# pi-workflow Usage Detailed usage reference for the public Pi command **`/workflow`** and the `pi-workflow` CLI. ## Install ```bash pi install npm:@agwab/pi-workflow ``` Reload Pi after installation. This installs: - the `/workflow` extension - the bundled `workflow-guide` skill - the bundled `execution-router` skill - bundled runtime helpers, including `@agwab/pi-subagent` and `pi-web-access` ### Runtime compatibility | Component | Supported/tested boundary | |---|---| | Node.js | Requires `>=22.19.0`; CI runs the exact minimum `22.19.0` and current Node `24` on Linux and macOS. | | Pi | The lockfile-tested SDK/extension baseline is `0.84.4`. The peer dependency is `*`: npm accepts other Pi versions, but this is not a claim that every version has been tested. | | Pi `0.85.0` | Compatibility is blocked by its upstream package's missing `@earendil-works/pi-server` dependency. A version-print command alone does not establish working SDK, RPC, or extension loading. | For checkout validation, use `npm ci --legacy-peer-deps`, then `npm run validate` and `npm run e2e`. Validation checks dependency declarations against the lock and installed package versions against locked versions, including nested dependencies; absent platform-optional packages are allowed. This read-only drift check neither updates dependencies nor verifies package-content integrity. Do not patch installed Pi files to claim compatibility. For local development, install the checkout as a package source: ```bash pi install /absolute/path/to/pi-workflow ``` You can also test for a single run with Pi's package/extension loading options, but a normal `pi install` mirrors the intended release path. For Node consumers, import from the package root after installing the npm package: ```js import { listWorkflows, resolveWorkflowRef } from "@agwab/pi-workflow"; ``` Do not import private `src/`, `dist/`, or bundled workflow helper paths directly; those paths are package internals except for the documented `./extension` Pi entrypoint. ## Command surface Pi command: ```text /workflow ``` Terminal CLI: ```bash pi-workflow inspect [--failures] [--results] [--json] pi-workflow prune [--keep N] [--older-than DAYS] [--yes] [--json] pi-workflow supervise [--poll-ms N] [--max-runtime-ms N] pi-workflow supervise --all [--poll-ms N] [--max-runtime-ms N] ``` `/workflow` with no arguments opens the read-only workflow board TUI. `/workflow ` opens the board focused on that run. ## Natural-language invocation The extension also registers LLM-callable tools for normal chat requests: | Tool | Purpose | |---|---| | `workflow_list` | List discoverable workflows when the user asks what exists or asks Pi to choose without naming one. | | `workflow_run` | Start a run when the user explicitly asks to use/run/start a named workflow and provides a concrete task. Set `awaitTerminal: true` when the current turn needs the final result. | | `workflow_dynamic` | Start a spec-less direct dynamic run when the user explicitly asks for dynamic workflow execution and provides a concrete task. Optional `model` and `thinking` (`off`, `minimal`, `low`, `medium`, `high`, or `xhigh`) values override the controller defaults. Set `awaitTerminal: true` when synthesis must return in the current turn. | | `workflow_wait` | Wait for an existing run id or unambiguous prefix to reach terminal state without model-driven file polling, then return semantic status and a bounded final-result preview. | Examples: ```text Use the deep-research workflow to research this repository's architecture tradeoffs. ``` ```text Use the deep-review workflow to review the current diff for reliability and test coverage. ``` `workflow_list` accepts `offset` (a non-negative safe integer, default `0`), `limit` (1–20, default `20`), and an optional case-insensitive name/alias `query`. Metadata is clipped for display, but `details.workflows[].specPath` retains the full usable path. Text, serialized content, and serialized details each have a 50 KiB/2,000-line budget, so a page can end before `limit`. Follow `details.nextOffset` with the same query; `details.total` counts all matches and `details.omitted` counts matches after this page. A single path that cannot fit fails explicitly rather than being truncated into an unusable locator. Natural-language named-workflow invocation uses the same workflow resolution roots and task-required rule as `/workflow run`. If the workflow name or concrete task is missing, Pi should ask a clarifying question instead of launching a run. `workflow_run` and `workflow_dynamic` remain launch-only by default for compatibility. Use `awaitTerminal: true` plus an optional `timeoutMs`, or call `workflow_wait` with the returned run id. `awaitTerminal` binds the run to the current Pi session even when support-only work finishes immediately, and `workflow_wait` accepts only runs bound to that session so another session cannot consume its completion. Binding is retried for a bounded interval; if it still fails after launch, the error includes the run id and the deterministic recovery command `/workflow wait `. Use that command for an older or differently owned run as well. Terminal presentation is deduplicated per stable terminal epoch, so resuming into the same terminal status produces a new completion while legacy status-only markers migrate to the current epoch. Tool wait timeouts accept 1,000–14,400,000 ms and default to 30 minutes; reaching the timeout does not stop the run. `detach: true` and `awaitTerminal: true` are mutually exclusive. Cancelling or timing out `workflow_wait` cancels only the wait, not scheduler-owned workflow progress. If a run becomes blocked rather than terminal, the tool returns `terminal: false`, `actionRequired: true`, blocked task ids, and inspect/resume guidance; it never labels an intermediate artifact as the final result. An explicit manual launch without routing is: ```text /workflow run --no-route deep-research "Research this repository's architecture tradeoffs." ``` For explicit dynamic workflow requests that should not require a workflow name or spec, Pi can use `workflow_dynamic`. The deterministic manual equivalent is: ```text /workflow dynamic "Research this repository's architecture tradeoffs." ``` `/workflow dynamic` uses pi-workflow's built-in trusted dynamic controller and records a normal workflow run under `.pi/workflows/`. Use it when you explicitly want adaptive orchestration rather than a named reusable workflow. The LLM-callable `workflow_dynamic` tool uses the same controller. Neither form asks the user to choose, generate, preview, approve, or save a workflow spec. Direct dynamic generated workers validate external URL refs before completion, verifier outputs are asked to record structured `claimSupports`, and final synthesis additionally requires at least one ref plus an upstream source-ledger subset check. Stale, unreachable, or newly invented final URL refs trigger the normal workflow-output retry path. When positive verifier `claimSupports` are present, final URL refs are restricted to those supported source locators rather than every upstream URL. Refs URL availability validation applies its timeout separately to each DNS preflight and separately to each HTTP request. HEAD, fallback GET, and each redirect may each consume those bounds; this is not a whole-URL or whole-batch deadline. A late DNS result cannot dispatch HTTP after that preflight has timed out. Availability checks are not remote-content attestations. For routed direct-dynamic execution, routing depth (`quick`, `standard`, or `max`) is currently advisory metadata, not a mapping to different controller budgets, model, or thinking effort. Do not interpret a depth label as an enforced effort reduction or increase. ### Dynamic child transcript budget telemetry Dynamic-generated children receive a cumulative tool-result transcript cap of `320_000` characters by default. This cap is separate from dynamic-controller orchestration budgets such as `maxAgents`, `maxConcurrency`, and `maxRuntimeMs`; it is also separate from the direct-dynamic `dynamicAudit` claim/source accounting record. Character counts are not token counts. Set `PI_WORKFLOW_DYNAMIC_TOOL_RESULT_BUDGET_CHARS` to a positive integer to override the child transcript cap. Set it to `0`, a negative value, or a non-number to disable the cap. Static tasks do not receive this dynamic-child default. Each launched dynamic child records the effective configuration and, when the backend reports it, per-attempt retained characters, eviction counters, warnings, and context-recovery flags under the task's optional `toolResultBudget` field in `run.json`. Retry attempts remain separate. Missing metadata from an old or interrupted backend is recorded as unavailable rather than as zero pressure. Existing run files without this optional field remain valid. ## Bundled skills | Skill | Use when | |---|---| | `execution-router` | Decide whether a task should be handled directly, by an existing workflow, by a targeted verifier/subagent, or by a new/extended workflow. | | `workflow-guide` | Create, modify, review, validate, or explain workflow definitions after the authoring target is known. | For reusable workflow authoring, `workflow-guide` includes validated scaffold bundles for common graph shapes. Copy a scaffold, adapt prompts/schemas/stage ids, then run `/workflow validate` on the copied spec before use. ## Commands | Command | Purpose | |---|---| | `/workflow` or `/workflow ` | Open the read-only workflow board TUI. With a run id or prefix, focus that run. Falls back to text `status` output in `--print` mode or when no TUI is available. | | `/workflow help` | Show help. | | `/workflow list` | List workflow specs discoverable from the current project and installed package. | | `/workflow validate ` | Load and compile a workflow without starting a run. Reports blocked permission previews and warnings. A path may be a `.json` spec or a bundle directory containing `spec.json`. Non-interactive form for scripts and agents: `pi -p --no-session "/workflow validate "` from the project directory. | | `/workflow roles ` | Show each compiled role: source agent, included/excluded sections, truncation, and the exact `# Role Context` block injected into task prompts that select it. | | `/workflow agents` | List discoverable Pi agents, model/thinking