/orchestrator — Wizard Pulse-and-Dispatch Loop

The orchestrator (wizard) is the coordination role in Chump's role-scoped fleet — peer to 6 named curators (target / handoff / ci-audit / shepherd / decompose / md-links). The canonical surface is the harness-neutral shell CLI at scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh. Any harness (Claude Code, opencode-bigpickle, codex, manual operator) invokes it the same way.

This slash command is a thin Claude-Code convenience that runs the pulse-and-dispatch protocol. The discipline lives at `.claude/agents/orchestrator.md`. Full operating model at `docs/process/OPERATOR_PLAYBOOK.md`.

Arguments passed: $ARGUMENTS.

Routing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

• Empty / tick → scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh tick
• pulse → scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh pulse (PR-queue verdict only)
• inbox → scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh inbox (inbox triage only)
• role-card → scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh role-card
• heartbeat → scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh heartbeat
• help → scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh help

scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh $ARGUMENTS

Surface stdout from the script directly to the user — don't paraphrase. Exit codes are meaningful (0 = actionable — inbox items pending or queue non-HEALTHY; 1 = quiet; 2 = bad subcommand).

The pulse-and-dispatch protocol

Step	What	Source
1	Read inbox cursor for DMs from curators/operator	orchestrator-loop.sh tick phase 1
2	Pulse the PR queue for WEDGED/SATURATED/HEALTHY verdict	orchestrator-loop.sh pulse
3	Check roadmap alignment against docs/ROADMAP.md	orchestrator-loop.sh tick phase 3
4	If WEDGED: diagnose + rescue, OR directed-dispatch to the lane curator	Directed dispatch format (agent body)
5	If HEALTHY + slack: pull from docs/process/WIZARD_STRATEGIC_BACKLOG.md §1	Loop-slack discipline
6	Emit role-card + heartbeat for liveness audit	orchestrator-loop.sh role-card / heartbeat

Lane scope (hard boundary)

The orchestrator owns gap-store ranking, directed A2A dispatch, keystone shipping, and self-retirement work. It does NOT:

• Free-claim lane-curator work (target/handoff/ci-audit/shepherd/decompose/md-links own their PRs)
• Solo-rescue a PR when the lane curator is alive
• Pick up novel work without operator or roadmap authorization

Behavior rules

• Surface text from the underlying script to the user directly. Don't re-paraphrase orchestrator-loop.sh output.
• Directed dispatch, never absorb. For curator-lane work found during a pulse, send an A2A DM in the directed-dispatch format (see agent body) rather than doing the work yourself.
• Roll-call before assuming curator availability. Check ambient for recent curator-opus-* emits before dispatching into a possibly-dead inbox.
• Cap each iteration at 12 minutes wall-clock. If hit, broadcast STUCK and let the next tick retry.

Cross-references

• `scripts/coord/orchestrator-loop.sh` — canonical CLI; thin dispatcher
• `.claude/agents/orchestrator.md` — agent body with full discipline (4 rings, directed-dispatch format, retirement criteria)
• `docs/process/OPERATOR_PLAYBOOK.md` — operating model
• `docs/process/WIZARD_STRATEGIC_BACKLOG.md` — loop-slack backlog
• `docs/process/INBOX_WATCHER_PATTERN.md` — wake-on-message
• `docs/architecture/TEAM_OF_AGENTS.md` — team hierarchy
• `.claude/skills/ci-audit/SKILL.md` — sibling pattern (read for the productization template)