Orchestration

Overview

Coordinates skills, frameworks, and workflows across the project lifecycle. Combines pattern-based project classification with goal decomposition, hierarchical task planning, and multi-agent coordination.

Use this skill for project-level workflow decisions: which frameworks to activate, in what order, and how to validate progress between phases. For Claude Code-specific agent implementation details (agent configuration, batch sizing, prompt engineering), use the

agent-patterns

skill instead.

This skill does NOT replace project management tools. It provides the decision framework for sequencing capabilities and validating readiness at each transition point.

Quick Reference

Need	Action
Identify project type	Classify as Pattern A / B / C
Sequence frameworks	Follow pattern-specific phase order
Decompose a goal	Extract required effects, match capabilities
Validate readiness	Check phase-gate criteria before advancing
Find alternatives	Generate fallback capabilities per step
Score a plan	Evaluate cost, latency, risk, diversity
Coordinate agents	Select orchestration pattern for task type
Pass context	Use context distillation for subagents

Pattern Identification

Classify every project before selecting frameworks or skills.

Pattern	Characteristics	Timeline
A: Simple Feature	Existing system, well-understood, single-team	1-5 days
B: New Product/System	From scratch, security/compliance matters	4-12 weeks
C: AI-Native/Complex	AI agents, RAG, knowledge graphs, orchestration	8-20 weeks

Phase Gates

Do not advance without meeting gate criteria.

Gate	Entry Criteria
Design (Phase 2)	PRP complete, problem validated, success metrics, user stories
Development (3)	Architecture documented, data model designed, security threats mapped
Testing (Phase 4)	Features complete, unit tests over 80%, code review, SAST clean
Deployment (5)	All tests passing, UAT completed, security tested, coverage over 90%

Scoring Function

Plans are evaluated using weighted utility:

Factor	Weight	Scores
Cost	0.3	free=1.0, low=0.8, medium=0.5, high=0.2
Risk	0.3	safe=1.0, low=0.8, medium=0.5, high=0.2
Latency	0.2	instant=1.0, fast=0.7, slow=0.3
Diversity	0.2	min(unique_domains / 5, 1.0)

Modifiers: recently used (within 3 steps) gets -30% penalty; novel capability gets +20% bonus.

Multi-Agent Orchestration Patterns

Pattern	Use Case
Hierarchical	Parent delegates to specialized subagents
Sequential	Chain of experts (architect -> dev -> review)
Parallel	Independent tasks running simultaneously
Handoff	One agent passes context to the next

Key rules: max delegation depth of 3, use context distillation (not full codebase), log all agent interactions.

MCP Integration

MCP (Model Context Protocol) standardizes how agents connect to external tools, data sources, and prompt templates. The orchestrator discovers available MCP servers at startup and routes tool calls from subagents to the correct server.

MCP Primitive	Role in Orchestration
Resources	Discover available data (schemas, configs, docs) before work
Tools	Execute validated actions with typed arguments
Prompts	Reuse domain-specific instruction templates across agents
Sampling	Allow servers to request AI reasoning mid-execution

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Correct Pattern
Treating all projects as Pattern A (simple feature)	Classify first: Pattern A (simple), B (new product), C (AI-native) before selecting frameworks
Skipping phase gates to move faster	Enforce gate criteria before advancing; skipping causes compounding rework
Activating all available skills simultaneously	Limit to 1-3 skills per phase with clear deliverables and handoffs
No decision logging for capability choices	Log rationale, alternatives considered, scores, and rejection reasons at each step
Building HTN plans without validating preconditions	Check project state (files, dependencies, env vars) against each capability's requirements first
Delegating without a clear objective manifest	Every subagent needs an objective, constraints, max tokens, and available tools
Passing entire codebase to subagents	Use context distillation to pass only relevant symbols and facts

Delegation

Discover project pattern and classify scope: Use
```
Explore
```
agent to survey the codebase, dependencies, and requirements
Execute multi-phase orchestration plan: Use
```
Task
```
agent to implement phase-specific deliverables with gate validation
Design architecture and capability sequences: Use
```
Plan
```
agent to decompose goals and build scored HTN plans

References

goal-decomposition.md -- HTN planning, goal analysis, capability matching, precondition validation, scoring, decision logging
project-patterns.md -- Pattern A/B/C classification, phase sequences, skill coordination by phase, parallelization
multi-agent-coordination.md -- Hierarchical, sequential, parallel orchestration patterns, delegation manifests, recursion limits
mcp-orchestration.md -- MCP architecture, resources, tools, prompts, multi-server orchestration, bidirectional sampling
context-distillation.md -- Symbol indexing, fact extraction, recursive context reduction, token management
error-handling.md -- Objective drift, tool failure, context overflow, circuit breakers, recovery strategies, logging

orchestration

NPX Install

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