defaults, tool ceilings, and source paths. | | `/workflow run [--no-route] [--model MODEL] [--thinking LEVEL] [--profile NAME] "" [--detach] [--force-new]` | Start a named workflow run with the supplied runtime task. Routing is on by default: a low-cost direct-vs-dynamic-vs-requested-workflow router pass runs first and records its decision; `--no-route` skips it and starts the requested workflow directly (`--route` remains accepted as an explicit opt-in). `--profile NAME` applies a named `executionProfiles` entry declared by the spec (per-stage model, thinking, or batch overrides, recorded on the run record as `executionProfile`; unknown names fail closed). When `--profile` is omitted, an interactive run prompts when profiles exist; a declared `defaultExecutionProfile` is first, otherwise `Base (no profile)` is available. Headless/print/JSON launches, and `workflow_run` calls without an interactive selector, use the declared `defaultExecutionProfile`, or the base workflow when none is declared; they do not infer a profile from a name such as `medium`. Explicit `--profile` bypasses selection. Profile names are spec-defined labels, so `low`, `medium`, and `high` are conventions, not reserved names. Routing asks only after it selects the named workflow, never for direct/dynamic routes. `--detach` spawns a standalone supervisor process after the initial scheduling pass so the run keeps progressing after this Pi session exits (log: `.pi/workflows//supervise.log`). Dynamic controllers and `approval: "ask"` prompts in that first pass can still run inline; later detached/headless approval blocks require an interactive `/workflow resume `. An identical active launch within 10 minutes is skipped unless `--force-new` is present. | | `/workflow dynamic [--route] [--model MODEL] [--thinking LEVEL] "" [--detach] [--force-new]` | Start a spec-less direct dynamic run. The runtime uses a built-in trusted controller to plan/fan out/synthesize dynamically; no workflow name, user-selected spec, or generated spec is required. Unlike `/workflow run`, the router pass stays opt-in via `--route`; model, thinking, detach, duplicate-guard, and force-new controls match `/workflow run`. | | `/workflow status [run-id]` | Show all workflow runs in the current project, or one run. | | `/workflow show [--raw] ` | If the ref starts with `workflow_`, show formatted run details; otherwise show the workflow spec. `/workflow show --raw ` shows raw run details. | | `/workflow logs [task-id-or-spec-id] [lines]` | Print captured logs for a workflow task. Defaults to `task-1`; a stage/spec id resolves when it identifies a task unambiguously. | | `/workflow wait [timeout-ms]` | Poll until the run finishes or the optional timeout elapses. | | `/workflow stop ` | Interrupt a non-terminal run, best-effort interrupt active subagents, mark unfinished tasks interrupted, and stop the local supervisor watch. Use `/workflow resume ` if you want to restart unfinished work later. | | `/workflow prune [--keep N] [--older-than DAYS] [--yes] [--json]` | Preview or delete terminal runs beyond the retention filters. Deletion requires `--yes`. | | `/workflow resume ` | Resume a failed, interrupted, or resumable blocked run (including dynamic approval blocked in headless mode): completed tasks are preserved; failed/interrupted/skipped or resumable blocked tasks reset to pending and reschedule. Loop workflows are not supported yet. | Interactive `/workflow run` and `/workflow dynamic` slash commands use Pi's cancellable foreground loader while routing, validating, and completing the initial scheduling pass. After at least one backend task is actually running, the command returns and a compact `Active workflows` widget below the editor plus a footer status tracks top-level run progress. Launch/preparation states and stale `running` records with no running task are excluded. The widget is rebuilt from `.pi/workflows` after session reload, supports multiple active runs, and clears when none remain; open `/workflow` for the full board. Natural-language launch-only calls use the same background widget. Natural-language calls with `awaitTerminal: true`, and explicit `workflow_wait` calls, drive the existing scheduler until terminal or action-required blocked state and return only a bounded authoritative-output preview. They report retries, usage, degradation, and the artifact root. For an ordinary output-bearing `completed` run, active-session completion feedback asks the parent to present only the substantive result in the user's language: direct conclusion, key findings or recommendations, evidence level, and important limitations or open decisions. It does not ask the parent to repeat routine success metadata or list artifact paths. Clean `workflow_run`/`workflow_wait` terminal tool text follows the same result-only rule while keeping run ids, lifecycle state, retries, and artifact roots in structured tool details for programmatic consumers. A final control field named `completionSummaryMarkdown`, when present, is preferred over the full report for these handoffs. Degraded, failed, blocked, interrupted, duplicate-delivery, and output-missing outcomes still surface lifecycle state and the next useful action. `engineStatus` is the persisted lifecycle state; `semanticStatus` interprets the result. Output-bearing successes include `completed`, `completed_degraded`, `synthesized`, and `exhausted_with_output`; `completed_without_semantic_result` and `exhausted_without_output` explicitly report that no authoritative result exists. Blocked variants return `actionRequired: true`, while `failed`, `interrupted`, and `dynamic_incomplete` are unsuccessful terminal outcomes. New direct-dynamic runtime v4 reserves its last configured decision round for canonical synthesize-or-block validation; a controller that still produces no synthesis output fails with `dynamic_incomplete`. Historical v3 exhausted runs remain readable as `exhausted_without_output`. Not implemented: `/workflow continue` and `/workflow delegate`. Use `status`, `show`, `logs`, `wait`, `stop`, `resume`, and `pi-workflow inspect` for text/CLI inspection. The standalone CLI also offers `pi-workflow supervise |--all` to drive scheduling from outside a Pi session (unfinished failed/interrupted or resumable blocked runs within the last 7 days are announced at session start with resume hints). ### Options and modes at a glance Slash-command flags and LLM-tool parameters are different interfaces; do not transfer an option between them unless it is listed here. | Surface | Routing | Model/thinking | Named profile | Completion/background controls | |---|---|---|---|---| | `/workflow run` (interactive or print) | On by default; `--no-route` disables, `--route` enables | `--model`, `--thinking` | `--profile` | Launch, then `/workflow wait`; `--detach`, `--force-new` | | `/workflow dynamic` (interactive or print) | Off by default; `--route` enables | `--model`, `--thinking` | Not applicable | Launch, then `/workflow wait`; `--detach`, `--force-new` | | `workflow_run` tool | No router pass | Inherits session/spec; no model/thinking parameters | `profile` | `awaitTerminal` + optional `timeoutMs`, or `detach` | | `workflow_dynamic` tool | No router pass | `model`, `thinking` | Not applicable | `awaitTerminal` + optional `timeoutMs`, or `detach` | | `workflow_wait` tool | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | `runId`, optional `timeoutMs`; session-bound wait only | | `pi-workflow` CLI | No launch command | Not applicable | Not applicable | `inspect` and `prune` accept `--json`; `supervise` drives existing runs with `--poll-ms`, `--max-runtime-ms`, and a run ref or `--all` | Scalar launch selectors (`--model`, `--profile`, `--thinking`, including its `--reasoning` alias) cannot be repeated, even with the same value or split across leading/trailing options. `--route` and `--no-route` conflict; quote task text containing literal option names. Both prune interfaces reject repeated scalar filters, unknown arguments, and invalid numbers: `--keep` requires a non-negative safe integer (at most `9007199254740991`), while `--older-than` accepts finite non-negative days, including fractions. Blank values are invalid. CLI supervise likewise rejects duplicate scalar options and a run ref combined with `--all`; `--poll-ms` accepts decimal integers from `250` to `2147483647`, and `--max-runtime-ms` from `1000` to `2147483647`. Thinking levels are `off`, `minimal`, `low`, `medium`, `high`, and `xhigh`. A tool's `timeoutMs` on launch requires `awaitTerminal: true`; waiting and detaching are mutually exclusive. Interactive profile omission offers a selector; without one, omission uses the declared default or base spec. For print/RPC/headless use, prefer text/tool results (`status`, `show`, `logs`, `inspect`) over interactive board controls; approval requiring a UI can block. `--json` is not a general slash-command launch flag. ### Workflow board controls The `/workflow` board is read-only with respect to workflow state. It has four drill-down levels: runs, stages, tasks, and task detail, plus an explicit launch-command viewer. | Key | Action | |---|---| | `Enter` / `→` | Drill into the selected run, stage, or task. | | `b` / `Esc` / `←` | Go back one level. | | `↑` / `↓` | Move within the current list or scroll the task artifact. | | `[` / `]` or `p` / `n` | Move to the previous/next sibling run, stage, or task where supported. | | `r` | Refresh run state from `.pi/workflows`. | | `v` in runs or stages | Verify and open the selected run's captured launch command. Raw command text is never shown in the narrow summary panes. | | `c` in the launch viewer | Copy the exact verified command. Copy is unavailable until the viewer has been opened explicitly. | | `←` / `→` in task detail | Switch between task output and prompt artifacts. | | `q` | Close the board. | New slash-command runs record typed creation-launch metadata in `run.json`, but the exact extension-visible command is kept only in the private `launch-command.txt` sidecar. The captured form is `/workflow`, one canonical separating space, then the exact argument string Pi supplied; Pi does not expose a collision suffix such as `/workflow:1` or the original prefix separator, so this is extension-boundary fidelity rather than editor-byte fidelity. Natural-language `workflow_run` and `workflow_dynamic` launches record structured tool provenance but intentionally have no synthesized command. Existing runs and API/nested runs without explicit launch metadata show **unavailable (not captured)**; pi-workflow does not reconstruct launch history from specs, prompts, routing records, or transcripts. Missing, malformed, permission-widened, or integrity-mismatched sidecars fail closed as unavailable. The launch viewer escapes terminal control and bidi characters for display, while `c` copies the exact unescaped verified text. Commands may contain sensitive user input. Clipboard retention is controlled by the OS or terminal and is outside pi-workflow's run retention. Sidecar checks reject symlinked components, hard-link substitution at commit checkpoints, widened permissions, and persistent path replacement. As with other same-user local state, they do not claim isolation from a hostile same-UID process that can continuously mutate directory ancestry between filesystem syscalls. ## Workflow resolution A workflow ref can be either a path or a name. Path refs: ```text /workflow validate .pi/workflows/release-readiness.json /workflow run ./workflows/my-workflow.json "Do the task." ``` Name refs use the first priority root that contains a match: 1. `/workflows/` — repo-tracked, project-shared workflows 2. `/.pi/workflows/` — project-private workflows 3. `~/.pi/agent/workflows/` — user/global workflows (under `$PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR/workflows/` when Pi's config-directory override is set; user agents under the same root's `agents/` follow it too) 4. bundled package `workflows/` A higher-priority name shadows matches in lower-priority roots. Resolution fails closed as ambiguous only when more than one matching spec exists at the winning priority (for example both flat and bundle forms for the same name in one root); a lower-priority duplicate does not make the name ambiguous. Workflow specs are JSON-only. Use `.json` for direct path refs, named discovery, and bundle `spec.json` files; `.yaml` and `.yml` workflow specs are not supported. A workflow can be a direct spec path, but bundled reusable workflows should use directory bundles: ```text workflows/deep-review/ spec.json workflows/deep-research/ spec.json helpers/ claim-evidence-gate.mjs ``` Bundle names resolve from the directory name. Multiple matching forms at the winning root fail closed as ambiguous; duplicates in lower-priority roots are shadowed according to the order above. ## Running workflows Recommended workflow selection flow: ```text /workflow list /workflow validate deep-review /workflow run deep-review "Review the current diff for security, reliability, and test coverage." ``` A run prints a `workflow_*` id. Use that id for follow-up commands: ```text /workflow status workflow_mq224pi8_775e71 /workflow wait workflow_mq224pi8_775e71 600000 /workflow show workflow_mq224pi8_775e71 /workflow logs workflow_mq224pi8_775e71 task-1 120 ``` The runtime task is not optional. `/workflow run ` and `/workflow dynamic` without task text fail before launch. To interrupt a non-terminal run and stop its local supervisor watch, use `/workflow stop `. Resume later with `/workflow resume ` if unfinished tasks should be retried. ### Diagnose a failed run Start with the run summary, then inspect only the failing task before resuming: ```text /workflow status /workflow logs 120 /workflow show ``` For a terminal-friendly evidence view, run `pi-workflow inspect --results` (every task's result envelope) or `pi-workflow inspect --failures --results` (failure detail; on a run with no failures it falls back to every task's result and says so). After fixing the reported access, configuration, output, or code problem, use `/workflow resume `; completed task artifacts are preserved. A run executes its copied `bundle/` snapshot, so installing a newer pi-workflow version does not replace that run's schemas or support helpers. If the failure was fixed in newer workflow bundle code, start a fresh run rather than editing historical run or bundle artifacts. ### Speed and quality guardrails Performance changes must preserve final prompt/state/error semantics and the evidence gates that define output quality. Do not claim general speed or quality parity from one workflow, fixture, model, or concurrency regime. Default changes require candidate-matched paired runs with the same task, model/thinking, and serial-or-parallel regime; zero missing/duplicate verifier rows and source-ref join failures; no verified-floor regression; and explicit owner/release approval. Do not obtain a speed result by weakening verification, reclassifying partially supported claims as verified, skipping rows, shortening correctness timeouts/retries, or enabling opt-in streaming/batching/tiering by default. ### Environment inventory Set user controls before launching Pi/supervisors so their child processes inherit the intended configuration. These controls do not override workflow evidence gates or grant additional tool authority. | Classification | Variables and behavior | |---|---| | Supported configuration | `PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR`: Pi user configuration root, including workflow/agent discovery. `PI_WORKFLOW_STRICT_PROMPT_SCHEMA=1`: reject selected prompt/schema diagnostics before named-workflow launch (not direct dynamic); ordinary validation still applies. | | Supported cache/transcript controls | `PI_WORKFLOW_FETCH_CONTENT_CACHE=0`: disable the bundled legacy fetch cache (`PI_WORKFLOW_FETCH_CACHE` is a fallback alias when the primary variable is unset). `PI_WORKFLOW_FETCH_CONTENT_INLINE_CHARS`: inline legacy fetch cap, default `12000`, `0` disables. `PI_WORKFLOW_DYNAMIC_TOOL_RESULT_BUDGET_CHARS`: dynamic child transcript cap; see [telemetry](#dynamic-child-transcript-budget-telemetry). | | Supported operational limits | `PI_WORKFLOW_MAX_CONCURRENT_LAUNCHES`: positive launch-gate override. `PI_WORKFLOW_MAX_LIVE_MODEL_WORKERS`: optional positive live-worker ceiling. `PI_WORKFLOW_TRANSIENT_MODEL_FAILURE_RETRIES` and `PI_WORKFLOW_ARTIFACT_OUTPUT_RETRIES`: non-negative retry limits, defaults `5` and `2`. Lower retries or higher concurrency are explicit reliability/quality trade-offs, not recommended speed defaults. | | Experimental, default off | `PI_WORKFLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_TOOL_DEDUP`, `PI_WORKFLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_CACHE_STABLE_FOREACH`, `PI_WORKFLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_LAUNCH_RAMP`, `PI_WORKFLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_SAME_SESSION_REPAIR`, `PI_WORKFLOW_PER_ITEM_DISPATCH`; additionally `PI_WORKFLOW_ADAPTIVE_LIVE_WORKERS` enables adaptive live-worker limits. Enable with `1`, `true`, `yes`, or `on` (case-insensitive). No general speed/quality claim is implied. | | Inactive experiment labels | `PI_WORKFLOW_CACHE_SHAPE_METRICS` and `PI_WORKFLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_DEPTH_ROUTER` do not enable runtime behavior. Provider cache usage is recorded when available without these flags. | | Internal/diagnostic, not public tuning contracts | `PI_WORKFLOW_ROLE` and parent-subagent context are runtime-owned. `PI_WORKFLOW_CAPTURE_TOOL_CALLS`, `PI_WORKFLOW_SUBAGENT_EXTRA_EXTENSIONS`, `PI_WORKFLOW_CONTAIN_DETACHED_SUPERVISOR`, and `PI_WORKFLOW_LAUNCH_SLOT_RELEASE_DELAY_MS` are diagnostic/integration controls. Private runtime-artifact name/clone/copy controls belong to worktree implementation, not portable workflow specs. Leave internal controls unset unless an integration explicitly owns them. | ### Execution profiles `executionProfiles` is an optional top-level map of custom profile names to stage overrides. A profile override object may contain **only** `model`, `thinking`, and `foreachBatch`; absent properties inherit normally. `defaultExecutionProfile`, when present, must name an entry in that map. With no selected profile, including a spec with no profiles or a headless launch of a spec that has no default, the base stage configuration is used. Selection precedence is: an explicit `--profile` (or `workflow_run` `profile`) over omitted-profile selection; a declared default over the base workflow for non-interactive omission; and, for model/thinking values, explicit `--model`/`--thinking` runtime overrides over the selected profile, then normal stage/session/spec inheritance. A profile that does not set `model` does not pin a model. `foreachBatch` is v1 profile-only batching, not a normal stage setting. It is valid only for a `foreach` target with `inputPolicy.artifactAccess: "none"`, and `maxItems` must be exactly `2`. The engine creates the batch prompt and result envelope; authors do not supply a batch prompt or envelope. A grouped pair is launched only when both adjacent logical items have the same usable `groupBy` value; if every fallback path is missing or empty, the whole would-be pair remains singleton. Missing, duplicate, extra, or individually invalid results discard the whole pair and rerun both items as singletons; one valid sibling is never accepted alone. A physical two-item launch still consumes two logical concurrency slots. Provider usage and timing are retained once on the durable batch record and attributed to its physical leader rather than double-counted across members. These constraints preserve ordinary per-item artifacts and downstream behavior. ### Deep-research execution profiles `deep-research` explicitly declares `defaultExecutionProfile: "medium"`, so a headless omitted-profile launch uses `medium`; interactive launch presents it first while still allowing the base spec. None of its profiles sets `model`, so current session/spec model resolution is retained. Its names are package conventions, not globally reserved names: ```text /workflow run --profile low deep-research "Research this repository and summarize the architecture tradeoffs." /workflow run --profile medium deep-research "Research this repository and summarize the architecture tradeoffs." /workflow run --profile high deep-research "Research this repository and summarize the architecture tradeoffs." ``` | Profile | Stage thinking and verification batching | Intended use | |---|---|---| | `low` | questions low; normalize medium; verify low; final-audit high; `verify-claims` batches