Team Skill

$team is the tmux-based parallel execution mode for OMX. It starts real worker Codex and/or Claude CLI sessions in split panes and coordinates them through .omx/state/team/... files plus CLI team interop (omx team api ...) and state files.

This skill is operationally sensitive. Treat it as an operator workflow, not a generic prompt pattern.

What This Skill Must Do

GPT-5.4 Guidance Alignment

• Default to concise, evidence-dense progress and completion reporting unless the user or risk level requires more detail.
• Treat newer user task updates as local overrides for the active workflow branch while preserving earlier non-conflicting constraints.
• If correctness depends on additional inspection, retrieval, execution, or verification, keep using the relevant tools until the team workflow is grounded.
• Continue through clear, low-risk, reversible next steps automatically; ask only when the next step is materially branching, destructive, or preference-dependent.

When user triggers $team, the agent must:

1. Invoke OMX runtime directly with omx team ...
2. Avoid replacing the flow with in-process spawn_agent fanout
3. Verify startup and surface concrete state/pane evidence
4. Keep team state alive until workers are terminal (unless explicit abort)
5. Handle cleanup and stale-pane recovery when needed

If omx team is unavailable, stop with a hard error.

Invocation Contract

omx team [ralph] [N:agent-type] "<task description>"

Examples:

omx team 3:executor "analyze feature X and report flaws"
omx team "debug flaky integration tests"
omx team ralph "ship end-to-end fix with verification"

Why team ralph exists as a linked launch path

omx team ralph ... is not just shorthand for "run team now, decide on Ralph later." It creates a linked team+Ralph lifecycle from launch time while still using the normal omx team runtime startup path.

• Linked lifecycle/state: launch marks team state with linked_ralph, creates/updates Ralph state with linked_team, and team terminal phases can propagate into Ralph state.
• Cleanup/shutdown: linked cancellation and shutdown happen in order: team cleanup first, then Ralph terminalization/cleanup metadata.
• Operator choice:
  • use plain omx team ... when you only want coordinated workers
  • use omx team ralph ... when persistent Ralph verification/cleanup is part of the plan from the start
  • use plain team and start Ralph later only when you want a deliberately separate manual follow-up after reviewing output or changing scope

Claude teammates (v0.6.0+)

Important: N:agent-type (for example 2:executor) selects the worker role prompt, not the worker CLI (codex vs claude).

To launch Claude teammates, use the team worker CLI env vars:

# Force all teammates to Claude CLI
OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI=claude omx team 2:executor "update docs and report"

# Mixed team (worker 1 = Codex, worker 2 = Claude)
OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI_MAP=codex,claude omx team 2:executor "split doc/code tasks"

# Auto mode: Claude is selected when worker launch args/model contains 'claude'
OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI=auto OMX_TEAM_WORKER_LAUNCH_ARGS="--model claude-..." omx team 2:executor "run mixed validation"

Preconditions

Before running $team, confirm:

1. tmux installed (tmux -V)
2. Current leader session is inside tmux ($TMUX is set)
3. omx command resolves to the intended install/build
4. If running repo-local node bin/omx.js ..., run npm run build after src changes
5. Check HUD pane count in the leader window and avoid duplicate hud --watch panes before split

Suggested preflight:

tmux list-panes -F '#{pane_id}\t#{pane_start_command}' | rg 'hud --watch' || true

If duplicates exist, remove extras before omx team to prevent HUD ending up in worker stack.

Pre-context Intake Gate

Before launching omx team, require a grounded context snapshot:

1. Derive a task slug from the request.
2. Reuse the latest relevant snapshot in .omx/context/{slug}-*.md when available.
3. If none exists, create .omx/context/{slug}-{timestamp}.md (UTC YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ) with:
   • task statement
   • desired outcome
   • known facts/evidence
   • constraints
   • unknowns/open questions
   • likely codebase touchpoints
4. If ambiguity remains high, run explore first for brownfield facts, then run $deep-interview --quick <task> before team launch.

Do not start worker panes until this gate is satisfied; if forced to proceed quickly, state explicit scope/risk limitations in the launch report.

For simple read-only brownfield lookups during intake, follow active session guidance: when USE_OMX_EXPLORE_CMD is enabled, prefer omx explore with narrow, concrete prompts; otherwise use the richer normal explore path and fall back normally if omx explore is unavailable.

