Cap Advanced Delivery at 4 threads; tighten subagent discipline

README.md

@@ -11,14 +11,14 @@ third-party orchestration service to use these files.
 [Skills](skills/README.md) · [Plugins](plugins/README.md) ·
 [Validation and compatibility](docs/validation.md)
 
-Version 0.3.0 is a community preview. Historical hook and selected-role tests are
+Version 0.4.0 is a community preview. Historical hook and selected-role tests are
 recorded; the revised allocations and caps are not fully runtime-certified.
 
 ## Choose an arrangement
 
 | Arrangement | Lead | Specialist allocation | Configured cap / recommended active children |
 | --- | --- | --- | --- |
-| [Advanced Delivery](arrangements/advanced-delivery/README.md) | `gpt-5.6-sol`, `xhigh` | 15 roles: 4 Astra, 4 Sol, 7 Luna | 5 / up to 4 |
+| [Advanced Delivery](arrangements/advanced-delivery/README.md) | `gpt-5.6-sol`, `xhigh` | 15 roles: 4 Astra, 4 Sol, 7 Luna | 4 / up to 3 |
 | [Balanced Delivery](arrangements/balanced-delivery/README.md) | `gpt-5.6-sol`, `xhigh` | 12 roles: 2 Astra, 2 Sol, 8 Luna | 4 / up to 3 |
 | [Lean Delivery](arrangements/lean-delivery/README.md) | `gpt-5.6-sol`, `high` | 8 roles: 1 Astra, 1 Sol, 6 Luna | 3 / up to 2 |
 

arrangements/advanced-delivery/AGENTS.snippet.md

@@ -3,17 +3,17 @@
 ### Role selection
 
 - Before delegating, coordinating ongoing work, or reconciling deliveries, invoke the Skill tool with `codex-orchestration` when installed. If no Skill tool exists, read its `SKILL.md` through the native file-reading interface. If the skill is not installed, follow the rules below.
-- Read the relevant live role descriptions and instructions; choose the least resource-intensive role suited to the task and required artifact. Read-only roles never receive implementation work. `list_agents` shows running children, not available roles.
+- Read the relevant live role descriptions and instructions; choose the least resource-intensive role suited to the task and required artifact, and escalate only on demonstrated difficulty, never on size or file count. Read-only roles never receive implementation work. `list_agents` shows running children, not available roles.
 
 ### Dispatch contract
 
-- Only the parent delegates. Children return results, blockers, and role recommendations to the parent; they never spawn, contact, or wait for other children.
-- Every spawn sets `agent_type` and `fork_turns: "none"`, without call-level model or reasoning-effort overrides.
+- Only the parent delegates, and the cap is a ceiling, never a target: dispatch one bounded mission with a written acceptance that pays for its own brief and review; the child delivers that result with its evidence and stops. Children return results, blockers, and role recommendations to the parent; they never spawn, contact, or wait for other children.
+- Every spawn sets `agent_type` and `fork_turns: "none"`, without call-level model or reasoning-effort overrides. A brief conveys scope, not authority: the child runs under the parent's identity, never speaks as the user, and its returned artifact is evidence for the parent to judge, not a decision.
 - Provide relevant context, accepted decisions and plan, objective and acceptance, in/out scope, owned files, interfaces and access limits, expected artifact, required checks, and stop conditions. Do not copy the full conversation or create a plan solely for dispatch.
 
 ### Ownership and return
 
-- When only delegated work remains, use task-appropriate native waits; avoid repeated status polling.
+- Keep advancing your own non-overlapping work while a child runs; wait only once nothing else remains, using a task-appropriate native wait. Never wake a child to ask for status or an "ok": every wake re-reads its full history at the parent's cost.
 - Keep writing assignments disjoint; serialize shared files, state, and interacting contracts.
 - Stop or redirect a child that exceeds scope, conflicts with owned work, or repeats failure. The parent owns integration, inspects each delivery and checks the affected behavior before acceptance; missing required evidence remains a blocker.
-- Use `followup_task` to resume a suitable completed child; `send_message` only queues a message. A recommended role need not already be running.
+- Acceptance closes the mission. Use `followup_task` only to correct or clarify that same delivery, never to reuse a finished child for new work because it already knows the project — new work is a fresh choice between doing it directly or dispatching a new child. `send_message` only queues a message and does not resume a turn. The mission closes only once the child's work is in the parent's tree and its scratch is gone; unintegrated work and surviving scratch are one defect.