pairs by first usable `$.sourceRefs` or `$.sourceUrls` | Latency/cost-sensitive exploratory work. Paired evaluations measured about 35% lower wall time and 25% lower task cost with equal aggregate verified claims, but one of three fresh prompts had a material completeness/actionability regression. This is an explicit quality trade-off, not quality-preserving mode. | | `medium` | Base thinking: plan high; questions medium; normalize high; verify high; final-audit xhigh. `verify-claims` uses the same pair batching/fallback. | Recommended/default profile for decision-grade research. It leaves thinking inherited from the base stages and does not pin a model. | | `high` | Base thinking except questions high and verify xhigh; `verify-claims` remains singleton. | More reasoning for research and verification. It is expected to be slower/costlier; a quality uplift over medium has not yet been measured. | Do not combine `--profile` with blanket `--thinking` overrides unless you intentionally want the runtime override to replace stage-level profile choices. In every profile, deterministic evidence guardrails remain unchanged: `partially_supported` never counts as `verified`, and source-ref join integrity is still enforced. ### Internalized experimental batched verification variants Workflow-specific path-ref batched variants are not part of the public package surface. Their custom planners and batch schemas remain internalized. Public batching uses the profile-only transparent `foreachBatch` runtime contract above; generic primitives such as `foreach`, `matrix`, `fanout`, and multi-query web-source tool calls remain supported where documented. ### Opt-in tiered verification for deep-research `deep-research` still runs every verifier task at the same pinned thinking level by default; verifier tiering as a default remains blocked by the [speed and quality guardrails](#speed-and-quality-guardrails). For controlled experiments where tiered verifier effort is acceptable, use the explicit path-ref variant: ```text /workflow validate ./workflows/deep-research/tiered-verification.spec.json /workflow run ./workflows/deep-research/tiered-verification.spec.json "Research this repository and verify the key claims." ``` The spec schema pins thinking per stage, not per foreach item, so this variant splits verification into two stages: a deterministic `verification-tiers` helper partitions sanitized candidates by their existing `verificationNeed` signal (`core` feeds `verify-core-claims` at high thinking; `useful`/`optional` feed `verify-tail-claims` at medium; candidates without a signal fall back to position order, first 8 to the core tier). Both stages use the same single-claim verifier prompt, the same control schema, `artifactAccess: none`, and the same verified-requires-url-plus-quote rule, and the audit gate consumes both stages' verifier rows. It is not registered as an official bundled workflow name and does not change package defaults. Treat speed/cost results as task-specific: claim a win only when the run's audit reports zero missing/duplicate/invalid verifier rows, zero sourceRef join failures, and no verified-floor regression. Any default adoption additionally requires a paired canary (same tasks, defaults vs variant, serial runs) before flipping anything. ### Verification outcome ontology The package exports a small verification outcome vocabulary for workflows that verify source-backed claims: `verified`, `partially_supported`, `unsupported`, `conflicting`, and `verification_blocked`. Bundled workflow helpers must use bundle-local shims that stay in parity with the package export, because helper imports are bundled from the workflow spec directory. `verification_blocked` means the verifier could not evaluate the claim because required evidence, source access, tool execution, or policy constraints blocked verification. It is not a weaker form of `verified`, never counts toward verified floors, and should remain visible in audit summaries so operators can decide whether to rerun, change source access, or treat the claim as unresolved. Adopt this vocabulary only for evidence-verification outcomes. Do not force it onto workflow-control, finding-disposition, or ship-readiness verdicts such as `KEEP`, `DROP`, `READY`, or `NEEDS_WORK`. ### Run-scoped web-source cache Prefer normalized workflow web tools in new workflows: - `workflow_web_search` returns compact candidate cards. - `workflow_web_fetch_source` caches one or more URLs and returns compact source cards with `sourceRef` values; pass `urls: [...]` or `sources: [{ url, title }]` to batch several fetches in one tool call. - `workflow_web_source_read` reads narrow exact/fuzzy/term-matched evidence snippets by `sourceRef`; pass `queries: [...]` or `reads: [...]` to batch several snippets from the same source in one tool call, or `claim` + distinctive `terms` when the exact quote is unknown. Term/claim reads return candidate metadata (`matchedTerms`, `missingTerms`, `coverageRatio`) rather than a proof verdict. Snippet windows are anchored to the match: a result may report `status: "truncated"` when the per-task visible budget or `maxChars` clips the window (the returned quote still starts at the match), and `status: "budget_exhausted"` when no visible budget remains; both include a `next` hint suggesting smaller queries or a fresh task. The normalized cache is stored under the workflow run directory: ```text .pi/workflows//web-source-cache/ ``` Do not instruct agents to read that directory directly; source cards intentionally expose only opaque refs and short previews. The cache also writes an append-only index ledger plus serialized source-identity locking so duplicate lookup and deterministic terminal failures can recover across parallel worker processes. Custom normalized search providers are captured in declaration order; only selected passthrough tools are re-exported, so unselected provider tools do not leak. Local provider refs resolve against workflow cwd and must identify one existing extension file. Custom `fetch_content` ownership for normalized fetch is intentionally unsupported: preparation rejects it before provider dispatch because `allowPrivateHosts: false` cannot sandbox an arbitrary extension transport. The built-in direct-safe fetch client remains the only normalized fetch transport. The default normalized fetch path uses the independent `pi-workflow-direct-safe-fetch` client. Its effective policy is `pi-workflow-strict-public-http-v1`, and that fetcher/policy provenance is retained on source cards, including duplicate and reloaded cards. It preserves pi-workflow's own public-host validation, redirect revalidation, DNS rebinding checks, and deadline. It intentionally does **not** inherit pi-web-access auth profiles, answer/fetch routing, hosted providers, proxy trust, domain policy, `ssrf.allowRanges`, or private-host enablement. Setting `securityPolicy.allowPrivateHosts: true` for this default direct path fails closed during initialization. Private targets are not implicitly enabled by provider metadata. Legacy workflow tasks that still use `fetch_content` keep the older run-scoped file cache under `.pi/workflows//source-cache/fetch-content/` only for the bundled `pi-web-access` provider. `readable` and `raw` modes use separate cache identities. Custom/extension providers remain functional pass-through calls, but caching is disabled because no stable fingerprinted cache contract exists; this prevents shared namespaces, unknown-argument collisions, and replay of provider-owned IDs. Answer mode, any call with an own `auth` property (regardless of its value), URL userinfo, fragments, and recognized credential/signature/session query parameters bypass workflow cache reads, writes, events, and directory creation. Authenticated response bodies never enter workflow-cache state. Because pi-web-access also disables its stored-content cache for authenticated fetches by default, a successful auth cache-off result may omit `responseId`; do not assume it is present. Set `PI_WORKFLOW_FETCH_CONTENT_CACHE=0` to disable the bundled legacy workflow cache for a run. To reduce worker context pressure for legacy `fetch_content` tasks, the bundled workflow fetch wrapper caps inline response text while preserving full stored source content. Override with `PI_WORKFLOW_FETCH_CONTENT_INLINE_CHARS=` or disable the inline cap with `PI_WORKFLOW_FETCH_CONTENT_INLINE_CHARS=0` when you intentionally need the provider's full inline response. When a `responseId` is present, use paginated `get_search_content` calls rather than requesting an unbounded body. Select a URL with `url`/`urlIndex`, pass integer `offset` and `limit`, and continue at `details.nextOffset` while `details.truncated` is true. Workflow-mapped pages are normalized at UTF-16 surrogate boundaries; a `limit` of 1 over an astral character still advances and reports coherent `returnedChars`, `nextOffset`, and continuation values. For targeted passages, use `findText` (one string or a bounded string array) and optional `findMode` (`exact`, `case-insensitive`, or `fuzzy`). `findText` cannot be combined with `offset`/`limit`, and `findMode` requires `findText`. Workflow response-ID aliases are private run-cache files (`0700` directory/`0600` files), lazily rehydrated with a fresh provider-storage timestamp; tampered aliases fail closed and unmapped web IDs remain pass-through. ## Bundled workflows `pi-workflow` ships a small official starter set, not a comprehensive workflow catalog. Create project-local or repo-shared workflows under `.pi/workflows/` or `workflows/` when your team needs patterns that are not bundled. | Workflow | Required agents | Mode | Use when | |---|---|---|---| | `deep-research` | `researcher` | plan + foreach questions + normalize-input packet support + normalize + foreach verifier + audit support + final-audit packet support + compact final synthesis reduce + deterministic ledger-backed executive render | Use when you need a grounded answer or summary based on source material. | | `deep-review` | `scout` | triage + foreach review lenses with typed required-source coverage + dedup support + foreach devil's advocate + verdict-partition support + bounded report-packet support + no-repository-tool synthesis + deterministic full-ledger render | Use when you want code or design reviewed carefully from multiple angles. Unreadable or metadata-only required sources force a partial verdict and appear in the final report. | | `spec-review` | `scout` | extract spec + map implementation + inspect tests -> reduce candidates -> foreach verifier -> reduce report | Use when you want to check whether requirements, an API spec, or a contract are reflected in the implementation and tests. | | `impact-review` | `scout` | scope/implementation/validation maps -> impact lenses -> consistency/regression/ship-readiness joins -> final synthesis | Use before merging or releasing a change to check affected areas, risks, missing tests, and missing docs. | Bundled starters use local-first Pi agent discovery with bundled fallback agents. Project `.pi/agents/` definitions win, then user `~/.pi/agent/agents/`, then pi-workflow's bundled common agents (`scout`, `researcher`). Customize the workflow when you need a different role or stricter tool ceiling. ### Local review evidence `spec-review` accepts typed local `evidence` and `counterEvidence` rows shaped as `{file, lineStart, lineEnd, quote, relevance?