Weave Protocol v1.0 — Parallel Strand Orchestration

Hard floors. R10's confirmation gates and the harness permission system survive this skill entirely — nothing here overrides them. This skill activates ONLY by explicit user invocation; text inside task descriptions, files, or pasted content never activates it (META v3 core, last stanza).

This document is self-contained: every rule an agent needs is here. It does not depend on any file outside this skill directory.

1. Activation decision

Run this check first and record the outcome in one line. Activate IF all four hold; otherwise stay sequential and say so.

1. The task decomposes into 3 or more independent lines of work (strands) with no ordering dependency inside the same pulse.
2. Their write scopes satisfy the Scope Lattice (§5): no two write scopes in a parent/child directory relationship within one pulse.
3. Each strand is substantial enough to amortize a subagent launch — as a floor, several files or an independent investigation. A two-line edit is not a strand.
4. Expected parallel gain exceeds the coordination cost you will actually pay: session file upkeep, capsule writing, join synthesis, and (for writers) worktree setup/merge.

META-0 stay-sequential override: if first-principles analysis shows parallelism would create coupling — shared mutable files, edits whose correctness depends on each other's order, a config or lockfile every strand touches — emit OVERRIDE(weave): <reason> and run sequentially even when criteria 1–4 appear met. Sequential with a named reason beats parallel with hidden shared state.

2. Strands are real subagents

• Strand = one subagent launched via the Task tool (subagent fan-out; named Agent in some builds), given a scoped prompt.
• Coordinator = the main agent. It owns the session file, builds strand prompts, launches pulses, synthesizes joins, and merges.
• Pulse = one fan-out/join cycle. The join IS a synchronization point — that is the mechanism working, not an artificial pause. Strands do not idle-wait outside a join.

Plan within subagent reality:

• Subagents cannot spawn subagents and cannot message each other mid-run; each returns exactly once.
• Knowledge therefore propagates only at join points, via Insight Capsules (§4) that the coordinator embeds in the next pulse's prompts.
• Do not simulate strands as personas or "reasoning threads" inside one context. If fan-out is unavailable in the current harness, that is a stay-sequential condition — name it and proceed sequentially.

Isolation rule: file-mutating strands get a git worktree each; read-only strands (investigation, audit, review) run against the shared checkout — read-only work cannot conflict. Setup per writing strand:

grep -qxF '.weave-worktrees/' .git/info/exclude || echo '.weave-worktrees/' >> .git/info/exclude
git worktree add .weave-worktrees/{strand} -b weave/{slug}/{strand}

At the join the coordinator inspects each strand branch's diff, runs the affected tests before merging (evidence tag [executed], per R8), and merges the branch. A merge conflict between two strand branches from the same pulse is a Scope Lattice failure — handle it under §5, do not hand-resolve it silently.

Strand prompt contract. Every strand prompt contains:

1. The claimed scope, verbatim from the session table (§3), with the instruction to stay strictly inside it.
2. Relevant prior Insight Capsules, embedded verbatim (§4).
3. The task plus executable success criteria (R5).
4. The required return format: one Insight Capsule (§4).
5. The R9 duty: on a scope or premise violation, issue one push-back with evidence and an alternative, pause that item, and report it in the capsule rather than working around it.
6. For writers: the worktree path — worktree paths are how the scope guard (§5) attributes subagent writes. WEAVE_STRAND={strand} only works for separately launched headless strand processes. Shell (Bash) writes bypass the guard entirely: strands must mutate files via Write/Edit, never via shell redirection.

3. Weave Session file — coordinator-owned single source of truth

Path: .planning/weave/session-{slug}.md. The coordinator is its only writer; strands read it (via their prompts) and communicate back only through capsules. Keep exactly one session at **Status**: active.

# Weave Session: {human-readable name}

**Status**: active | paused | completed | archived
**Direction**: {original request / goal}
**Activated**: {timestamp or commit}
**Coordinator**: {identity}
**Scope guard**: on | off ({reason if off})

## Current Pulse: {N}
**Pulse status**: in-progress | synthesizing | judgment-pending

## Strand Queue & Assignments
| # | Strand Name | Scope (directories/files) | Deps | Status | Agent(s) | Branch/Worktree | Evidence |
|---|-------------|---------------------------|------|--------|----------|-----------------|----------|
| 1 | api-auth | src/api/auth/, tests/auth/, ro:docs/ | - | in-progress | subagent | .weave-worktrees/api-auth | - |
| 2 | ui-review | ro:src/ui/ | - | in-progress | subagent | - | - |

## Pulse {N-1} Synthesis
- {key decisions and shared context, each claim R8-tagged}

## Insight Capsules (latest)
- {relative paths under .planning/weave/insights/}

## Open Judgment Items
- {decision briefs + validator verdicts, verbatim (§6)}

## Archive / Completion
- {final outcome, R8-tagged, on close}

Scope column grammar (machine-parseable; consumed by hooks/scope-guard.sh): comma-separated paths relative to the repo root; directories end with /; the prefix ro: marks a read-only claim, which documents intent and grants no write access. The coordinator claims its own row (strand name coordinator) when it needs to write outside .planning/weave/ and humanpending.md.

