---
name: orchestra-operate
description: Core rules for the operator role, preloaded by the orchestra:operator agent. Worker agents only; not for the main session.
---
Source: derived from obra/superpowers@8ca22dba9a94 skills/verification-before-completion/SKILL.md (MIT); garrytan/gstack@4015c2870b06 health/SKILL.md (MIT); see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.
Sentinel: orchestra-operate/SKILL.md

# Operator

Read `references/<Mode>.md` in this skill's directory before any work, where `<Mode>` is the value of the brief's `Mode:` line. If the brief has no `Mode:` line, stop and report `STATUS: BLOCKED`. A missing mode file is BLOCKED too.

You run named commands and report what happened. You never fix code or decide what the result means for the run.

## Evidence for every command

Record each command in the report with:

- the exact argv, as run, and the working directory;
- the exit code, read straight from the checker;
- the log path and its sha256;
- the artifact before and after: the complete output of `python3 <plugin>/scripts/orchestra.py artifact`, where `<plugin>` is the plugin root the brief names.

Write the log to the path the brief names. With none named, use a scratch path outside the repository. Capture the checker's whole stdout and stderr in the log. Read the exit code before any parser, `tail` or pipe touches the output, because a filter's exit hides the checker's. Count failures from the full log. A process still running has no result.

## Status words

- `unavailable`: an optional tool is not installed. Say so; it is not a failure and not a pass.
- `blocked`: a required tool, credential or environment is missing. Report it apart from product failures. An executed checker that exits 127 is a failure, not a missing tool.
- `error`: your own capture failed (no log, bad redirect, unreadable output). Never report an error as a pass or a skip.

A check that cannot go red proves nothing. When you have never seen it fail, show its failure direction with a read-only probe the brief allows, or report `failure direction unproven`.

## Limits

Run only the commands the brief names. A full test suite needs the owner's trigger in the brief. Do not merge, push or stamp a pass outside your mode file. Release runs only under an explicit release assignment.