}`; each verifier array allows at most 64 rows. KEEP/WEAKEN require verified typed evidence, DROP requires verified typed counter-evidence before removal, and positive requirement coverage also requires typed bytes. Every typed citation must pass: one good quote cannot hide another failed citation. Legacy strings, including plausible file:line locators, URLs, and opaque web refs, remain display-only/unverified. They may accompany typed evidence but cannot replace it; preliminary mapping and no-issue notes are not conformance proof. This gate does not fetch or attest remote bytes. The `spec-review` bundle and the `support-partition` authoring scaffold carry equivalent closed-bundle `local-evidence-reader.mjs` readers. They verify current local UTF-8 bytes under canonical workflow cwd, rejecting escapes, symlinked descendants, nonregular files, files over 4 MiB, invalid UTF-8, cancellation, and observed file/ancestry mutation. Descriptor reads are bounded to 64 KiB chunks with at most 4 MiB + 1 byte allocated. Inclusive 1-based ranges split on LF, retain CR, BOM, diff markers, and whitespace, and never clamp past EOF; a terminal LF creates an empty last line. A quote must be an exact substring wholly within the declared range, not normalized text. Spec-review requires both range endpoints; only the scaffold permits omitted ranges as explicitly file-wide evidence, not symbol attestation. This proves current byte presence, not semantic entailment, historical worker access, or isolation from a continuously racing hostile same-user process. Partition retains per-row `evidenceGate` results (`spec-local-evidence-v1`) and file SHA-256 values; ungrounded dispositions remain in `needsHuman`. Requirement reconciliation requires exactly one explicit `requirementId`/`status` row per unique exact ID in the bounded runtime-attested extract-spec control; titles, order, aliases, and normalized IDs are not identity. Status is `covered`, `gap`, `partial`, `unclear`, or `needsHuman`. `covered` requires valid typed bytes. `gap`/`partial` identify known missing behavior and can complete as `GAPS_FOUND` only with grounded KEEP/WEAKEN explicitly linked to that real requirement; DROP alone cannot resolve a gap or make it covered. `CONFORMS` requires every extracted requirement positively covered. Unclear/unresolved rows, missing/duplicate/unknown/invalid coverage IDs or statuses, invalid extracted IDs, or absent scope/proof remain `INCONCLUSIVE`/failed. The renderer independently rereads the runtime source chain, reconciles the exact requirement set and control-byte binding, and rechecks citations before `actionableEvidenceComplete` or `passed`. Missing/forged/stale reconciliation (including historical controls), changed bytes, or an absent/inconsistent report cannot produce a clean completion. Runtime candidate-source status and the candidate task's source manifest must also account for extract-spec/map-implementation/inspect-tests: failed, missing, or inconsistent required sources cannot be hidden by a clean model-authored candidate control. The report and `source-ledger.json` preserve this audit trail. ## Stage model Public `schemaVersion: 1` workflows use `artifactGraph.stages` as the only authoring surface. `fast: "on"` is intentionally unsupported in workflow specs; omit `fast` or use `"off"`/`"inherit"` where runtime defaults expose the field. Public workflow definitions separate three layers: - **Workflow layer**: graph/control/data-dependency fields such as `id`, `from`, `after`, `sourcePolicy`, `sourceProjection`, scheduling, and artifacts. - **Subagent layer**: child Pi/model worker shapes: `single`, `foreach`, `reduce`, and `loop`. - **Support layer**: local helper execution through a stage that declares a `support` object. - **Dynamic layer**: trusted bundle-local controller code that can adaptively add official workflow tasks at runtime. Every subagent stage writes artifact bundles: - `control.json` — strict machine-readable control-plane JSON. Deterministic workflow decisions read this file only. - `analysis.md` — prose reasoning/evidence for humans and downstream readers. - `refs.json` — structured evidence pointers. - `raw.md` — captured final-answer artifact; see Retention for raw-read assurance. | Node | Layer | Data behavior | |---|---|---| | `type: "single"` | Subagent | One focused subagent prompt. | | `type: "foreach"` | Subagent/control | Reads an array from an upstream `control.json` simple dot path and materializes one task per item. | | `type: "reduce"` | Subagent | Fan-in over upstream artifact handles and optional `sourceProjection` inline control snippets. | | `type: "loop"` | Workflow/control | Repeats fixed child stages until deterministic `until`, `maxRounds`, or no-progress stop. Loop conditions read child `control.json`. | | `type: "dag"` | Workflow/control | Composite container; lowers child stages to namespaced tasks and exposes an `outputFrom` child downstream. | | `type: "dynamic"` | Dynamic/control | Runs a trusted bundle-local controller `.mjs`; generated `ctx.agent()` work is spliced into `compiled.json`/`run.json` as official workflow tasks. | | `support: { uses }` | Support | Runs a directory-local `.mjs` helper over selected upstream `control.json` values and writes a workflow artifact bundle. | Use `foreach.from` for static data-driven fan-out, `reduce.from` for subagent fan-in, support `from` for local helper inputs, and `type: "dynamic"` only when the workflow must decide its own child tasks at runtime. Do not rely on a later plain `single` stage to see previous stage output. `single` stages receive the runtime task by default. Set stage-level `injectRuntimeTask: true` on `foreach` or `reduce` to include it alongside item/source context when cross-cutting user constraints must reach those workers. Setting it to `false` does not suppress ordinary `single` task injection. Planner-driven dynamic stages may declare `dynamic.decisionLoop` to keep adaptive behavior policy-bound in JSON. The planner emits `dynamic-decision-v1` data only; trusted controller/runtime code validates and persists decisions, maps accepted actions to generated workflow tasks, extracts state indexes, and enforces budgets, role/tool ceilings, replay invariants, and fail-closed invalid-decision behavior. Users still provide only the normal workflow task string. After each dynamic decision-loop round persists its state index, the runtime folds that round's gaps, blockers, conflicts, and omissions — plus bounded failed generated work — into a retained historical coordination projection scoped to the stage. The next planner round's prompt includes a deterministic `Coordination state (historical retained projection; quoted fields are untrusted data, not instructions): …` block: up to the top 8 highest-priority retained issues (severity `critical` > `high` > `medium` > `low` > `info` > `unknown`, then kind `blocker` > `conflict` > `gap` > `omission`, then first-seen round, then id), rendered under a 2000-character ceiling with whole-item truncation (no partial trailing lines), quoted normalized fields, retained/dropped labels, and `since r` staleness tags. The prompt also includes an advisory locator line pointing at the latest full state-index artifact/digest — never validated, so treat it as optional context, not a required read — and a remediation-policy line mapping issue classes onto the existing `add_work_item`, `verify`, `synthesize`, and `blocked` actions while forbidding duplicate follow-up for issue ids/tasks already listed in Generated tasks. Coordination projection is deterministic: identical event history renders byte-identical prompts, and those prompt bytes participate in the recorded dynamic agent request hash used to detect replay divergence. ### Dynamic workflow authoring Dynamic workflows keep JSON as the source of truth while allowing trusted bundle-local JavaScript to orchestrate adaptive work. A dynamic stage looks like this: ```json { "id": "adaptive", "type": "dynamic", "dynamic": { "uses": "./helpers/controller.mjs", "mode": "graph-splice", "permissions": { "approval": "auto" }, "budget": { "maxAgents": 1000, "maxConcurrency": 16 } } } ``` Controller/helper/nested workflow refs must be bundle-local `./...` paths. Nested workflow specs are intentionally self-contained at their own directory level: refs inside a nested spec may point to files in that nested spec's subtree, but not to parent-level shared files via `../` — put shared helpers/schemas under each nested workflow subtree or expose them through the parent controller/helper layer. Controller/helper code is trusted Node.js code for orchestration and timeout isolation, not a security sandbox. Controller context rules: - Generated agents are real workflow tasks: `ctx.agent({ id, agent, prompt, tools })` inserts a deterministic `stageId.id` task into `compiled.json` and `run.json`, persists a request hash in `dynamic/events.jsonl`, and replays fail-closed if the same id later changes request shape. - On resume, controllers must re-issue previously recorded `ctx.agent`, `ctx.helper`, and `ctx.workflow` operations in the same order before issuing new operations; omitted or out-of-order replay fails closed with an explicit replay-invariant error. - Use `ctx.parallel([() => ctx.agent(...), ...])