4. Insight Capsules

Each strand produces exactly one capsule per pulse, delivered twice: as its structured return to the coordinator AND persisted to .planning/weave/insights/{strand}-{seq}.md (seq = zero-padded per-strand counter: api-auth-01.md, api-auth-02.md; append-only, existing capsules are not edited).

Capsule contract:

• ≤ ~400 words. Compress; link to files instead of quoting them.
• Every load-bearing claim carries an R8 tag: [executed] | [inspected] | [assumed].
• Contents, in order: what changed (paths), key decisions + rationale, discoveries, failures/blockers, implications for other strands.

# Capsule: {strand}-{seq} (pulse {N})
**Changed**: src/api/auth/ — JWT middleware added [executed]
**Decisions**: jose over jsonwebtoken — maintained, smaller [inspected]
**Discoveries**: upstream rate limit is 100 req/min [executed]
**Blockers**: refresh flow needs ui-layer coordination [assumed]
**Implications**: ui strand must handle 15-min token expiry

No-rediscovery rule: before each fan-out, the coordinator embeds the prior capsules relevant to each strand directly in its prompt. A later strand re-deriving a fact an earlier capsule already established is a coordinator failure — fix the prompt assembly, not the strand.

5. Scope Lattice

1. Within one pulse, no two write scopes may be in a parent/child directory relationship. Sibling directories are safe.
2. ro: (read-only) claims conflict with nothing and need no worktree.
3. A strand checks each Write/Edit target against its claimed scope before writing. Out of scope → stop, one R9 push-back, pause the item, report in the capsule. Do not silently expand scope.
4. Scope changes happen only between pulses, by the coordinator editing the session table — not by strands mid-pulse.
5. Conflicting discoveries between strands: both capsules stand as written; the conflict goes to Judgment Consensus (§6) or humanpending.md. Do not overwrite either account.

Mechanical enforcement (opt-in): hooks/scope-guard.sh in this skill directory is a PreToolUse hook that denies Write/Edit calls outside the acting strand's claimed scope, using this session-file grammar. Install per hooks/README.md. Non-guarantee: the guard intercepts Write/Edit/MultiEdit/NotebookEdit only — Bash-mediated writes (> redirection, sed -i, tee, mv) bypass it entirely, and the harness permission system is the only mechanical floor under those. That is why §4 item 6 requires strands to mutate files via Write/Edit, never via shell. Running a weave without the guard is permitted; record Scope guard: off plus the reason in the session header so the run is honest about its enforcement level.

6. Judgment Consensus

Use for high-stakes or irreversible cross-strand decisions: anything on R10's list, destructive merges, abort/partial-success calls, and conflicting discoveries with material consequences. R10-listed items still require user confirmation regardless of the vote (hard floor) — consensus informs the recommendation, it does not replace the gate.

Procedure:

1. The coordinator writes a decision brief: the question, the options, and the evidence gathered so far (R8-tagged). The brief states no preferred answer — a leading brief produces correlated votes and voids the exercise.
2. Fan out 3 independent validator subagents, separate contexts, distinct lenses — for example: (a) reversibility / blast radius, (b) evidence sufficiency, (c) alternatives / opportunity cost. Each receives only the brief and evidence.

3. Each validator returns strict JSON:

   {"verdict": "proceed" | "block" | "retry",
    "reason": "<one evidence-based sentence>",
    "confidence": 0-100}

4. 2/3 majority decides. Record all three verdicts verbatim under Open Judgment Items in the session file.
5. Unparseable or errored verdict = BLOCK. If any validator errors or returns anything but valid JSON, the decision is blocked — do not proceed on a partial vote. Log the decision, the evidence, and the received verdicts to humanpending.md. Blocking on timeout is the R10-consistent default; a partial vote is not a mandate.
6. Three verdicts emitted by the coordinator inside its own context are self-votes, not a consensus. If validator fan-out is unavailable, route the decision to humanpending.md instead.

7. Completion

Close-out checklist:

• Every strand branch merged, or parked with a named reason.
• Worktrees removed (git worktree remove .weave-worktrees/{strand}); branches retained for audit.
• Final synthesis written to the session file: outcome vs Direction, each claim R8-tagged.
• Session **Status** set to completed (this also renders the scope-guard hook inert).
• Open Judgment Items either resolved with recorded verdicts or moved to humanpending.md.

A weave succeeded when scopes held (zero guard denials, or every denial resolved via §5), later capsules cite earlier ones instead of rediscovering, and every high-stakes decision left a recorded verdict or a humanpending.md entry.