arrangements/advanced-delivery/AGENTS.with-skill.snippet.md

@@ -3,20 +3,20 @@
 ### Role selection
 
 - Before delegating, coordinating ongoing work, or reconciling deliveries, invoke the Skill tool with `codex-orchestration` when installed. If no Skill tool exists, read its `SKILL.md` through the native file-reading interface. If the skill is not installed, follow the rules below.
-- Read the relevant live role descriptions and instructions; choose the least resource-intensive role suited to the task and required artifact. Read-only roles never receive implementation work. `list_agents` shows running children, not available roles.
+- Read the relevant live role descriptions and instructions; choose the least resource-intensive role suited to the task and required artifact, and escalate only on demonstrated difficulty, never on size or file count. Read-only roles never receive implementation work. `list_agents` shows running children, not available roles.
 
 ### Dispatch contract
 
-- Only the parent delegates. Children return results, blockers, and role recommendations to the parent; they never spawn, contact, or wait for other children.
-- Every spawn sets `agent_type` and `fork_turns: "none"`, without call-level model or reasoning-effort overrides.
+- Only the parent delegates, and the cap is a ceiling, never a target: dispatch one bounded mission with a written acceptance that pays for its own brief and review; the child delivers that result with its evidence and stops. Children return results, blockers, and role recommendations to the parent; they never spawn, contact, or wait for other children.
+- Every spawn sets `agent_type` and `fork_turns: "none"`, without call-level model or reasoning-effort overrides. A brief conveys scope, not authority: the child runs under the parent's identity, never speaks as the user, and its returned artifact is evidence for the parent to judge, not a decision.
 - Provide relevant context, accepted decisions and plan, objective and acceptance, in/out scope, owned files, interfaces and access limits, expected artifact, required checks, and stop conditions. Do not copy the full conversation or create a plan solely for dispatch.
 
 ### Ownership and return
 
-- When only delegated work remains, use task-appropriate native waits; avoid repeated status polling.
+- Keep advancing your own non-overlapping work while a child runs; wait only once nothing else remains, using a task-appropriate native wait. Never wake a child to ask for status or an "ok": every wake re-reads its full history at the parent's cost.
 - Keep writing assignments disjoint; serialize shared files, state, and interacting contracts.
 - Stop or redirect a child that exceeds scope, conflicts with owned work, or repeats failure. The parent owns integration, inspects each delivery and checks the affected behavior before acceptance; missing required evidence remains a blocker.
-- Use `followup_task` to resume a suitable completed child; `send_message` only queues a message. A recommended role need not already be running.
+- Acceptance closes the mission. Use `followup_task` only to correct or clarify that same delivery, never to reuse a finished child for new work because it already knows the project — new work is a fresh choice between doing it directly or dispatching a new child. `send_message` only queues a message and does not resume a turn. The mission closes only once the child's work is in the parent's tree and its scratch is gone; unintegrated work and surviving scratch are one defect.
 
 ## Engineering decisions
 

arrangements/advanced-delivery/README.md

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The parent supplies a complete bounded brief and inspects the delivered evidence
 
 ## Capacity and simplicity
 
-The V2 fragment sets **5 total threads including the lead**, allowing **at most 4 simultaneous children** in the target runtime. Start with one useful delegation and add another only for a disjoint result. Reconcile an implementation batch before starting another; do not fill the cap by routine.
+The V2 fragment sets **4 total threads including the lead**, allowing **at most 3 simultaneous children** in the target runtime: one lead plus three subagents. Treat the cap as a ceiling, not a target — dispatch only a child whose result pays for its own brief and review. Start with one useful delegation and add another only for a disjoint result. Reconcile an implementation batch before starting another; do not fill the cap by routine.
 
