staff-session git:20261030.75d93d5A

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/4193587a72c7e5b1.

---
name: staff-session
description: "PM-GATED, never from a subagent. Chatty-Workflow review for architecture calls."
allowed-tools: ["Agent", "Read", "Write", "Bash", "Glob", "Grep", "Workflow"]
argument-hint: "--mode plan|review --tier standard|full [--members \"the Staff Engineer,the Director of Engineering,...\"] <input>"
---

# Staff Session — Chatty-Workflow Planning and Review Driver

The EM scopes the work, selects the debaters, fires ONE background `Workflow`, and is **freed**;
the Workflow runs the debate as rounds and synthesizes autonomously. Roles, models and counts:
`pipelines/staff-session/team-protocol.md` § Roles.

**Lightweight tier falls through to single-reviewer dispatch via `/review` (plan) or
`/review-code` (code) — no Workflow fired.**

## Step 1 — Arguments and Setup

`$ARGUMENTS`: `--mode plan|review` and `--tier lightweight|standard|full` (both required — fail
with usage message if missing; `standard` = 2 debaters, `full` = 3-5), optional `--members
"persona-a,..."` overriding auto-selection, and `<input>` (plan mode: objectives document/text;
review mode: artifact path).

Generate run ID (`YYYY-MM-DD-HHhMM`), spawn timestamp, topic slug from input. Create
`docs/research/{run-id}-workdir/`. Output path: plan mode → `docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-{topic-slug}.md`; review
mode → `state/review-findings/YYYY-MM-DD-{topic-slug}-staff-review.md`. Advisory path:
`{scratch-dir}/advisory.md`. Announce: "Running `/staff-session --mode {mode} --tier {tier}` on '{topic}'."

## Step 2 — Tier Routing

**`--tier lightweight`:** do NOT fire a Workflow. Route to `/review` (plan artifacts) or
`/review-code` (code artifacts) with the specified member (default `the Staff Engineer`). Announce and
**STOP — the rest of this command does not execute.** `standard`/`full` → Step 3.

## Step 3 — Scope (EM Direct)

Write `{scratch-dir}/scope.md` per the template in `pipelines/staff-session/templates-and-fields.md`
§ Step 3. Plan mode: EM writes objectives and constraints only — never the plan. Review mode: EM
provides artifact path and focus areas only — never pre-formed findings.

## Step 4 — Select Debaters

`--members` specified → those exact slugs are the debater list. Not specified → match topic + scope
to a domain category (the one piece of genuine judgment this step retains). For `--tier full`,
judgment-select 1-3 additional personas and append to an explicit override list.

**Resolve the roster via the CLI, not a hand-maintained table:**

Shape W (rung 0) — ladder and shapes: `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/snippets/resolve-coordinator-bin.md`.
    `& "$env:COORDINATOR_SETTINGS_HOME\bin\staff-session-assemble.exe" --session-mode <plan|review> (--domain-signal "<category>" | --slug <slug> [--slug <slug> ...]) --json`

Returns `{personas: [{slug, agent_file, subagent_type}, ...], narration, source}`. Fails loud on an
unresolvable domain signal, unknown slug, or `the Director of Engineering` as a debater — surface that error to the PM
verbatim. `the Director of Engineering` is never a debater slug — fixed synthesizer identity (`coordinator:eng-director`,
Step 6). Resolver mechanics: wiki. Debater count: `standard` = 2 (default pair), `full` = 3-5.
Announce the resolved `personas[].slug` debaters plus the staff synthesizer to the PM before firing.

## Step 5 — Fill Prompts

Templates are not filled by hand: `staff-session.manifest.yaml` names them and the Workflow reads
per-run values from `scope.md`. Complete `{scratch-dir}/scope.md` with the run fields, the output
and advisory paths, and the Roster table from Step 4's `personas[]` (`slug`, `subagent_type` as
`agent_type`, persona name, perspective, `agent_file`) — see
`pipelines/staff-session/templates-and-fields.md` § Template vocabulary and the brief. Create
`{scratch-dir}/mail/`.

## Step 6 — Fire the Workflow

The EM supplies the brief and roster, never a script; CLI resolved per
`${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/snippets/resolve-coordinator-bin.md` (on PowerShell: `& "$env:COORDINATOR_SETTINGS_HOME\bin\emit-dispatch-workflow.exe"` with the same flags):

    ${COORDINATOR_SETTINGS_HOME:-${CLAUDE_HOME:-$HOME}/.coordinator-claude-settings}/bin/emit-dispatch-workflow --pipeline staff-session --brief {scratch-dir}/scope.md --flag mode=<plan|review> --list roster=<slug>=<agent_type>,<slug>=<agent_type>,... --out {scratch-dir}/staff-session.workflow.mjs

`--list roster` carries one `slug=agent_type` per debater (`agent_type` is Step 4's
`subagent_type`, never hardcoded); `--flag mode` is required. Fire the printed `Workflow` line as
ONE background `Workflow`; the synthesizer (`coordinator:eng-director`) is the only output to the EM.

## Step 7 — EM Is Freed

Tell the PM the topic, debater names, and that you will be notified on completion. **You are now
free to continue with the PM.** Do not poll, monitor, or message the agents.

## Step 8 — On Workflow Completion Notification

1. Read `{output-path}`; verify substantive content (not just headers/a stub).
2. Mode-specific verification: plan mode → `## Implementation Plan` section with
   tasks/files/steps, and the marker `**Review:** Staff session ({participants}) — debated and
   synthesized. Ready for enrichment.` present byte-exact (this line is the single authoritative
   producer copy `enrich-and-review`'s gate matches against — never hand-type a second copy).
   Review mode → findings structured with severities/persona attributions, `## Verdict` line
   present.
3. Check for advisory: `test -f {scratch-dir}/advisory.md`; read if present.
4. Commit the output artifact, scoped to `{output-path}` (`git commit -m … -- {output-path}`), message `staff-session: {mode} —
   {topic-slug}`. Then commit the paper trail as an explicit file list, not the whole workdir —
   `{scratch-dir}/scope.md`, `*-position.md`, `synthesis.md`, and `advisory.md` when written — message
   `staff-session: paper trail — {topic-slug}`; the archive op in item 5 cannot archive an
   untracked workdir; detail: wiki.
5. Archive-and-cleanup: invoke `fleet.archive_paper_trail` with `run_id={run-id}`,
   `topic_slug={topic-slug}`, `dry_run=false`. Moves `{scratch-dir}` to
   `docs/research/archive/YYYY-MM-DD-{topic-slug}/`, lands one scoped commit, removes the source
   tree. Safe no-op on re-run. Mechanics and CLI-trampoline caveat: wiki.
6. Present to PM: mode-specific framing ("ready for `/enrich-and-review`" / "synthesized
   findings"), 2-3 bullet executive summary, output path, and — if advisory exists — a pointer to
   the archived advisory.

## Error Handling

See `pipelines/staff-session/templates-and-fields.md` § Error Handling Matrix (debater crash,
synthesizer failure, Workflow refusal, non-convergence, unknown slug, missing output).