Follow-up Staffing Contract

When $team is used as a follow-up mode from ralplan, carry forward the approved plan's explicit available-agent-types roster and convert it into concrete staffing guidance before launch:

• keep worker-role choices inside the known roster
• state the recommended headcount and role counts
• state the suggested reasoning level for each lane when available
• explain why each lane exists (delivery, verification, specialist support)
• include an explicit launch hint (omx team ralph N "<task>" / $team ralph N "<task>") when the plan expects Ralph to verify after team delivery
• if the ideal role is unavailable, choose the closest role from the roster and say so

Current Runtime Behavior (As Implemented)

omx team currently performs:

1. Parse args (ralph, N, agent-type, task)
2. Sanitize team name from task text
3. Initialize team state:
   • .omx/state/team/<team>/config.json
   • .omx/state/team/<team>/manifest.v2.json
   • .omx/state/team/<team>/tasks/task-<id>.json
4. Compose team-scoped worker instructions file at:
   • .omx/state/team/<team>/worker-agents.md
   • Uses project AGENTS.md content (if present) + worker overlay, without mutating project AGENTS.md
5. Resolve canonical shared state root from leader cwd (<leader-cwd>/.omx/state)
6. Split current tmux window into worker panes
7. Launch workers with:
   • OMX_TEAM_WORKER=<team>/worker-<n>
   • OMX_TEAM_STATE_ROOT=<leader-cwd>/.omx/state
   • OMX_TEAM_LEADER_CWD=<leader-cwd>
   • worker CLI selected by OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI / OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI_MAP (codex or claude)
   • optional worktree metadata envs when --worktree is used
8. Wait for worker readiness (capture-pane polling)
9. Write per-worker inbox.md and trigger via tmux send-keys
10. Return control to leader; follow-up uses status / resume / shutdown

Important:

• Leader remains in existing pane
• Worker panes are independent full Codex/Claude CLI sessions
• Workers may run in separate git worktrees (omx team --worktree[=<name>]) while sharing one team state root
• Worker ACKs go to mailbox/leader-fixed.json
• Notify hook updates worker heartbeat and nudges leader during active team mode
• Submit routing uses this CLI resolution order per worker trigger:
  1. explicit worker CLI provided by runtime state (persisted on worker identity/config),
  2. OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI_MAP entry for that worker index,
  3. fallback OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI / auto detection.
• Mixed CLI-map teams are supported for both startup and trigger submit behavior.
• Trigger submit differs by CLI:
  • Codex may use queue-first Tab on busy panes (strategy-dependent).
  • Claude always uses direct Enter-only (C-m) rounds (never queue-first Tab).

Team worker model + thinking resolution (current contract)

Team mode resolves worker model flags from one shared launch-arg set (not per-worker model selection).

Model precedence (highest to lowest):

1. Explicit worker model in OMX_TEAM_WORKER_LAUNCH_ARGS
2. Inherited leader --model flag
3. Low-complexity default from OMX_DEFAULT_SPARK_MODEL (legacy alias: OMX_SPARK_MODEL) when 1+2 are absent and team agentType is low-complexity

Default-model rule:

• Do not assume a frontier or spark model from recency or model-family heuristics.
• Use OMX_DEFAULT_FRONTIER_MODEL for frontier-default guidance.
• Use OMX_DEFAULT_SPARK_MODEL for spark/low-complexity worker-default guidance.

Thinking-level rule (critical):

• No model-name heuristic mapping.
• Team runtime must not infer model_reasoning_effort from model-name substrings (e.g., spark, high-capability, mini).
• When the leader assigns teammate roles/tasks, OMX allocates per-worker reasoning effort dynamically from the resolved worker role (low, medium, high).
• Explicit launch args still win: if OMX_TEAM_WORKER_LAUNCH_ARGS already includes -c model_reasoning_effort=..., that explicit value overrides dynamic allocation for every worker.

