Fan out N parallel workers, drain them, and return one report. Use for /swarm, 'swarm this', or parallel coverage, races, gauntlets, and exploration.

GitHub
Install command
npx skhub add michael-denyer/swarm
Markdown
SKILL.md

Swarm

On Codex, read the platform mapping, including its per-skill notes, before following this skill.

Fan out N parallel workers. They may cover separate slices, race the same brief, or mix both. The parent waits, aggregates, and returns one report.

Start

Open a todolist with one entry per phase before launching anything.

  1. Frame
  2. Fan out
  3. Aggregate
  4. Report

Phase A: Frame

  1. State the done predicate and the artifact or report the swarm must return.
  2. Choose the shape. Partition into slices, race N workers on identical briefs, or mix both. For a race or mixed shape, declare first pass, rank all, or best-of before spawning.
  3. Set N from the user or derive it from the shape. N is total workers, not the number that run at once.
  4. Pick the worker model from the swarm workers line in ~/.claude/pstack-models.md. If the sheet or that line is missing, use the default in Models. For auto or inherit-parent, omit model so the workers run on the parent model. If the Agent tool rejects a slug, use the default and say so. If it rejects the default, use the closest valid slug of the same family from its error message. For a model race, name each arm's model up front.
  5. Give each worker its own writable output when it writes. When workers verify or measure commits, each brief names the exact SHAs. A measurement brief also names the method (sample count, what one sample is, order). The worker records both in its result.

Phase B: Fan out

Spawn all N workers in one message with subagent_type: "general-purpose", run_in_background: true, and the step 4 model, left unset for auto or inherit-parent. Claude Code subagents all run on this machine, so isolation comes from the worktree or output directory assigned in Phase A, not from a remote environment.

When a worker must start from a non-default branch, check that branch out in the worker's own worktree and name the worktree path in its brief.

Every brief stands alone. Include the goal, scope, exact slice or race arm, how to verify, and what to report. Reports use PASS, ISSUES, or BLOCKED with evidence. A worker that can prove a defect reports ISSUES and lists every issue it can prove, not only the first.

If a worker drops out, proceed with N-1 and note it.

Phase C: Aggregate

Read the terminal results. Drop a result that does not record the SHAs and method its brief names, and rerun that worker once. After a second miss, record a gap. A gap does not count as a pass. For coverage, every required slice needs a result. For a race, apply the selection rule declared up front. Use first pass, rank all, or best-of. Do not paste raw worker dumps.

Keep a compact result table, one-line evidenced issues, and explicit gaps or dropouts.

Phase D: Report

Return one consolidated in-chat report with the table, issue one-liners, gaps or dropouts, and the race rule when used.

Models

Role defaults, stamped from plugins/pstack/models.json (edit there, rerun tools/generate.mjs). A matching role line in ~/.claude/pstack-models.md overrides each at runtime; see /setup-pstack.

  • swarm workers: opus
Discovery
Tags

No tags published for this skill.

Version
Latest version metadata

Version

v2026.09.25

Published

Sep 25, 2026

Category

Uncategorized

License

MIT

Source path

plugins/pstack/skills/swarm

Default branch

main

Latest commit

7b08003

Tree SHA

ad5f492