Team Skill Spawn N coordinated agents working on a shared task list using Claude Code's native team tools. Replaces the legacy /swarm skill (SQLite-based) with built-in team management, inter-agent messaging, and task dependencies -- no external dependencies required. The swarm compatibility alias was removed in #1131. 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. Stage Required Agents Optional Agents Selection Criteria team-plan explore (haiku), planner (opus) analyst (opus), architect (opus) Use analyst for unclear requirements. Use architect for systems with complex boundaries. team-prd analyst (opus) critic (opus) Use critic to challenge scope. team-exec executor (sonnet) executor (opus), debugger (sonnet), designer (sonnet), writer (haiku), test-engineer (sonnet) Match agent to subtask type. Use executor (model=opus) for complex autonomous work, designer for UI, debugger for compilation issues, writer for docs, test-engineer for test creation. team-verify verifier (sonnet) test-engineer (sonnet), security-reviewer (sonnet), code-reviewer (opus) Always run verifier . Add security-reviewer for auth/crypto changes. Add code-reviewer for >20 files or architectural changes. code-reviewer also covers style/formatting checks. team-fix executor (sonnet) debugger (sonnet), executor (opus) Use debugger for type/build errors and regression isolation. Use executor (model=opus) for complex multi-file fixes. Routing rules: 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. 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. Cost mode affects model tier. In downgrade: opus agents to sonnet , sonnet to haiku where quality permits. team-verify always uses at least sonnet . 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 until: verification passes and no required fix tasks remain, or work reaches an explicit terminal blocked/failed outcome with evidence. team-fix is bounded by max attempts. If fix attempts exceed the configured limit, transition to terminal failed (no infinite loop). 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/.md . Handoff Format

Handoff: →

**

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 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. Handoffs accumulate. The verify stage can read all prior handoffs (plan → prd → exec) for full decision history. On team cancellation, handoffs survive in .omc/handoffs/ for session resume. They are not deleted by TeamDelete . 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 or architect (via MCP or agent) to analyze the codebase and break the task into N subtasks: 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 with a slug derived from the task: { "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 MCP tool for proper session-scoped persistence: 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: Field Type Description active boolean Whether team mode is active current_phase string Current pipeline stage: team-plan , team-prd , team-exec , team-verify , team-fix team_name string Slug name for the team agent_count number Number of worker agents agent_types string Comma-separated agent types used in team-exec task string Original task description fix_loop_count number Current fix iteration count max_fix_loops number Maximum fix iterations before failing (default: 3) linked_ralph boolean Whether team is linked to a ralph persistence loop stage_history string Comma-separated list of stage transitions with timestamps 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 and current_phase is non-terminal, resume from the last incomplete stage instead of creating a new team. Phase 4: Create Tasks Call TaskCreate for each subtask. Set dependencies with TaskUpdate using 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 after creation: // 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 with team_name and name parameters. Each teammate gets the team worker preamble (see below) plus their specific assignment. { "subagent_type" : "oh-my-claudecode:executor" , "team_name" : "fix-ts-errors" , "name" : "worker-1" , "prompt" : "" } 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: 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). 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:

Verify results

-- Check that all subtasks are marked

completed

via

TaskList

Shutdown teammates

-- Send

shutdown_request

to each active teammate:

{

"type"

:

"shutdown_request"

,

"recipient"

:

"worker-1"

,

"content"

:

"All work complete, shutting down team"

}

Await responses

-- Each teammate responds with

shutdown_response(approve: true)

and terminates

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"

}

Clean OMC state

-- Remove

.omc/state/team-state.json

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": "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": "", "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: ", "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 for inspection. 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 is provided in the shutdown request message that the teammate receives. The teammate must extract it and pass it back. Do NOT fabricate request IDs. 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: Execution Mode Provider Capabilities claude_worker Claude agent Full Claude Code tool access (Read/Write/Edit/Bash/Task). Best for tasks needing Claude's reasoning + iterative tool use. codex_worker Codex CLI (tmux pane) Full filesystem access in working_directory. Runs autonomously via tmux pane. Best for code review, security analysis, refactoring, architecture. Requires npm install -g @openai/codex . gemini_worker Gemini CLI (tmux pane) Full filesystem access in working_directory. Runs autonomously via tmux pane. Best for UI/design work, documentation, large-context tasks. Requires 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: Lead writes task instructions to a prompt file Lead spawns a tmux CLI worker with working_directory set to the project root The worker reads files, makes changes, runs commands -- all within the working directory Results/summary are written to an output file 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 Task Type Best Route Why Iterative multi-step work Claude teammate Needs tool-mediated iteration + team communication Code review / security audit CLI worker or specialist agent Autonomous execution, good at structured analysis Architecture analysis / planning architect Claude agent Strong analytical reasoning with codebase access Refactoring (well-scoped) CLI worker or executor agent Autonomous execution, good at structured transforms UI/frontend implementation designer Claude agent Design expertise, framework idioms Large-scale documentation writer Claude agent Writing expertise + large context for consistency Build/test iteration loops Claude teammate Needs Bash tool + iterative fix cycles Tasks needing team coordination Claude teammate Needs SendMessage for status updates 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:

