git:20261005.759f2d9 to git:20261005.dd93524

5 added, 5 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: choosing-graph

description: Use at the start of Straw Boss work, and when its coordination shape changes.

---

## Coordination graphs

- State the graph before work starts, using the first matching case:

+ Default to single-loop and state nothing; state the graph only when it is fan-out or orchestrator-worker. Use the first matching case:

- **single-loop** — one bounded task carried by one agent, including coordination of one dispatch.

- **sub-agent fan-out/fan-in** — independent work branches run in subagents and their caller integrates the results. Work needing the target app's own harness uses an app-rooted dispatch.

- **orchestrator-worker** — multiple app-rooted workers coordinated through status events, including capped batches and dependency plans.

An independent review is a checkpoint, so it does not change the graph.

Only `orchestrator-worker` writes `~/.straw-boss/plans/<slug>/plan.json`, through [boss-say](../boss-say/SKILL.md#plan-and-schedule).

The other graphs create no Straw Boss plan or repo-local spec.

A dispatch's instruction, contract, and status under `~/.straw-boss/dispatch/` are lifecycle records, archived at wrap-up.

The app's own development artifacts follow its local workflow.

## Reality anchors

The main agent names the anchor and checkpoint; the worker and user choose the verification method inside that anchor.

- - **testing** — default for programming changes. Use the smallest credible seam that can go red before the change and the tests that reach the changed code, plus the app's own verification commands such as its test script, lint, and type check; escalate to integration or E2E according to the app's conventions.

+ - **testing** — default for programming changes. Use the smallest check that can go red before the change and reaches the changed code. The repo-wide suite, lint, and type check belong to the shared checkpoint or the pre-merge run below, not to each task.

- **pseudo-human** — a browser or computer operates the real interface, with screenshots and measurements as evidence.

- **human** — the user operates or judges the delivered artifact. Ask about pseudo-human only when the user's risk judgment is unresolved.

- **adversarial-review** — a fresh-context agent challenges the result against the requirement and evidence references. Use this for read-only work with no credible executable or operable checkpoint.

Naming the anchor settles where its checkpoint runs.

Tasks that share one anchor and one checkpoint take a single checkpoint dispatch over the whole group.

A repo-wide command returns the same verdict for every task touching that app, so the suite, lint, and type check run once over the integrated result: at the group's checkpoint, or before merge for a lone task.

A task whose checkpoint is distinct, or plainly cheaper exercised in place, carries its own.

For frontend human or pseudo-human checkpoints, assign a reachable address through [shared-resource coordination](../dispatching-work/references/shared-resource-coordination.md#ports) before dispatch.

## Review checkpoint

Review one coherent programming change-set once, after implementation and primary verification.

- When naming the anchor, the main agent assigns a fresh-context reviewer to a change-set that touches a shared contract, authorization or permission data, a migration, several modules, or durable work, because author self-review has missed correctness findings there; any other change-set takes its disposition from the author's read of its own diff against the brief.

+ When naming the anchor, the main agent assigns a fresh-context reviewer to a change-set that touches a shared contract, authorization or permission data, or a migration, because author self-review has missed correctness findings there; any other change-set takes its disposition from the author's read of its own diff against the brief.

Correctness and contract findings return to the work loop, and nits receive an explicit disposition.

- A shared checkpoint belongs to the main agent: one [checkpoint task](../boss-say/SKILL.md#plan-and-schedule) exercises the anchor itself over the group's finished change-sets and reports its findings.

+ A shared checkpoint belongs to the main agent and runs as a checkpoint task, as [boss-say](../boss-say/SKILL.md#plan-and-schedule) describes.

The lifecycle owner confirms the completion reference and records the review disposition against it.

- Reuse an existing disposition for the same change-set; changed code or unresolved findings reopen the relevant check.

+ Reuse an existing disposition for the same change-set. After fixes, the same reviewer re-checks only the P0/P1 fix diff, once; the author disposes of P2 and below.

A task carrying its own checkpoint reaches it through [wrap-up](../dispatching-work/SKILL.md#wrap-up); current-agent work through [shipping-task](../shipping-task/SKILL.md#complete-the-lifecycle).

**Complete when:** graph, anchor, and checkpoint are established; a completed programming change has its confirmed reference and review disposition.