Beads Orchestration

Multi-agent orchestration for Claude Code. An orchestrator investigates issues, manages tasks automatically, and delegates implementation to specialized supervisors.

Beads Kanban UI — Visual task management fully compatible with this workflow. Supports tasks, epics, subtasks, dependencies, and design docs.

Installation

npx skills add AvivK5498/Claude-Code-Beads-Orchestration

Or via npm:

npm install -g @avivkaplan/beads-orchestration

macOS and Linux only.

Quick Start

# In any Claude Code session
/create-beads-orchestration

The skill walks you through setup, runs the bootstrap via npx, then creates tech-specific supervisors based on your codebase.

Requirements

• Claude Code with hooks support
• Node.js (for npx)
• Python 3 (for bootstrap)
• beads CLI (installed automatically by bootstrap)

Key Features

🔍 Investigate → Delegate — Orchestrator reads code, supervisors implement. Hooks enforce separation.

🌳 Worktree isolation — Every task gets its own worktree. Main stays clean. Parallel work without conflicts.

📋 Auto task tracking — Beads create, track, and close tasks automatically.

🔗 Epics & dependencies — Cross-domain work becomes epics with enforced child dependencies. Independent children dispatch in parallel.

🔁 Follow-up traceability — Closed beads stay closed. Bug fixes become new beads linked via bd dep relate — full history, no reopening.

🧠 Knowledge base — Agents capture conventions and gotchas into .beads/memory/. Enforced, searchable, surfaced at session start.

🔒 13 enforcement hooks — Every workflow step is guarded. See Hooks.

🔎 Tech stack discovery — Scans your codebase, creates the right supervisors with best practices injected.

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            ORCHESTRATOR                 │
│  Investigates with Grep/Read/Glob       │
│  Manages tasks automatically (beads)    │
│  Delegates implementation via Task()    │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
                   │
       ┌───────────┼───────────┐
       ▼           ▼           ▼
  ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐
  │ react-  │ │ python- │ │ nextjs- │
  │supervisor│ │supervisor│ │supervisor│
  └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘
       │           │           │
  .worktrees/ .worktrees/ .worktrees/
  bd-BD-001   bd-BD-002   bd-BD-003

Orchestrator: Investigates the issue, identifies root cause, logs findings to bead, delegates with brief fix instructions.

Supervisors: Read bead comments for context, create isolated worktrees, execute the fix confidently. Created by discovery agent based on your tech stack.

Knowledge Base

Agents build a persistent knowledge base as they work. No extra steps — it piggybacks on bd comment.

# Supervisor finishes a task and records what it learned
bd comment BD-001 "LEARNED: TaskGroup requires @Sendable closures in strict concurrency mode."

# Orchestrator logs investigation findings
bd comment BD-002 "INVESTIGATION: Root cause: SparkleAdapter.swift:45 - nil SUFeedURL crashes XMLParser."

An async hook intercepts these comments and extracts them into .beads/memory/knowledge.jsonl. Each entry is auto-tagged by keyword and attributed to its source (orchestrator vs supervisor).

Why this works:

• Zero friction — agents already use bd comment, they just add a prefix
• No database, no embeddings, no external services — one JSONL file, grep + jq to search
• Enforced — supervisors are blocked from completing without a LEARNED: comment
• Surfaces automatically — session start shows recent knowledge so agents don't re-investigate solved problems

# Search the knowledge base
.beads/memory/recall.sh "concurrency"
.beads/memory/recall.sh --recent 10
.beads/memory/recall.sh --stats

See docs/memory-architecture.md for the full design.

Bug Fixes & Follow-Up Work

Closed beads are immutable. When a bug is found after a task was completed, a new bead is created and linked to the original:

bd create "Fix: button click handler race condition" -d "Follow-up to BD-001"
# Returns: BD-005

bd dep relate BD-005 BD-001   # Bidirectional "see also" — no dependency

The relates_to link gives full traceability without reopening anything. A PreToolUse hook enforces this — dispatching a supervisor to a closed or done bead is blocked automatically, with instructions to create a new bead instead.

Why this matters:

• Merged branches don't get reused — avoids SHA conflicts from squash/rebase merges
• Each fix gets its own worktree, PR, and LEARNED comment
• Audit trail stays clean — one bead = one unit of work

What Gets Installed

.claude/
├── agents/           # Supervisors (discovery creates tech-specific ones)
├── hooks/            # Workflow enforcement (13 hooks)
├── skills/           # subagents-discipline, react-best-practices
└── settings.json
CLAUDE.md             # Orchestrator instructions
.beads/               # Task database
  memory/             # Knowledge base (knowledge.jsonl + recall.sh)
.worktrees/           # Isolated worktrees for each task (created dynamically)

Hooks

13 hooks enforce the workflow at every step. Grouped by lifecycle event:

PreToolUse — Block before action happens:

| Hook | Trigger | Purpose | |------|---------|---------| | block-orchestrator-tools.sh | Edit, Write | Orchestrator can't modify code directly | | enforce-bead-for-supervisor.sh | Task | Supervisors require BEAD_ID in prompt | | enforce-branch-before-edit.sh | Edit, Write | Must be in a worktree, not main | | enforce-sequential-dispatch.sh | Task | Blocks closed/done beads and epic children with unresolved deps | | validate-epic-close.sh | Bash | Can't close epic with open children | | inject-discipline-reminder.sh | Task | Injects discipline skill context | | inject-memory-recall.sh | Task | Reminds supervisors to search knowledge base before implementing | | remind-inprogress.sh | Task | Warns about existing in-progress beads |

PostToolUse — React after action completes:

| Hook | Trigger | Purpose | |------|---------|---------| | enforce-concise-response.sh | Task | Limits supervisor response verbosity | | memory-capture.sh | Bash | Captures LEARNED/INVESTIGATION into knowledge base |

SubagentStop — Validate before supervisor exits:

| Hook | Trigger | Purpose | |------|---------|---------| | validate-completion.sh | Any | Verifies worktree, push, bead status, LEARNED comment |

SessionStart — Run when a new session begins:

| Hook | Trigger | Purpose | |------|---------|---------| | session-start.sh | Any | Shows task status, recent knowledge, cleanup suggestions |

UserPromptSubmit — Filter user input:

| Hook | Trigger | Purpose | |------|---------|---------| | clarify-vague-request.sh | Any | Prompts for clarification on ambiguous requests |

Advanced: External Providers

By default, all agents run via Claude's Task(). If you want to delegate read-only agents (scout, detective, etc.) to Codex/Gemini instead:

/create-beads-orchestration --external-providers

Additional requirements:

• Codex CLI: codex login
• Gemini CLI (optional fallback)
• uv: install

This creates .mcp.json with provider-delegator config.

License

MIT

Credits

• beads - Git-native task tracking by Steve Yegge
• sub-agents.directory - External agent templates