Orchestrator Skill

ct-orchestrator - Multi-agent coordination for complex projects

Orchestrator Skill

The orchestrator skill enables automated multi-agent coordination for complex projects, managing subagent spawning and context-protected workflows.

Overview

Context Protection

Maintains 10K token budget by delegating all work

Wave Execution

Respects dependency order with wave-based spawning

Manifest-Based

Reads only summaries, never full file contents

HITL Friendly

Human stays in the loop for decisions

Installation

The orchestrator skill is included with CLEO’s skill system:

# Verify skill is available
cleo skill list | grep orchestrator

# Or activate via Claude Code
/ct-orchestrator

The Protocol

The orchestrator NEVER implements anything directly. It only plans, spawns, reads summaries, and coordinates.

The Mantra

Stay high-level. Delegate everything. Read only manifests. Spawn in order.

Phrase	Meaning	Constraint
Stay high-level	Reason about what, never how	ORC-001
Delegate everything	Zero code, zero file reading	ORC-002
Read only manifests	Summaries only, no full files	ORC-003
Spawn in order	Respect dependency graph	ORC-004

Usage

Start Orchestration

/ct-orchestrator

"Orchestrate the authentication epic T001"

Continue

/ct-orchestrator

"Continue wave execution for T001"

Status

/ct-orchestrator

"Show orchestration status for T001"

How It Works

Context Budget

The orchestrator operates within a strict context budget:

Allocation	Tokens	Purpose
User conversation	~5,000	Dialogue and decisions
Task queries	~2,000	cleo show --brief
Manifest summaries	~2,000	Key findings
Planning/reasoning	~1,000	Wave computation
Total	10,000	Hard limit

Subagents get fresh 200K context each, enabling deep implementation work.

Manifest Protocol

Subagents write to MANIFEST.jsonl:

{
  "id": "task-T005-impl",
  "file": "research-outputs/2026-01-20_auth-impl.md",
  "title": "Authentication Implementation",
  "key_findings": [
    "JWT middleware implemented with refresh token support",
    "Password hashing uses bcrypt with cost factor 12",
    "Session binding integrated with CLEO"
  ],
  "needs_followup": ["T006"],
  "linked_tasks": ["T005"]
}

The orchestrator reads ONLY key_findings, never the full output file.

Wave Computation

Waves are computed from the dependency graph:

Wave 0: Tasks with no dependencies
Wave 1: Tasks depending only on Wave 0
Wave 2: Tasks depending only on Wave 0-1
...

1. Analyze Dependencies

   cleo deps --json | analyze

2. Compute Waves

   Group by dependency depth

3. Execute Wave

   Spawn all tasks in current wave

4. Wait for Completion

   Monitor subagent outputs

5. Advance

   Move to next wave

Constraints Reference

ID	Constraint	Violation Consequence
ORC-001	No implementation	Context explosion
ORC-002	Delegate via Task tool	Subagent fresh context
ORC-003	No file reads >100 lines	Budget exceeded
ORC-004	Spawn in order	Wasted work
ORC-005	10K context budget	Protocol broken

Best Practices

Break Down Epics

Create granular tasks before orchestrating

Define Dependencies

Clear dependency graph enables wave computation

Trust Subagents

Don’t micromanage - provide clear task descriptions

Read Summaries

Only read key_findings from manifest

Related

Orchestrator Guide

Complete orchestrator protocol

Epic Architect

Plan and decompose epics