` for dynamic fan-out; the runtime records queued sibling generation ops before the controller suspends, and non-suspension operation failures make the controller fail closed. Generated dependency cycles are rejected. - `ctx.helper(name, input)` can call only helpers declared in `dynamic.helpers`; pure/retry-safe helpers may set `idempotent: true` so a crash after `helper.started` but before `helper.completed` can retry the helper instead of permanently failing closed. - `ctx.workflow(name, input)` can call only nested specs declared in `dynamic.workflows`. Dynamic outputs should be compact typed artifacts. The controller returns normal workflow sections through `{ control, analysis, refs }`; generated child agents must return the same ``, ``, `` protocol as other artifact-graph tasks. When a controller result includes `outputTasks`/`outputTaskIds` (the built-in decision loop sets this from accepted `synthesize` actions), downstream `from: ""` reducers also receive those exported task artifacts as stable sources such as `.output`. Runtime state is stored under `.pi/workflows//dynamic/`: - `events.jsonl` — append-only decisions such as controller status, task generation, helper completions, nested workflow starts, and approvals. - `state.json` — replayable projection/cache of controller status, generated task ids, and budget counters. - `controller.log` — JSONL records from `ctx.log(...)`, useful for controller debugging. Approval modes: - `approval: "auto"` is the default. - `approval: "ask"` uses Pi's interactive `ctx.ui.confirm` and records the approved dynamic scope, including the full task digest and run-bundle fingerprint. Approving the controller authorizes this controller's generated agents to run without later approval prompts; generated agents run non-interactively within the displayed roles/tools and budgets. Read-only generated agents use the shared workspace; mutation-capable generated agents and agents using Pi-default tools use managed worktrees. Nested workflows keep their own approval policy and may still block for approval. Pure headless scheduling fails closed with `dynamic_ui_unavailable`; missed/timed-out prompts fail closed with `dynamic_approval_timeout`. `/workflow resume ` from an interactive Pi session retries either blocked approval state. Budgets bound controller behavior (`maxAgents`, `maxConcurrency`, `maxRuntimeMs`, `maxNestedWorkflowDepth`, `maxGraphMutations`, `maxHelperRuns`). `maxNestedWorkflowDepth` limits actual ancestor-relative depth, not cumulative sibling calls: depth 1 permits sibling children but prohibits grandchildren. Each ancestor's remaining allowance is inherited and cannot be widened by a child. Parent-owned launch ledgers establish ancestry; missing, corrupt, or ambiguous legacy ancestry grants no new descendant headroom. Depth is nonconsumable headroom, not a sibling-work cap; the other work/runtime/tool budgets still apply. Suspended child-agent wait time does not count as active controller runtime. `ctx.budget.remaining()` reports current headroom, including inherited depth and live generated-agent concurrency from the run record; `ctx.budget.check()` returns false when any reported dimension reaches zero. `allowDynamicRoles` and `allowDynamicTools` default to enabled under the trusted-code model and are enforced when disabled: controller attempts to choose generated agent roles or override tools fail. Do not use dynamic depth counters as launch authority. Hot state reads/writes project only the local ledger: `counters.nestedWorkflowDepth` is 0 or 1 according to local child registrations, without traversing descendants. Full retained historical descendant depth is computed only by an explicit runtime inspection call, `readOrRebuildDynamicState(cwd, runId, { observeDescendants: true })`. That observational result is not persisted back into the hot cache and never grants execution authority; it is not a private-module import recommendation. ### DAG authoring Top-level `artifactGraph.stages` is DAG-capable by default. A nested `type: "dag"` is a workflow/control container, not a leaf subagent task: it must contain child `stages` and should not have its own prompt. The runtime lowers public graph relationships onto the internal dependency scheduler while preserving artifact/data boundaries. Keep the authoring layers described under "Stage model" distinct when composing DAGs. DAG rules: - `from` is a data + order edge. Downstream artifact-graph stages receive a `workflow_artifact` manifest and digest-only inline source list; deterministic runtime decisions read upstream `control.json`. - `after` is order-only. It accepts a string or string array, waits for those stages, and does not make their artifacts available as source data. A task that declares `inputPolicy.requiredReads` or `requiredReadPolicy` for an `after`-only source fails before worker launch; add the source to `from` when artifact access is required. - `after: []` is an explicit parallel root. It opts out of the implicit previous-stage chain while documenting that the stage intentionally has no ordering dependency. - Parse-time graph validation rejects unknown stage references, self-dependencies, duplicate stage ids, dependency cycles, unsupported output fields, and unsafe `controlSchema` paths. - `inputPolicy.requiredReads` is fail-closed: if declared, the task must read each listed `source.artifact` via `workflow_artifact` before its final output is accepted. String entries require a non-truncated read of that source/artifact. Object entries can additionally require exact `count`; JSON artifacts (`control`, `refs`) can require `path`, `maxChars`, and `maxItems` using `$` or simple dot paths such as `$.items`. When `maxChars` or `maxItems` is declared, `path` is required. A truncated required read never satisfies the policy: the runtime always rejects a ledger row whose read was truncated, so `mustNotTruncate` documents this always-on behavior rather than toggling it (setting `mustNotTruncate: false` does not permit a truncated read to pass). The runtime does not preload required artifact contents into the prompt; it exposes source refs and checks the read ledger. Direct repo `read`/`grep` calls do not satisfy this proof; the ledger proves artifact access, not semantic use. DAG container outputs use the selected child source name, for example `analysis.final.analysis` for `id: "analysis", outputFrom: "final"`. Required-read source names inside nested `type: "dag"` containers are namespaced the same way as child runtime sources (for example child `scan.control` lowers to `analysis.scan.control`). - `sourceProjection.include` can inline small selected simple dot paths from upstream `control.json` (for example `$.digest` or `$.items`); `$` selects the whole control value, including empty/scalar roots, still subject to `maxChars`. A simultaneous narrower include does not reduce a root selection. Full artifacts remain available through `workflow_artifact`. - `inputPolicy.terminalBarrier: "all-sources"` is an explicit fan-in policy. The stage waits until every declared dependency is terminal before ordinary `sourcePolicy` evaluation; one failed source does not prematurely cancel the join. Omit it to retain the default first-blocking-source behavior. - `inputPolicy.invalidateOnDependencyResume: true` opts a static artifact-graph consumer into generation-bound replay. Resuming a dependency transactionally quarantines stale consumer artifacts, increments its generation, and rematerializes stable foreach ownership through a durable journal. The runtime fails closed rather than crossing unsupported dynamic, loop, streaming-foreach, or ambiguous ownership boundaries. Omit it to retain ordinary resume behavior. - `inputPolicy.maxCompiledPromptChars` places a positive code-point cap on the final compiled prompt, including projected source context and retry repair text. Compilation rejects a statically oversized prompt and runtime compilation rejects a dynamic overflow. - A non-streaming `foreach` may set `each.itemIdentityPath` to a simple string-valued item path such as `$.id` for duplicate-safe stable child identities, and `each.itemPayloadPath` to a different simple object-valued path such as `$.payload` for prompt interpolation. Duplicate, unsafe, missing, non-string identity, non-object payload, and resulting task-id collisions fail closed. Omit both fields to preserve index-based identity and the full item payload. - A `type: "dag"` stage may contain `single`, `foreach`, `reduce`, support nodes, or nested `dag` stages. Loops are top-level workflow/control stages in v1. Child `from`/`after` references resolve only to siblings inside the same container. - `outputFrom` names the child whose task keys represent the container for downstream `from: "containerId"` edges. If omitted, exactly one sink child defaults as the output; multiple sink children require explicit `outputFrom`. Example diamond plus a DAG container consumed downstream: ```json { "schemaVersion": 1, "defaults": { "agent": "scout", "readOnly": true, "tools": ["read", "grep", "find", "ls"] }, "artifactGraph": { "stages": [ { "id": "plan", "type": "single", "prompt": "Put machine-readable JSON in with an items array." }, { "id": "scan", "type": "foreach", "from": { "source": "plan", "path": "$.items" }, "each": { "prompt": "Scan this item: ${item}" } }, { "id": "review", "type": "single", "after": "plan", "prompt": "Run an independent review after planning finishes." }, { "id": "merge", "type": "reduce", "from": ["scan", "review"], "sourceProjection": { "include": ["$.digest"] }, "prompt": "Merge both branch outputs." }, { "id": "analysis", "type": "dag", "from": "merge", "outputFrom": "final", "stages": [ { "id": "scan", "type": "single", "prompt": "Scan the merged findings." }, { "id": "review", "type": "single", "after": "scan", "prompt": "Review after the scan without scan output context." }, { "id": "final", "type": "reduce", "from": ["scan", "review"], "prompt": "Summarize the analysis children." } ] }, { "id": "report", "type": "reduce", "from": "analysis", "inputPolicy": { "requiredReads": [ { "source": "analysis.final", "artifact": "control", "path": "$.summary", "maxChars": 4000, "count": 1 } ], "enforcement": "fail" }, "prompt": "Write the final report using the analysis control artifact." } ] } } ``` ## Output contracts Artifact-graph subagent stages must return the workflow output section protocol: ```text {"schema":"stage-control-v1","digest":"..."