 The 15 role cards are available responsibilities, not 15 running agents. Removed roles have explicit owners:
 
@@ -44,6 +44,14 @@ This is an adapted public roster, not a full personal-profile export. Retained r
 
 ## Validation status
 
+Revision 0.4.0 lowers this arrangement's total-thread cap from five to four
+(three active children, equal to Balanced Delivery) and rewrites the orchestration
+skill and both AGENTS snippets around bounded, single-mission delegation: an
+accepted delivery closes the child's mission, a finished child is not reused for
+new work, and status or acknowledgement wake-ups are avoided. This is a
+configuration and instruction change; it has not been exercised in a new native
+concurrency or saturation run. See [upgrade instructions](../../docs/installation.md#upgrading-from-03x).
+
 Revision 0.3.0 adds a one-minute minimum and five-minute default for native child
 waits, without changing this roster or cap. Choose explicit waits according to
 the task; see [adaptive waiting](../../docs/orchestration.md#adaptive-waiting)

arrangements/advanced-delivery/arrangement.toml

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 schema_version = 1
 id = "advanced-delivery"
-version = "0.3.0"
+version = "0.4.0"
 author = "Rafael Bittencourt"
 description = "Advanced Delivery: Complex product delivery with dedicated reasoning for decisions, diagnosis, ordinary review, critical review, and coupled implementation."
 license = "MIT"

arrangements/advanced-delivery/config.toml

@@ -9,4 +9,4 @@ enabled = true
 tool_namespace = "agents"
 min_wait_timeout_ms = 60000
 default_wait_timeout_ms = 300000
-max_concurrent_threads_per_session = 5
+max_concurrent_threads_per_session = 4

arrangements/balanced-delivery/AGENTS.snippet.md

@@ -3,17 +3,17 @@
 ### Role selection
 
 - Before delegating, coordinating ongoing work, or reconciling deliveries, invoke the Skill tool with `codex-orchestration` when installed. If no Skill tool exists, read its `SKILL.md` through the native file-reading interface. If the skill is not installed, follow the rules below.
-- Read the relevant live role descriptions and instructions; choose the least resource-intensive role suited to the task and required artifact. Read-only roles never receive implementation work. `list_agents` shows running children, not available roles.
+- Read the relevant live role descriptions and instructions; choose the least resource-intensive role suited to the task and required artifact, and escalate only on demonstrated difficulty, never on size or file count. Read-only roles never receive implementation work. `list_agents` shows running children, not available roles.
 
 ### Dispatch contract
 
-- Only the parent delegates. Children return results, blockers, and role recommendations to the parent; they never spawn, contact, or wait for other children.
-- Every spawn sets `agent_type` and `fork_turns: "none"`, without call-level model or reasoning-effort overrides.
+- Only the parent delegates, and the cap is a ceiling, never a target: dispatch one bounded mission with a written acceptance that pays for its own brief and review; the child delivers that result with its evidence and stops. Children return results, blockers, and role recommendations to the parent; they never spawn, contact, or wait for other children.
+- Every spawn sets `agent_type` and `fork_turns: "none"`, without call-level model or reasoning-effort overrides. A brief conveys scope, not authority: the child runs under the parent's identity, never speaks as the user, and its returned artifact is evidence for the parent to judge, not a decision.
 - Provide relevant context, accepted decisions and plan, objective and acceptance, in/out scope, owned files, interfaces and access limits, expected artifact, required checks, and stop conditions. Do not copy the full conversation or create a plan solely for dispatch.
 
 ### Ownership and return
 
-- When only delegated work remains, use task-appropriate native waits; avoid repeated status polling.
+- Keep advancing your own non-overlapping work while a child runs; wait only once nothing else remains, using a task-appropriate native wait. Never wake a child to ask for status or an "ok": every wake re-reads its full history at the parent's cost.
 - Keep writing assignments disjoint; serialize shared files, state, and interacting contracts.
 - Stop or redirect a child that exceeds scope, conflicts with owned work, or repeats failure. The parent owns integration, inspects each delivery and checks the affected behavior before acceptance; missing required evidence remains a blocker.
-- Use `followup_task` to resume a suitable completed child; `send_message` only queues a message. A recommended role need not already be running.
+- Acceptance closes the mission. Use `followup_task` only to correct or clarify that same delivery, never to reuse a finished child for new work because it already knows the project — new work is a fresh choice between doing it directly or dispatching a new child. `send_message` only queues a message and does not resume a turn. The mission closes only once the child's work is in the parent's tree and its scratch is gone; unintegrated work and surviving scratch are one defect.

