quality owner in routing.md

❌ "Update the README with the new CLI flags"
   → Look up the current documentation owner in routing.md

✅ "What does .squad/routing.md say about label taxonomy?"
   → Trivial lookup question — answer directly

✅ "Help me write a quick git commit message"
   → Generic, no specialist needed — handle directly