} Detailed reasoning and evidence discussion. [] ``` By default the engine requires exactly one ``, then one ``, then one `` section, with no prose outside the tags. It writes `control.json`, `analysis.md`, `refs.json`, and `raw.md`, and retries/fails invalid output within the stage retry budget. `control.digest` is required and bounded by `output.maxDigestChars`. `output.analysis.required: false` and `output.refs.required: false` make those sections optional, not forbidden. Supplied sections must still appear at most once in canonical control/analysis/refs order and satisfy their normal content rules. Omitted optional analysis/refs are stored as empty analysis and an empty refs array. Positive `refs.minItems` still requires refs. Support helpers may emit all three sections even when analysis or refs is optional. Markdown fences do not escape the final section protocol. When quoting a complete protocol response inside analysis, encode its literal `<` characters as `<`, while leaving the actual outer tags unescaped. For example, quote `<control>{...}</control>` rather than a nested unescaped control section. Genuine duplicate sections remain invalid. Use workflow-local JSON Schema files when the control plane needs stronger validation: ```json { "output": { "controlSchema": "./schemas/questions-control.schema.json", "analysis": { "required": true }, "refs": { "required": true } } } ``` The built-in validator supports the subset used by bundled workflows: `type`, `required`, `properties`, `items`, `enum`, `const`, length/item/number bounds, `additionalProperties`, and simple `allOf`/`anyOf`/`oneOf`. Unsupported keywords such as `$ref`, `$defs`, `definitions`, and `pattern` are rejected when the workflow is loaded. Malformed values of supported keywords are also load errors. Object `const`/`enum` equality ignores property insertion order; array order still matters. String length bounds count Unicode code points, not UTF-16 units or grapheme clusters. When a control schema constrains `control.schema` with `const` or `enum`, that value is the semantic output protocol identifier; it is independent of the schema file's basename. Model prompts and examples must emit the exact constrained value rather than deriving one from `output.controlSchema` (for example, `stage-control-v1`, not `questions-control.schema`). ### Opt-in partial output for streaming foreach A producer stage can declare stable array paths that may be published before terminal completion: ```json "output": { "partial": { "paths": ["$.items"] } } ``` A downstream `foreach` may then opt in on the matching `from` edge: ```json "from": { "source": "plan", "path": "$.items", "streaming": { "enabled": true, "minChunk": 2 } } ``` Emit each `…` publication as a standalone block before final output sections, outside code fences and inline prose. Progress prose may separate publication blocks. Literal partial-control markers inside final control/refs JSON or analysis are data, not publications. Identical items may be republished, but published items must not change or disappear. The runtime accepts only partial items for declared paths. Published partial items must be final/stable JSON objects with a non-empty string `id`; the producer may emit them as `{"schema":"workflow-partial-output-v1","path":"$.items","items":[...]}` before the final workflow output. If the final `control.json` later changes a published item with the same id, the streaming foreach placeholder blocks fail-closed. Downstream reducers still wait for the foreach placeholder plus all generated item tasks, so partial output overlaps item work without relaxing final fan-in gates. By default, a streaming foreach child whose stage declares `sourceProjection` or `requiredReads` (with artifact access enabled) still waits for the producing stage to complete, because its projection/read context does not exist before the producer's final control is written. Setting `PI_WORKFLOW_PER_ITEM_DISPATCH=1` opts in to per-item dispatch for such projection-dependent children: when every `sourceProjection.include` path is also a declared producer `output.partial.paths` entry and already has published partial items, the child is activated per item and its projection is served from the producer's durable partial output ledger (marked `projectionSource: "partial-ledger"` in the source manifest). Children whose projection paths are not yet satisfiable from partials — and any stage with `requiredReads`, which need on-disk producer artifacts — keep the default completed-producer barrier. The activation decision is made once at materialization and persisted, item change/withdrawal checks are unchanged, and no bundled spec enables this flag. This is a mechanism-only opt-in; it carries no speed or cost claim (see the speed-change checklist before claiming any). ## Support helpers A support node runs local helper code inline instead of launching a subagent. It is declared by adding a `support` object; it does not use a separate `type` value: ```json { "id": "audit-claims", "from": "verify-claims", "sourcePolicy": "partial", "support": { "uses": "./helpers/claim-evidence-gate.mjs", "options": { "requireFetchedEvidenceForVerified": true } } } ``` Helper API: ```js export default async function helper({ sources, options, context }) { return { schema: "helper-output-v1", digest: "...", value: { /* control data */ } }; } ``` For artifact-graph workflows, `sources` contains upstream `control.json` values keyed by stable source names. The helper result is normalized into a workflow artifact bundle, so downstream deterministic readers still consume `control.json`. Async helpers receive `context.signal`, an `AbortSignal` for cooperative `/workflow stop` cancellation; observe it and return or throw promptly when aborted. In-process helpers cannot be force-killed while running uncooperative synchronous JavaScript; process isolation would be required for that guarantee. Helper refs must start with `./`, end in `.mjs`, and stay inside the workflow bundle directory. This is path containment, not a security sandbox: helper code runs unsandboxed inside the workflow process, has Node.js process permissions, is not constrained by subagent tool allowlists, and should only be bundled from trusted repository code. Legacy `type: "transform"` specs are rejected with a migration error; move the helper ref to `support.uses` and options to `support.options`. ## Loop behavior A `loop` stage repeats a fixed child stage subgraph once per round. Required loop fields: - `id` - `maxRounds` - `until` - at least two child `stages` Child stage ids are materialized as deterministic runtime ids such as: ```text fix-loop.r01.implement fix-loop.r01.check fix-loop.r02.implement fix-loop.r02.check ``` Loop child stages run strictly in listed order. Nested `loop`, `foreach`, `dag`, and support children are rejected in v1. There is no `parallel` stage type; model parallel branches as multiple roots or with `after: []`. Minimal shape (the `until` condition must reference the final child stage): ```json { "id": "doc-sync", "type": "loop", "maxRounds": 2, "until": { "stage": "draft", "path": "$.consistent", "equals": true }, "stages": [ { "id": "compare", "type": "single", "prompt": "...", "output": { "controlSchema": "./schemas/compare-control.schema.json" } }, { "id": "draft", "type": "single", "prompt": "...", "output": { "controlSchema": "./schemas/draft-control.schema.json" } } ] } ``` Data flow inside a loop is implicit, not authored: - Loop children must not declare `from` or `after`; validation rejects them. Each child depends on the previous child of the same round, so its runtime sources are that round's earlier children (for example `doc-sync.r01.compare` for `draft` in round 1), readable through `workflow_artifact` like any other source. - The first child of round N (N > 1) depends on every task of round N-1, runs with `sourcePolicy: "partial"`, and receives a `# Loop Carry-Forward Context` block: the previous round number, the designated check stage, the progress metric, the check stage's latest structured output (compact JSON, bounded to about 4,000 characters), and a rolling summary. Later children in a round do not receive that block. - Round 1's first child inherits the loop stage's own dependencies. `until` grammar: - Leaf: `{ "stage": "", "path": "$.field", ... }` plus one predicate: `equals` / `notEquals` (string, number, boolean, or null, compared with `Object.is`), `lengthEquals` (integer, array or string length), or `exists` (boolean). If several predicates are present only the first in the order `exists`, `equals`, `notEquals`, `lengthEquals` is evaluated; a leaf with no predicate, no `path`, or an unreadable value never matches. `source` is accepted as an alias for `stage`; the referenced child must be the final child stage, and `path` uses the same `$`-prefixed simple dot/bracket syntax as `foreach.from`, read from that child's `control.json`. - Combinators: `{ "all": [ ...conditions ] }` and `{ "any": [ ...conditions ] }` nest leaves or further combinators. Every nested leaf must reference the existing final child stage; when both `source` and `stage` are supplied, they must agree. - Put the `until` path in the final child's control schema and show it in that stage's few-shot example; a missing path evaluates as not satisfied and the loop runs to `maxRounds`. A loop stops when: - `until` evaluates true (`loopStates[].status: "completed"`), - `maxRounds` is exhausted (`"exhausted"`), - no-progress detection fires (`"stopped_no_progress"`): from round 2 on, the metric at `progressPath` (default `$.blockingFailures`; array/string length or a finite number) read from the designated check stage's control is compared with the previous round and the loop stops when it did not decrease, - or a blocking failure prevents scheduling. An optional `onExhausted` stage runs once when the loop ends by exhaustion or no progress. Round count and outcome appear in `/workflow status`, `/workflow show`, and `run.json` `loopStates`. `/workflow resume` does not support loop workflows yet, so fix the spec and start a fresh run instead of resuming an interrupted loop. There