Normalization requirements:

• Parse both --model <value> and --model=<value>
• Remove duplicate/conflicting model flags
• Emit exactly one final canonical flag: --model <value>
• Preserve unrelated args in worker launch config
• If explicit reasoning exists, preserve canonical -c model_reasoning_effort="<level>"; otherwise inject the worker role's default reasoning level

Required Lifecycle (Operator Contract)

Follow this exact lifecycle when running $team:

1. Start team and verify startup evidence (team line, tmux target, panes, ACK mailbox)
2. Monitor task and worker progress with runtime/state tools first (omx team status <team>, omx team resume <team>, mailbox/state files)
3. Wait for terminal task state before shutdown:
   • pending=0
   • in_progress=0
   • failed=0 (or explicitly acknowledged failure path)
4. Only then run omx team shutdown <team>
5. Verify shutdown evidence and state cleanup

Do not run shutdown while workers are actively writing updates unless user explicitly requested abort/cancel. Do not treat ad-hoc pane typing as primary control flow when runtime/state evidence is available.

Active leader monitoring rule

While a team is ON/running, the leader must not go blind. Keep checking live team state until terminal completion.

Minimum acceptable loop:

sleep 30 && omx team status <team-name>

Repeat that check while the team stays active, or use omx team await <team-name> --timeout-ms 30000 --json when event-driven waiting is a better fit.

If the leader gets a stale/team-stalled nudge, immediately run omx team status <team-name> before taking any manual intervention.

Message Dispatch Policy (CLI-first, state-first)

To avoid brittle behavior, message/task delivery must not be driven by ad-hoc tmux typing.

Required default path:

1. Use omx team ... runtime lifecycle commands for orchestration.
2. Use omx team api ... --json for mailbox/task mutations.
3. Verify delivery via mailbox/state evidence (mailbox/*.json, task status, omx team status).

Strict rules:

• MUST NOT use direct tmux send-keys as the primary mechanism to deliver instructions/messages.
• MUST NOT spam Enter/trigger keys without first checking runtime/state evidence.
• MUST prefer durable state writes + runtime dispatch (dispatch/requests.json, mailbox, inbox).
• Direct tmux interaction is fallback-only and only after failure checks (for example worker_notify_failed:<worker>) or explicit user request (for example “press enter”).

Operational Commands

omx team status <team-name>
omx team resume <team-name>
omx team shutdown <team-name>

Semantics:

• status: reads team snapshot (task counts, dead/non-reporting workers)
• resume: reconnects to live team session if present
• shutdown: graceful shutdown request, then cleanup (deletes .omx/state/team/<team>)

Data Plane and Control Plane

Control Plane

• tmux panes/processes (OMX_TEAM_WORKER per worker)
• leader notifications via tmux display-message

Data Plane

• .omx/state/team/<team>/... files
• Team mailbox files:
• .omx/state/team/<team>/mailbox/leader-fixed.json
• .omx/state/team/<team>/mailbox/worker-<n>.json
• .omx/state/team/<team>/dispatch/requests.json (durable dispatch queue; hook-preferred, fallback-aware)

Key Files

• .omx/state/team/<team>/config.json
• .omx/state/team/<team>/manifest.v2.json
• .omx/state/team/<team>/tasks/task-<id>.json
• .omx/state/team/<team>/workers/worker-<n>/identity.json
• .omx/state/team/<team>/workers/worker-<n>/inbox.md
• .omx/state/team/<team>/workers/worker-<n>/heartbeat.json
• .omx/state/team/<team>/workers/worker-<n>/status.json
• .omx/state/team-leader-nudge.json

Team Mutation Interop (CLI-first)

Use omx team api for machine-readable mutation/reads instead of legacy team_* MCP tools.

omx team api <operation> --input '{"team_name":"my-team",...}' --json

Examples:

omx team api send-message --input '{"team_name":"my-team","from_worker":"worker-1","to_worker":"leader-fixed","body":"ACK"}' --json
omx team api claim-task --input '{"team_name":"my-team","task_id":"1","worker":"worker-1"}' --json
omx team api transition-task-status --input '{"team_name":"my-team","task_id":"1","from":"in_progress","to":"completed","claim_token":"<token>"}' --json

--json responses include stable metadata for automation:

• schema_version
• timestamp
• command
• ok
• operation
• data or error

Team + Worker Protocol Notes

Leader-to-worker:

• Write full assignment to worker inbox.md
• Send short trigger (<200 chars) with tmux send-keys

Worker-to-leader:

