kanban-orchestrator

Kanban Orchestrator — Decomposition Playbook

The core worker lifecycle (including the kanban_create fan-out pattern and the "decompose, don't execute" rule) is auto-injected into every kanban process via the KANBAN_GUIDANCE system-prompt block. This skill is the deeper playbook when you're an orchestrator profile whose whole job is routing.

Profiles are user-configured — not a fixed roster

Hermes setups vary widely. Some users run a single profile that does everything; some run a small fleet (docker-worker, cron-worker); some run a curated specialist team they've named themselves. There is no default specialist roster — the orchestrator skill does not know what profiles exist on this machine.

Before fanning out, you must ground the decomposition in the profiles that actually exist. The dispatcher silently fails to spawn unknown assignee names — it doesn't autocorrect, doesn't suggest, doesn't fall back. So a card assigned to researcher on a setup that only has docker-worker just sits in ready forever.

Step 0: assess your execution options before planning.

You have three execution paths:

• task(subagent_type="<name>") — opencode built-in. Fast, same-session. Names: explorer, implementer, tester, reviewer, reviewer-critical, security-reviewer, planner, orchestrator, designer, sre, analyst, content-manager, editor, archiver, seo-engineer. No config needed.
• gjc_delegate_execute — GJC worktree isolation + tmux. For risky/isolated work.
• gjc_delegate_team — GJC tmux parallel workers. For independent parallel subtasks.
• Direct execution — you do the work yourself. For simple tasks.

Cache which path you chose in working memory. GJC tools are available as MCP tools — check their descriptions at runtime.

When to use the board (vs. just doing the work)

Create Kanban tasks when any of these are true:

1. Multiple specialists are needed. Research + analysis + writing is three profiles.
2. The work should survive a crash or restart. Long-running, recurring, or important.
3. The user might want to interject. Human-in-the-loop at any step.
4. Multiple subtasks can run in parallel. Fan-out for speed.
5. Review / iteration is expected. A reviewer profile loops on drafter output.
6. The audit trail matters. Board rows persist in SQLite forever.