Spawn

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

with task description + codebase context

Use the analysis to produce better task decomposition

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

delivery.

Outbox Reader Functions

readNewOutboxMessages(teamName, workerName)

-- Read new outbox messages for a single worker using a byte-offset cursor. Each call advances the cursor, so subsequent calls only return messages written since the last read. Mirrors the inbox cursor pattern from

readNewInboxMessages()

.

readAllTeamOutboxMessages(teamName)

-- Read new outbox messages from ALL workers in a team. Returns an array of

{ workerName, messages }

entries, skipping workers with no new messages. Useful for batch polling in the monitor loop.

resetOutboxCursor(teamName, workerName)

-- Reset the outbox cursor for a worker back to byte 0. Useful when re-reading historical messages after a lead restart or for debugging.

Using

getTeamStatus()

in the Monitor Phase

The

getTeamStatus(teamName, workingDirectory, heartbeatMaxAgeMs?)

function provides a unified snapshot combining:

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

Message Type

Action

task_complete

Mark task completed, check if blocked tasks are now unblocked, notify dependent workers

task_failed

Increment failure sidecar, decide retry vs reassign vs skip

idle

Worker has no assigned tasks -- assign pending work or begin shutdown

error

Log the error, check

consecutiveErrors

in heartbeat for quarantine threshold

shutdown_ack

Worker acknowledged shutdown -- safe to remove from team

heartbeat

Update liveness tracking (redundant with heartbeat files but useful for latency monitoring)

This approach complements the existing

SendMessage

-based communication by providing a pull-based mechanism for MCP workers that cannot use Claude Code's team messaging tools.

Error Handling

Teammate Fails a Task

Teammate sends

SendMessage

to lead reporting the failure

Lead decides: retry (reassign same task to same or different worker) or skip

To reassign:

TaskUpdate

to set new owner, then

SendMessage

to the new owner

Teammate Gets Stuck (No Messages)

Lead detects via

TaskList

-- task stuck in

in_progress

for too long

Lead sends

SendMessage

to the teammate asking for status

If no response, consider the teammate dead

Reassign the task to another worker via

TaskUpdate

Dependency Blocked

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

Communicate decisions to affected teammates via

SendMessage

Teammate Crashes

Internal task for that teammate will show unexpected status

Teammate disappears from

config.json

members

Lead reassigns orphaned tasks to remaining workers

If needed, spawn a replacement teammate with

Task(team_name, name)

Team + Ralph Composition

When the user invokes

/team ralph

, says "team ralph", or combines both keywords, team mode wraps itself in Ralph's persistence loop. This provides:

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:

User invokes

/team ralph "task"

or

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

Keyword detector finds both

team

and

ralph

in the prompt

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

Ralph outer loop starts (iteration 1)

Team pipeline runs:

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

If

team-verify

passes: Ralph runs architect verification (STANDARD tier minimum)

If architect approves: both modes complete, run

/oh-my-claudecode:cancel

If

team-verify

fails OR architect rejects: team enters

team-fix

, then loops back to

team-exec -> team-verify

If fix loop exceeds

max_fix_loops

Ralph increments iteration and retries the full pipeline

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:

Check

~/.claude/teams/

for teams matching the task slug

If found, read

config.json

to discover active members

Resume monitor mode instead of creating a duplicate team

Call

TaskList

to determine current progress

Continue from the monitoring phase

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

Comparison: Team vs Legacy Swarm

Aspect

Team (Native)

Swarm (Legacy SQLite)