• Send ACK to leader-fixed mailbox via omx team api send-message --json
• Claim/transition/release task lifecycle via omx team api <operation> --json

Worker commit protocol (critical for incremental integration):

• After completing task work and before reporting completion, workers MUST commit: git add -A && git commit -m "task: <task-subject>"
• This ensures changes are available for incremental integration into the leader branch
• If a worker forgets to commit, the runtime auto-commits as a fallback, but explicit commits are preferred

Task ID rule (critical):

• File path uses task-<id>.json (example task-1.json)
• MCP API task_id uses bare id (example "1", not "task-1")
• Never instruct workers to read tasks/{id}.json

Environment Knobs

Useful runtime env vars:

• OMX_TEAM_READY_TIMEOUT_MS
  • Worker readiness timeout (default 45000)
• OMX_TEAM_SKIP_READY_WAIT=1
  • Skip readiness wait (debug only)
• OMX_TEAM_AUTO_TRUST=0
  • Disable auto-advance for trust prompt (default behavior auto-advances)
• OMX_TEAM_WORKER_LAUNCH_ARGS
  • Extra args passed to worker launch command
• OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI
  • Worker CLI selector: auto|codex|claude (default: auto)
  • auto chooses claude when worker --model contains claude, otherwise codex
  • In claude mode, workers launch with exactly one --dangerously-skip-permissions and ignore explicit model/config/effort launch overrides (uses default settings.json)
• OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI_MAP
  • Per-worker CLI selector (comma-separated auto|codex|claude)
  • Length must be 1 (broadcast) or exactly the team worker count
  • Example: OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI_MAP=codex,codex,claude,claude
  • When present, overrides OMX_TEAM_WORKER_CLI
• OMX_TEAM_AUTO_INTERRUPT_RETRY
  • Trigger submit fallback (default: enabled)
  • 0 disables adaptive queue->resend escalation
• OMX_TEAM_LEADER_NUDGE_MS
  • Leader nudge interval in ms (default 120000)
• OMX_TEAM_STRICT_SUBMIT=1
  • Force strict send-keys submit failure behavior

Failure Modes and Diagnosis

Operator note (important for Claude panes):

• Manual Enter injection (tmux send-keys ... C-m) can appear to "do nothing" when a worker is actively processing; Enter may be queued by the pane/task flow.
• This is not necessarily a runtime bug. Confirm worker/team state before diagnosing dispatch failure.
• Avoid repeated blind Enter spam; it can create noisy duplicate submits once the pane becomes idle.

Safe Manual Intervention (last resort)

Use only after checking omx team status <team> and mailbox/state evidence:

1. Capture pane tail to confirm current worker state:
   • tmux capture-pane -t %<worker-pane> -p -S -120
   • If a larger-tail read or bounded summary would help, prefer explicit opt-in inspection via omx sparkshell --tmux-pane %<worker-pane> --tail-lines 400 before improvising extra tmux commands.
2. If the pane is stuck in an interactive state, safely return to idle prompt first:
   • optional interrupt C-c or escape flow (CLI-specific) once, then re-check pane capture
3. Send one concise trigger (single line) and wait for evidence:
   • tmux send-keys -t %<worker-pane> "ack + continue current task; report status" C-m
4. Re-check:
   • pane output via capture-pane
   • mailbox updates (mailbox/leader-fixed.json or worker mailbox)
   • omx team status <team>

worker_notify_failed:<worker>

Meaning:

• Leader wrote inbox but trigger submit path failed

Checks:

1. tmux list-panes -F '#{pane_id}\t#{pane_start_command}'
2. tmux capture-pane -t %<worker-pane> -p -S -120
3. Verify worker process alive and not stuck on trust prompt
4. Rebuild if running repo-local (npm run build)

Team starts but leader gets no ACK

Checks:

1. Worker pane capture shows inbox processing
2. .omx/state/team/<team>/mailbox/leader-fixed.json exists
3. Worker skill loaded and omx team api send-message --json called
4. Task-id mismatch not blocking worker flow

Worker logs omx team api ... ENOENT (or legacy team_send_message ENOENT / team_update_task ENOENT)

Meaning:

• Team state path no longer exists while worker is still running.
• Typical cause: leader/manual flow ran omx team shutdown <team> (or removed .omx/state/team/<team>) before worker finished.