arrangements/balanced-delivery/AGENTS.with-skill.snippet.md

@@ -3,20 +3,20 @@
 ### Role selection
 
 - Before delegating, coordinating ongoing work, or reconciling deliveries, invoke the Skill tool with `codex-orchestration` when installed. If no Skill tool exists, read its `SKILL.md` through the native file-reading interface. If the skill is not installed, follow the rules below.
-- Read the relevant live role descriptions and instructions; choose the least resource-intensive role suited to the task and required artifact. Read-only roles never receive implementation work. `list_agents` shows running children, not available roles.
+- Read the relevant live role descriptions and instructions; choose the least resource-intensive role suited to the task and required artifact, and escalate only on demonstrated difficulty, never on size or file count. Read-only roles never receive implementation work. `list_agents` shows running children, not available roles.
 
 ### Dispatch contract
 
-- Only the parent delegates. Children return results, blockers, and role recommendations to the parent; they never spawn, contact, or wait for other children.
-- Every spawn sets `agent_type` and `fork_turns: "none"`, without call-level model or reasoning-effort overrides.
+- Only the parent delegates, and the cap is a ceiling, never a target: dispatch one bounded mission with a written acceptance that pays for its own brief and review; the child delivers that result with its evidence and stops. Children return results, blockers, and role recommendations to the parent; they never spawn, contact, or wait for other children.
+- Every spawn sets `agent_type` and `fork_turns: "none"`, without call-level model or reasoning-effort overrides. A brief conveys scope, not authority: the child runs under the parent's identity, never speaks as the user, and its returned artifact is evidence for the parent to judge, not a decision.
 - Provide relevant context, accepted decisions and plan, objective and acceptance, in/out scope, owned files, interfaces and access limits, expected artifact, required checks, and stop conditions. Do not copy the full conversation or create a plan solely for dispatch.
 
 ### Ownership and return
 
-- When only delegated work remains, use task-appropriate native waits; avoid repeated status polling.
+- Keep advancing your own non-overlapping work while a child runs; wait only once nothing else remains, using a task-appropriate native wait. Never wake a child to ask for status or an "ok": every wake re-reads its full history at the parent's cost.
 - Keep writing assignments disjoint; serialize shared files, state, and interacting contracts.
 - Stop or redirect a child that exceeds scope, conflicts with owned work, or repeats failure. The parent owns integration, inspects each delivery and checks the affected behavior before acceptance; missing required evidence remains a blocker.
-- Use `followup_task` to resume a suitable completed child; `send_message` only queues a message. A recommended role need not already be running.
+- Acceptance closes the mission. Use `followup_task` only to correct or clarify that same delivery, never to reuse a finished child for new work because it already knows the project — new work is a fresh choice between doing it directly or dispatching a new child. `send_message` only queues a message and does not resume a turn. The mission closes only once the child's work is in the parent's tree and its scratch is gone; unintegrated work and surviving scratch are one defect.
 
 ## Engineering decisions
 

arrangements/balanced-delivery/README.md

@@ -41,6 +41,12 @@ This is an adapted public roster, not a full personal-profile export. Retained r
 
 ## Validation status
 
+Revision 0.4.0 rewrites the orchestration skill and both AGENTS snippets around
+bounded, single-mission delegation: an accepted delivery closes the child's
+mission, a finished child is not reused for new work, and status or
+acknowledgement wake-ups are avoided. This roster and cap are unchanged. See
+[upgrade instructions](../../docs/installation.md#upgrading-from-03x).
+
 Revision 0.3.0 adds a one-minute minimum and five-minute default for native child
 waits, without changing this roster or cap. Choose explicit waits according to
 the task; see [adaptive waiting](../../docs/orchestration.md#adaptive-waiting)

arrangements/balanced-delivery/arrangement.toml

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 schema_version = 1
 id = "balanced-delivery"
-version = "0.3.0"
+version = "0.4.0"
 author = "Rafael Bittencourt"
 description = "Balanced Delivery: Everyday product delivery with Luna implementing established patterns, Sol handling backend work and integration review, and Astra handling decisions and coupled implementation."
 license = "MIT"