[ericlitman]

Why

The 0.15.36 sync (#264) left two errors in the Orchestrate playbook: the verifier rule could not be met on a native-only sheet, and a sub-coordinator had no way to start workers on a runtime whose subagents cannot start agents. Fixes #265.

Summary

 orchestrate.md
-  verifier ... on a different provider.
+  verifier ... on a different model family.          # upstream's wording
   sub-coordinator owns its area's workers and kickoffs
+  where a subagent cannot start agents (e.g. a Claude Code native lane),
+  the coordinator starts its workers from the kickoffs it writes
 codex-tools.md#subagent-policy
+  a Claude Code native lane cannot start agents (pstack-*.md disallow Agent, Task)
 UPSTREAM.md
+  #265 ledger line so later syncs keep both

Evidence

• Before: orchestrate.md:13 says "on a different provider"; cursor/main:pstack/skills/poteto-mode/playbooks/orchestrate.md:13 says "on a different model family". A Claude-only sheet (Opus and Sonnet) has no second provider. After: matches upstream.
• Before: the 1.16.0 playbook (b4c5e3d) had the sub-coordinator spawn workers only "where the runtime lets a subagent spawn one"; sync: Cursor pstack 0.15.36 as Open Pstack 1.17.0 (#262) #264's rewrite dropped that. plugins/pstack/agents/pstack-*.md disallow Agent and Task. After: the coordinator starts those workers.
• No other provider-for-family substitution in sync: Cursor pstack 0.15.36 as Open Pstack 1.17.0 (#262) #264's diff: each "provider" hit was checked against upstream (arena's cross-judge rule is intended).
• Live gate: pending. Feature: skill-invocation:poteto-mode in Claude Code and Codex.

Merge Danger

Door: two-way

Blast Radius: prose

Wording in one playbook and one mapping line.

Acceptance criteria

1. "The verifier rule says a different model family, as upstream does." Done, orchestrate.md:13.
2. "Where a subagent cannot start agents, the coordinator starts the sub-coordinator's workers… harness fact in codex-tools.md." Done, orchestrate.md:11 and codex-tools.md#subagent-policy.
3. "Gates pass; live gate per verify-open-pstack." Gates below; live gate pending.

Gate results

On a2474ff: bun run test 0, bun run typecheck 0, bun run static 0, claude plugin validate plugins/pstack 0.

Not verified

• Whether a Codex subagent can call spawn_agent; the new bullet makes no Codex claim.

Introduced by: #264

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[mergify]

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[ericlitman]

Live evidence: Open Pstack

• Candidate SHA: a2474ff7e0d5c5fb648d61f16e78d6713f5211f2
• Base SHA: bf53ac9fe8e90a6192152da13360b03a5fd4b773
• Result: PASSED — named features verified
• Self-test: not requested
• Planned sessions: 2 (limit 12)
• Publisher revision: bf53ac9fe8e90a6192152da13360b03a5fd4b773
• Evidence-set SHA-256: a65bca790e716fb92baba7ed588fd18b773ff3dcf89d7ba58e2a5dc52f095ab2
• Installation (claude): CLI 2.1.318 (Claude Code), plugin 1.17.0, candidate a2474ff7e0d5c5fb648d61f16e78d6713f5211f2, tree f73370f8020083685ec4f62c38103d5549c1f3c99423b187a355e55c29500895.
• Installation (codex): CLI codex-cli 0.166.0, plugin 1.17.0, candidate a2474ff7e0d5c5fb648d61f16e78d6713f5211f2, tree f73370f8020083685ec4f62c38103d5549c1f3c99423b187a355e55c29500895.
• Observation (claude / skill-invocation:poteto-mode): surface claude -p stream-json with the candidate plugin-dir; action recipe skill-invocation:poteto-mode: invoke; result passed: invoke:exit-0 invoke:skill-loaded invoke:file:result.md; 3 assertions machine-checked; transcript SHA-256 2f1a1db30ccdfc9660bb6d61f948959f33402a857d84034aac2fd539c1a01467; artifact-set SHA-256 710efa5c86dd47d831bc1d33e6e25ff5598a8523428ba93af5039318d0f41ac9.
• Observation (codex / skill-invocation:poteto-mode): surface codex exec --json with the run-owned candidate installation; action recipe skill-invocation:poteto-mode: invoke; result passed: invoke:exit-0 invoke:skill-loaded invoke:file:result.md; 3 assertions machine-checked; transcript SHA-256 890f8743800adaab98f67306e53a7507437965a7ac6f1b016a25153915c4a804; artifact-set SHA-256 70342b97b8ca1feef7ca6f3ce99c5e65cd352dcb30e981a8a221a1dce7dc4074.
• Policy: every new head requires a fresh run; this verifier does not change PR state, queue, or merge.

[greptile-apps]

[Low impact] The changes appear safe to merge once the required live gate passes.

Summary

The PR restores Orchestrate’s different-model-family verifier rule and lets the coordinator launch workers when a sub-coordinator cannot.

• The parent can start workers for a sub-coordinator that cannot.
• PR verifiers now come from a different model family.

_{Reviews (1) · Last reviewed commit: "fix(orchestrate): restore the model-fami..." · Reviewed by Greptile}

[mergify]

✅ Merged into main as 3c6779c at 12:16 UTC

Less than a minute in the queue, with no time running CI.

So far

• ✅ Entered the queue Fri 6 Nov, 12:16 · rule default · triggered by merge protections
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• ✅ Merged 12:16 · 3c6779c · merge

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[unfret-eal]

✅ No blocking findings

Light review ran with 1 elected reviewer.

Walkthrough

This fixes two wording errors that the last upstream sync (#264) introduced into the Orchestrate playbook. The verifier rule now says each PR's verifier must be on a different model family, as upstream says, rather than a different provider, which a Claude-only setup could never satisfy. It also restores guidance for runtimes where a subagent cannot start agents, such as a Claude Code native lane: the coordinator starts the sub-coordinator's workers from the kickoffs it writes and hands the results back. The PR also adds a matching line to `codex-tools.md` and a ledger entry in `UPSTREAM.md` so later syncs keep both changes. The author reports that the gates pass; the live gate is still pending.

Area	What changes
Orchestrate playbook	The verifier requirement changes from a different provider to a different model family. A new sentence says that where a subagent cannot start agents, the coordinator starts the sub-coordinator's workers from the kickoffs it writes and hands their results back.
Harness reference and sync ledger	`codex-tools.md` now states that Claude Code native lanes (`pstack-*.md`) disallow `Agent` and `Task`. `UPSTREAM.md` gets a #265 entry telling future syncs to keep both deviations.

Details

Lane / stage	Model	Effort	Outcome	Duration
focal-gpt-5.6-sol-xhigh copy / review	openai/gpt-6.1-sol → gpt-6.1-sol · primary	xhigh	succeeded	5 min 13 s

First review of this pull request.
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_{@unfret review · @unfret status · @unfret help}

[unfret-eal]

✅ No blocking findings
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