agent-orchestration

IMPORTANT: EXECUTION CONTEXT This skill describes what to do — domain patterns and decision-making. It does NOT describe how to call the API.

1. If you have wsh_* tools (check your toolkit for wsh_send_input, wsh_get_screen, etc.): use them directly. Operation names in this skill generally map to tool names (e.g., "send input" → wsh_send_input). When in doubt, list your available wsh_* tools.
2. If you do NOT have wsh_* tools: you are in HTTP/curl fallback mode. DO NOT GUESS endpoints or CLI subcommands. Load the full API reference first: search your workspace for skills/core/ and read SKILL.md. It contains every endpoint with working curl examples and a bootstrap sequence.
3. Quick bootstrap: curl -sf --unix-socket ${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:-/tmp}/wsh/default.http.sock http://localhost/health — if that fails: wsh server -L agent-$$ --ephemeral & and retry.

wsh:agent-orchestration — Driving AI Agents

You can use wsh to launch and drive other AI agents — Claude Code, Aider, Codex, or any AI tool with a terminal interface. This is not science fiction. You spawn the agent in a wsh session, feed it tasks, handle its approval prompts, and review its output. You become a manager of AI workers.

Why?

• Parallelism. You can run 5 Claude Code sessions simultaneously, each working on a different task.
• Delegation. Break a large project into subtasks and assign each to an agent session.
• Specialization. Different agents have different strengths. Orchestrate the right tool for each job.
• Automation. Unattended workflows — an agent that spawns agents, reviews their work, and merges the results.

Launching an Agent

Create a session with the agent as its command:

create session "agent-auth" with command: claude --print "Implement user auth in src/auth.rs"

Or start a shell and launch the agent interactively:

create session "agent-auth"
send: claude
wait for idle
read screen — verify Claude Code has started
send: Implement user authentication in src/auth.rs\n

The interactive approach gives you more control — you can set up the environment first, then launch the agent.

Agent Interaction Patterns

AI agents aren't like regular CLI programs. They produce long bursts of output, pause to think, ask for approval, and sometimes wait indefinitely for human input. You need to recognize these states.

The Agent Lifecycle

Most AI terminal agents follow this pattern:

1. Startup — banner, loading, initialization
2. Thinking — reading files, planning (may be quiet
   for seconds or minutes)
3. Working — producing output, writing code, running
   commands
4. Approval — asking permission before a tool use or
   destructive action
5. Waiting — idle, expecting the next task
6. Repeat from 2

Detecting Agent State

Startup: Look for the agent's banner or welcome message. Each agent has a recognizable one. Wait for it before sending input.

Thinking: The terminal may be silent for extended periods. This is normal — don't assume it's stuck. Use longer idle timeouts (10-30 seconds) and poll patiently. Look for spinner characters or progress indicators.

Approval prompts: These are critical. Look for patterns like:

• "Allow?" "Approve?" "Proceed?" "Y/n"
• "Do you want to run this command?"
• A tool call description followed by a prompt
• Highlighted or bold text asking for confirmation

Waiting for input: After completing a task, the agent shows a prompt for the next instruction. Look for an input indicator — a cursor, a >, or an explicit "What would you like to do?" message.

Idle Detection Is Tricky with Agents

Agents think. Thinking produces no output. An idle timeout of 2 seconds will trigger constantly during thinking phases. Use longer timeouts (10-30 seconds) and always read the screen to distinguish "thinking" from "waiting for input."

When re-polling, use last_generation or fresh=true to avoid busy-loop storms where the server responds immediately because nothing has changed since the last check.

Feeding Tasks

Keep instructions clear and self-contained. The agent can't ask you clarifying questions — or rather, it can, but you need to detect and answer them programmatically.

Good Task Instructions

Be specific. Include context the agent needs:

send: Add input validation to the POST /users endpoint. \
Reject requests where email is missing or malformed. \
Return 400 with a JSON error body.\n

Not:

send: fix the users endpoint\n

Scoping Tasks

Prefer small, well-defined tasks over large ambiguous ones. An agent working on "implement the entire auth system" will make many decisions you might disagree with. An agent working on "add bcrypt password hashing to the User model" has less room to go sideways.

