Stage

Tmux workspace manager for swain. Creates pane layouts, manages an animated MOTD status panel, and gives the agent direct control over the visual workspace.

Prerequisite: Must be running inside a tmux session ($TMUX must be set). Before running any subcommand, the script checks for tmux — see Error handling below.

Script location

Swain project skills live under skills/ in the project root. For this skill, use:

• skills/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh — main tmux layout and pane manager
• skills/swain-stage/scripts/swain-motd.py — MOTD status panel (Textual TUI, runs via uv run)
• skills/swain-stage/scripts/swain-motd.sh — legacy bash MOTD (kept as fallback if uv/Textual unavailable)
• skills/swain-stage/references/layouts/ — layout presets
• skills/swain-stage/references/yazi/ — bundled Yazi config used when fileBrowser resolves to yazi

Commands

Layout presets

Apply a named layout. Available presets are in skills/swain-stage/references/layouts/:

Layout	Description
focus	Agent pane + MOTD top-right + file browser bottom-right
review	Agent + editor (changed files) + MOTD
browse	Agent + file browser + MOTD

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" layout review
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" layout browse
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" layout focus

The default layout is configured in swain.settings.json under stage.defaultLayout (default: focus).

Users can override layout definitions in swain.settings.json under stage.layouts.<name>.

Open individual panes

Open a specific pane type without applying a full layout:

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" pane editor file1.py file2.py   # editor with specific files
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" pane browser                      # file browser at repo root
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" pane browser /some/path           # file browser at specific path
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" pane motd                         # MOTD status panel
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" pane shell                        # plain shell

MOTD management

The MOTD pane shows a dynamic status panel with:

• Project name, branch, and dirty state
• Animated spinner when the agent is working (braille, dots, or bar style)
• Current agent context (what it's doing)
• Active epic with progress ratio (from swain-status cache)
• Active tk task
• Ready (actionable) artifact count
• Last commit info
• Assigned GitHub issue count
• Count of touched files

The MOTD is a Textual TUI app (swain-motd.py) launched via uv run. It reads project data from .agents/status-cache.json (written by swain-status) when available, falling back to direct git/tk queries when the cache is absent or stale (>5 min). Agent state (spinner, context) is always read from .agents/stage-status.json for real-time responsiveness. Textual handles Unicode width correctly, provides proper box drawing with rounded corners, and supports color theming.

State file locations:

• .agents/status-cache.json — swain-status cache (epic progress, ready items, task data); written by swain-status.sh
• .agents/stage-status.json — live agent state (spinner activity, current context); written by stage-status-hook.sh

Reactive status via hooks: stage-status-hook.sh is configured as a Claude Code hook (PostToolUse, Stop, SubagentStart, SubagentStop) in .claude/settings.json. It writes .agents/stage-status.json automatically so the MOTD spinner reflects real agent activity without manual motd update calls.

Control the MOTD:

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd start                        # start MOTD in a new pane
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd stop                         # kill the MOTD pane
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd update "reviewing auth module"  # update context
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd update "idle"                # mark as idle
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd update "done"                # mark as done/idle

Close panes

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" close right     # close the right pane
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" close bottom    # close the bottom pane
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" close all       # reset to single pane

Status

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" status          # show current layout info

Reset

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" reset           # kill all panes except current

Agent-triggered pane operations

The agent should use swain-stage directly during work. Recommended patterns:

After making changes — open review

When you've finished modifying files, open them for the user to review:

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd update "changes ready for review"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" pane editor file1.py file2.py

During research — open file browser

When exploring the codebase:

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" pane browser src/components/

Update context as you work

Keep the MOTD informed of what you're doing:

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd update "analyzing test failures"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd update "writing migration script"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd update "done"

Clean up when done

REPO_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" close right
bash "$(find "$REPO_ROOT" -path '*/swain-stage/scripts/swain-stage.sh' -print -quit 2>/dev/null)" motd update "idle"

Settings

Read from swain.settings.json (project) and ~/.config/swain/settings.json (user override). User settings take precedence.

Key	Type	Default	Description
editor	string	auto	Editor command. auto detects: micro > helix > nano > vim
fileBrowser	string	auto	File browser command. auto detects: yazi > nnn > ranger > mc
stage.defaultLayout	string	focus	Layout applied by default
stage.motd.refreshInterval	number	5	MOTD refresh interval in seconds (idle)
stage.motd.spinnerStyle	string	braille	Spinner animation: braille, dots, or bar
stage.layouts	object	{}	User-defined layout overrides (same schema as preset files)

Error handling

• If tmux binary is not installed: the script exits with "tmux not found". Offer to install it: "tmux is not installed. Install it now? I can run \brew install tmux` for you."If the user accepts, runbrew install tmux`, then re-run the original subcommand.
• If tmux is installed but not in a tmux session ($TMUX unset): the script exits with "tmux not active — swain-stage requires a tmux session. Start tmux first." Inform the user and do not offer to install (tmux is already present).
• If editor/file browser is not installed: warn the user and suggest alternatives or swain.settings.json override.
• If the file browser resolves to yazi, swain-stage injects the bundled config in skills/swain-stage/references/yazi/ so text files open with the system default app and directory colors remain readable on dark terminals.
• If jq is not available: warn that settings cannot be read, use hardcoded defaults.
• Pane operations are best-effort — if a pane can't be created or found, warn but don't fail the session.