Checks:

1. omx team status <team> and confirm whether tasks were still in_progress when shutdown occurred
2. Verify whether .omx/state/team/<team>/ exists
3. Inspect worker pane tail for post-shutdown writes
4. Confirm no external cleanup (rm -rf .omx/state/team/<team>) happened during execution

Prevention:

1. Enforce completion gate (no in-progress tasks) before shutdown
2. Use shutdown only for terminal completion or explicit abort
3. If aborting, expect late worker writes to fail and treat ENOENT as expected teardown artifact

Shutdown reports success but stale worker panes remain

Cause:

• stale pane outside config tracking or previous failed run

Fix:

• manual pane cleanup (see clean-slate commands)

Clean-Slate Recovery

Run from leader pane:

# 1) Inspect panes
tmux list-panes -F '#{pane_id}\t#{pane_current_command}\t#{pane_start_command}'

# 2) Kill stale worker panes only (examples)
tmux kill-pane -t %450
tmux kill-pane -t %451

# 3) Remove stale team state (example)
rm -rf .omx/state/team/<team-name>

# 4) Retry
omx team 1:executor "fresh retry"

Guidelines:

• Do not kill leader pane
• Do not kill HUD pane (omx hud --watch) unless intentionally restarting HUD

Required Reporting During Execution

When operating this skill, provide concrete progress evidence:

1. Team started line (Team started: <name>)
2. tmux target and worker pane presence
3. leader mailbox ACK path/content check
4. status/shutdown outcomes

Do not claim success without file/pane evidence. Do not claim clean completion if shutdown occurred with in_progress>0. Use omx sparkshell --tmux-pane ... as an explicit opt-in operator aid for pane inspection and summaries; keep raw tmux capture-pane evidence available for manual intervention and proof.

MCP Job Lifecycle Tools

For programmatic or agent-driven team spawning (as opposed to interactive CLI use), OMX exposes four MCP tools via the team-server:

Tool	Description
omx_run_team_start	Spawn tmux CLI workers in the background; returns a jobId immediately
omx_run_team_status	Non-blocking status check for a running job
omx_run_team_wait	Block until the job completes, with automatic idle-pane nudging
omx_run_team_cleanup	Kill worker tmux panes for a job (early stop only)

CLI vs MCP Tools

• omx team ... CLI — Primary method for interactive team orchestration. Use this when you are operating inside a live tmux session and want direct pane visibility.
• omx_run_team_* MCP tools — For programmatic or agent-driven team spawning (analogous to OMC's omc_run_team_* tools). Use these when an agent needs to launch workers, poll status, and collect results without manual intervention.

Naming Distinction

Two cleanup tools exist and must not be confused:

• team_cleanup (state-server): Deletes team state files on disk (.omx/state/team/<team>/). Use after a team run is fully complete.
• omx_run_team_cleanup (team-server): Kills tmux worker panes for a job. Use only when stopping workers early; otherwise omx_run_team_wait handles natural termination.

Basic Usage Example

1. omx_run_team_start({
     teamName: "fix-bugs",
     agentTypes: ["codex"],
     tasks: [{ subject: "Fix bug", description: "..." }],
     cwd: "/path/to/project"
   })
   → Returns { jobId: "omx-abc123" }

2. omx_run_team_wait({ job_id: "omx-abc123", timeout_ms: 300000 })
   → Blocks until done, auto-nudges idle panes

3. omx_run_team_cleanup({ job_id: "omx-abc123" })
   → Only needed if stopping workers early

omx_run_team_status can be called between steps 1 and 2 for a non-blocking poll if you need to interleave other work while workers run.

Limitations

• Worktree provisioning requires a git repository and can fail on branch/path collisions
• send-keys interactions can be timing-sensitive under load
• stale panes from prior runs can interfere until manually cleaned

Scenario Examples

Good: The user says continue after the workflow already has a clear next step. Continue the current branch of work instead of restarting or re-asking the same question.

Good: The user changes only the output shape or downstream delivery step (for example make a PR). Preserve earlier non-conflicting workflow constraints and apply the update locally.

Bad: The user says continue, and the workflow restarts discovery or stops before the missing verification/evidence is gathered.