Handling Approvals

Many agents ask for permission before taking actions. You have three strategies:

Auto-Approve Everything

If you trust the agent and the task is low-risk, configure it to skip approvals:

send: claude --dangerously-skip-permissions\n

Only do this for isolated, low-stakes work. Never for production systems.

Selective Approval

Read the approval prompt, decide whether to approve:

read screen
# See: "Run command: npm install express?"
# Looks safe.
send: y\n

read screen
# See: "Run command: rm -rf /tmp/build"
# Inspect further before approving.

Reject and Redirect

If the agent proposes something wrong, reject and explain:

send: n\n
wait, read
send: Don't delete that directory. Use a fresh \
build directory at /tmp/build-new instead.\n

Reviewing Output

After the agent finishes a task, review what it did:

read screen — see the final status
read scrollback — see the full conversation

Look for: files changed, commands run, errors encountered, tests passed or failed. The scrollback is your audit trail.

Multi-Agent Coordination

The real power is running multiple agents in parallel. Each gets its own session, its own task, its own workspace.

The Delegation Pattern

1. Plan — break the project into independent subtasks
2. Spawn — create a session for each subtask
3. Launch — start an agent in each session with its task
4. Monitor — poll sessions, handle approvals
5. Review — read each agent's output when it finishes
6. Integrate — merge the results

Monitoring Multiple Agents

Poll round-robin with short idle timeouts. You're looking for approval prompts that need your attention:

for each agent session:
    await idle (timeout_ms=3000)
    read screen
    if approval prompt detected:
        evaluate and respond
    if task complete:
        review output, clean up session
    if still working:
        move to next session

Agents that are thinking or working need no intervention. Focus your attention on agents that are blocked waiting for approval or input.

Workspace Isolation

Give each agent its own workspace to avoid conflicts. Agents editing the same files simultaneously will corrupt each other's work:

# Use git worktrees for code tasks
send to "setup": git worktree add /tmp/agent-auth feature/auth
send to "setup": git worktree add /tmp/agent-api feature/api

create session "agent-auth", cwd: /tmp/agent-auth
create session "agent-api", cwd: /tmp/agent-api

Or use separate branches, separate directories, or separate repositories. The key principle: agents that might touch the same files must not run in parallel without isolation.

Passing Results Between Agents

Agents can't talk to each other directly. Use the filesystem as the communication channel:

# Agent 1 produces an artifact
agent-1 writes to /tmp/api-spec.json

# You read it and feed it to Agent 2
read /tmp/api-spec.json
send to agent-2: Implement the client based on the
API spec at /tmp/api-spec.json\n

Pitfalls

Don't Over-Parallelize

More agents isn't always better. Each agent consumes resources — API rate limits, CPU, memory. And each agent you run is one more you need to monitor. Start with 2-3 agents and scale up once you're comfortable with the monitoring rhythm.

Watch for Agents Talking to Each Other Accidentally

If two agents are running in the same git repo without workspace isolation, one agent's changes (file writes, branch switches, dependency installs) will affect the other. This causes bizarre failures that are hard to diagnose. Always isolate.

Infinite Loops

An agent can get stuck — retrying a failing command, asking itself a question, or endlessly editing a file. If you notice an agent producing repetitive output without progress, intervene:

send: Stop. The current approach isn't working. \
Try a different strategy.\n

If it persists, Ctrl+C and give it a fresh start with clearer instructions.

Don't Forget Cleanup

Agent sessions with worktrees, temp files, and running processes leave debris. When the orchestration is done:

• Exit or kill all agent sessions
• Remove worktrees: git worktree remove /tmp/agent-auth
• Clean up temp files
• Verify the main repo is in a clean state

Know When Not to Orchestrate

If the task requires deep understanding of a complex system, one focused agent with good context will outperform three agents with shallow context. Orchestration works best when tasks are genuinely independent and well-specified. If tasks are tightly coupled, work them sequentially in a single session.