Storage

JSON files in

~/.claude/teams/

and

~/.claude/tasks/

SQLite in

.omc/state/swarm.db

Dependencies

better-sqlite3

not needed

Requires

better-sqlite3

npm package

Task claiming

TaskUpdate(owner + in_progress)

-- lead pre-assigns

SQLite IMMEDIATE transaction -- atomic

Race conditions

Possible if two agents claim same task (mitigate by pre-assigning)

None (SQLite transactions)

Communication

SendMessage

(DM, broadcast, shutdown)

None (fire-and-forget agents)

Task dependencies

Built-in

blocks

/

blockedBy

arrays

Not supported

Heartbeat

Automatic idle notifications from Claude Code

Manual heartbeat table + polling

Shutdown

Graceful request/response protocol

Signal-based termination

Agent lifecycle

Auto-tracked via internal tasks + config members

Manual tracking via heartbeat table

Progress visibility

TaskList

shows live status with owner

SQL queries on tasks table

Conflict prevention

Owner field (lead-assigned)

Lease-based claiming with timeout

Crash recovery

Lead detects via missing messages, reassigns

Auto-release after 5-min lease timeout

State cleanup

TeamDelete

removes everything

Manual

rm

of SQLite database

When to use Team over Swarm:

Always prefer

/team

for new work. It uses Claude Code's built-in infrastructure, requires no external dependencies, supports inter-agent communication, and has task dependency management.

Cancellation

The

/oh-my-claudecode:cancel

skill handles team cleanup:

Read team state via

state_read(mode="team")

to get

team_name

and

linked_ralph

Send

shutdown_request

to all active teammates (from

config.json

members)

Wait for

shutdown_response

from each (15s timeout per member)

Call

TeamDelete

to remove team and task directories

Clear state via

state_clear(mode="team")

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

may fail. In that case, the cancel skill should wait briefly and retry, or inform the user to manually clean up

~/.claude/teams/{team_name}/

and

~/.claude/tasks/{team_name}/

.

Runtime V2 (Event-Driven)

When

OMC_RUNTIME_V2=1

is set, the team runtime uses an event-driven architecture instead of the legacy done.json polling watchdog:

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

is set, the team supports mid-session scaling:

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 via

.omc-config.json

:

{

"team"

:

{

"maxAgents"

:

20

,

"defaultAgentType"

:

"executor"

,

"monitorIntervalMs"

:

30000

,

"shutdownTimeoutMs"

:

15000

}

}

maxAgents

- Maximum teammates (default: 20)

defaultAgentType

- Agent type when not specified (default:

executor

)

monitorIntervalMs

- How often to poll

TaskList

(default: 30s)

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.

State Cleanup

On successful completion:

TeamDelete

handles all Claude Code state:

Removes

~/.claude/teams/{team_name}/

(config)

Removes

~/.claude/tasks/{team_name}/

(all task files + lock)

OMC state cleanup via MCP tools:

state_clear(mode="team")

If linked to Ralph:

state_clear(mode="ralph")

Or run

/oh-my-claudecode:cancel

which handles all cleanup automatically.

IMPORTANT:

Call

TeamDelete

only AFTER all teammates have been shut down.

TeamDelete

will fail if active members (besides the lead) still exist in the config.

Git Worktree Integration

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

How It Works

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}

.

Worker isolation

Pass the worktree path as the

workingDirectory

in the worker's

BridgeConfig

. The worker operates exclusively in its own worktree.

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.

Team cleanup

On team shutdown, call cleanupTeamWorktrees(teamName, repoRoot) to remove all worktrees and their branches. API Reference Function Description createWorkerWorktree(teamName, workerName, repoRoot, baseBranch?) Create isolated worktree removeWorkerWorktree(teamName, workerName, repoRoot) Remove worktree and branch listTeamWorktrees(teamName, repoRoot) List all team worktrees cleanupTeamWorktrees(teamName, repoRoot) Remove all team worktrees checkMergeConflicts(workerBranch, baseBranch, repoRoot) Non-destructive conflict check mergeWorkerBranch(workerBranch, baseBranch, repoRoot) Merge worker branch (--no-ff) mergeAllWorkerBranches(teamName, repoRoot, baseBranch?) Merge all completed workers 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 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. 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. Task IDs are strings -- IDs are auto-incrementing strings ("1", "2", "3"), not integers. Always pass string values to taskId fields. TeamDelete requires empty team -- All teammates must be shut down before calling TeamDelete . The lead (the only remaining member) is excluded from this check. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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"). 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. 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.