A workflow is a sequence of stages, each with a role prompt template, a vendor and model, typed artifact inputs and outputs, an optional gate, and optional review profiles. Definitions, prompt templates and review profiles live on the server, not in repos, and export and import as files. A task freezes its workflow definition at intake, so later edits to the workflow don't change running tasks. No general DAG engine until a real workflow needs one.
- Stages, gates and bounded loops
Gates are human approval through the inbox, a review pass or an eval pass. Loops are bounded, for example `on_fail: { goto: build, max: 3, then: escalate }`.
- Plan artifact
A versioned artifact with goal, approach, steps, acceptance criteria, risks and open questions. Humans edit it through the inbox; agents propose edits, which go to the inbox for approval. Stored on the server and attached to merges with git notes, never committed. A plan-conformance review profile compares the diff with it.
- Eval stages
Report pass or fail per acceptance criterion of the plan.
- Task intake
Pick a workflow, fill its inputs (a brief, attachments, linked GitHub issues, handoff bundles from other tasks), and optionally override vendors, models, prompts or review profiles per stage.
- Mid-task swapping of stage vendors, models, prompts and review profiles
At any point a human can swap a stage's vendor, model, prompt or review profiles, and add, remove or reorder the stages of the task's frozen workflow.
# M6 — Fan-out
-`export_context` and handoff bundles
An `export_context(purpose)` MCP tool producing a bundle with the goal, decisions made and why, current state, dead ends tried, open questions and relevant files. Used for cross-vendor forks, stage-to-stage handoff, and the durable record of a task. Compaction already writes the same contents.
Forking a snapshot into a different vendor: the new session starts from a handoff bundle from `export_context` instead of the vendor's native fork, and the UI labels it a handoff, not a true fork. Same-vendor forks from a snapshot exist (see "Forking" in `docs/operations.md`).
`spawn_stages(stages[])` and `collect(stage_ids[])` MCP tools let agents build workflows on the fly, using the same stage definition format. An optional per-workflow human gate on spawning. Spawned stages show in the task's UI tree marked as just-in-time, and a just-in-time structure can be saved as a reusable workflow.