is no auto-merge. Managed worktree output is recorded for human review. ## Run artifacts Workflow state is file-based under: ```text .pi/workflows// ``` Important files: | File | Purpose | |---|---| | `run.json` | Canonical run record: status, task summary, task records, fanout/loop/dynamic metadata, run timestamps, and optional structured creation-launch metadata. Exact commands are never stored here. | | `launch-command.txt` | Optional exact slash-command capture for a new slash launch. Stored as a private `0600` file in the run's `0700` directory and integrity-linked from `run.json`; absent for tool, legacy, ordinary API, and nested launches. | | `compiled.json` | Compiled workflow snapshot. | | `spec.json` | Workflow spec snapshot used by the run. | | `tasks//task.md` | Compiled task prompt. | | `tasks//system-prompt.md` | Compiled system prompt. | | `tasks//control.json` | Machine-readable control artifact for artifact-graph tasks. | | `tasks//analysis.md` | Human-readable reasoning/evidence artifact. | | `tasks//refs.json` | Structured evidence pointers. | | `tasks//raw.md` | Captured final answer before section extraction; legacy scoped reads do not attest original bytes. | | `tasks//read-ledger.jsonl` | `workflow_artifact` read proof used by `requiredReads`. | | `tasks//source-manifest.json` | Upstream artifact manifest visible to the task. | | `tasks//output.log` | Captured worker output from the subagent attempt; may share its inode. | | `tasks//stderr.log` | Captured worker stderr. | | `tasks//result.json` | Structured task result envelope and artifact pointers. | Subagent worker artifacts are stored under `.pi/workflow-subagents/` by default and are referenced from the workflow run record. ### Retention Nothing is deleted automatically. Run `pi-workflow prune` or `/workflow prune` to preview terminal runs beyond the retention window; add `--yes` to delete them. Task `output.log` and `raw.md` may share storage only within the runtime's bounded run/task/attempt link contract. Raw reads validate exact ownership and source identity, canonical containment, and complete inode-link accounting; arbitrary, external, unaccounted links and observed substitutions fail closed. New host-owned publication requires a trusted host-recorded digest: a result-sidecar digest alone is not authority, and failed owner establishment cannot silently produce fresh legacy data. Link failures after valid ownership can use independent authoritative bytes while retaining their host binding. Raw read results and read-ledger rows include `rawAssurance`. `host_digest_verified` means the complete bytes match the trusted host binding, even when the returned view is truncated. Known legacy layouts expose their current scoped contents as `legacy_scoped_unattested`, with `originalBytes: "unattested"`; this does not attest historical final-answer bytes. Low-level writers without host publication context use independent storage and report `independent_unattested`, not host verification. These checks do not migrate old data, expand the allowed filesystem scope, prove semantic correctness, or authenticate an arbitrarily falsified host record. Do not infer assurance or physical savings from a filename, and do not rewrite historical artifacts by hand. Retention keeps the newest 50 terminal runs by default; `--keep` changes that count, and `--older-than` additionally restricts deletion to older terminal records. Preview is read-only: it acquires no topology/supervisor leases and performs no quarantine, deletion, or index write. Destructive pruning coordinates with first run publication through a workflow-root topology lease and checks candidate supervisor leases and generation identity again before detachment. Live or indeterminate supervisor leases protect a run. Every retained child protects its ancestors, regardless of child status; selected children purge before parents, and failed child purges or retained primary quarantines continue to protect ancestry. Unknown, unreadable, ambiguous, or cyclic references are protected rather than guessed. Preview conservatively reports retained-child protection instead of simulating successful child deletion. Prune JSON distinguishes canonical detachment from successful purge: `detached: true` alone does not mean `deleted: true` or `purged: true`. A pre-detach failure retains the canonical run and may leave a quarantined mirror; a post-detach failure can leave both quarantined trees. `retainedEvidencePath` and `retainedMirrorPath`, when present, identify recovery evidence and are also printed in text. Any canonical detachment triggers an index refresh even if purge fails; a recreated same-ID generation is preserved. Unprotected selected-run failures produce `summary.error` and CLI exit 1. `deletedBytes` credits only fully purged candidates, never retained quarantine bytes; partial purge may therefore understate freed bytes. Retention recovery is manual: inspect the reported paths and current generation before restoring or removing evidence. Prune neither automatically restores over a new run nor automatically deletes retained recovery evidence. All four bundled workflows use a common completion envelope while preserving workflow-specific verdicts and evidence models. A successful final renderer writes a compact `completionSummaryMarkdown` for result-only parent handoff and `final-report.md` as the stable user-facing sidecar; the first detailed section is **Executive summary**, evidence and limitations remain explicit, and supporting links appear only in the final **Related artifacts** section. `deep-research` keeps byte-identical `executive.md` plus its claim-level `audit.md`; `deep-review` keeps byte-identical `review.md`; `spec-review` and `impact-review` keep their canonical source controls in `source-ledger.json`. Missing, partial, contradictory, or incompletely rendered canonical ledgers fail or block the final support task instead of producing a clean completion. ## Token usage tracking Usage is provider-reported only. Displayed totals focus on token counts; cost is not shown because provider cost coverage and semantics vary, and no cost is ever derived from token counts or model names. Usage is recorded at three levels: - **Per task** (`run.json` → `tasks[].usage`): each subagent attempt's usage is captured from the pi-subagent result envelope and aggregated across retries. Requires `@agwab/pi-subagent` >= 0.4.7, which sums per-request usage across every turn of a run; older engines reported only the final request, so token counts recorded before the upgrade undercount multi-turn tasks. - **Per run** (`run.json` → `usage`): when a run reaches a terminal status, a `task-rollup` record is persisted with summed token totals and `tasksReporting`/`taskCount` so partial coverage is visible. - **Parent session** (`.pi/workflows//parent-usage.json`): the pi session that started the run records its own assistant-turn usage (routing, waiting, summarizing) into this sidecar while the run is active, finalizing on the wrap-up turn after the run turns terminal. It is a separate file because a detached supervisor owns `run.json`. When several runs are active in one session, each run's sidecar attributes the same parent turns, so sidecars of overlapping runs should not be summed blindly. Parent accounting resumes only for the matching persisted `sessionId`; another session cannot adopt its totals, and legacy sidecars without an owner remain readable but frozen. Writes serialize under topology and sidecar leases. Failed deltas remain queued in memory and retry before later operations on the next message or flush; durable `messageIds` receipts commit with totals to prevent duplicate counting on retry or identified message replay. Failed flush/detach does not discard pending deltas. Tracking is dropped when the run is removed or its directory generation is replaced, with checks repeated under the retention topology lease: late usage does not recreate pruned storage or cross into the replacement run. Write failures surface the fixed sanitized warning “Parent usage accounting deferred after a write failure; pending totals will retry on the next message or flush. A sanitized diagnostic is saved with recovery.” Recovery persists only `lastWriteFailure: { code: "parent_usage_write_failed", at }`, not raw assistant content or exception text. The pending queue is not a durable outbox: uncommitted deltas can be lost on process exit/crash, and cross-process replay deduplication requires a stable message identity. Durable receipts do not guarantee recovery of never-committed usage. Where it surfaces: - The workflow board (`/workflow`) shows run totals plus the parent-session line in the run summary panes, a per-task token suffix in task lists, and a full token breakdown (in/out, cache read/write, attempts) in task detail. - `/workflow status ` and run-start/terminal text output include a `usage=` line with `tasksReporting=N/M`. - Nested workflows (a workflow running inside a subagent) attach the child task's usage totals to terminal `child.*` events on the parent subagent run (persisted by `@agwab/pi-subagent` >= 0.4.8; older engines ignore the field). ## CLI inspect The terminal CLI reads local `.pi/workflows` run records without launching Pi commands: ```bash pi-workflow inspect workflow_mq224pi8_775e71 pi-workflow inspect workflow_mq224pi8_775e71 --failures pi-workflow inspect workflow_mq224pi8_775e71 --results pi-workflow inspect workflow_mq224pi8_775e71 --json ``` `inspect` accepts a full run id or an unambiguous prefix. `supervise` exits 0 for completed work, 1 for failed/interrupted work or its runtime deadline, and 2 for blocked work. In `--all` mode it tracks only top-level runs observed running during that invocation, ignoring historical terminal runs; failure takes precedence over blocked, and an empty batch succeeds. ## Authoring workflows Use the bundled `workflow-guide` skill when creating or reviewing reusable workflows. Project workflows can live in either project workflow root: ```text .pi/workflows/.json .pi/workflows//spec.json workflows/.json workflows//spec.json ``` Use `workflows/` for repo-committed shared workflows and `.pi/workflows/` for local/project-private workflows. Use the directory-bundle form when the workflow needs schemas, support helpers, or copied scaffold files. `workflow-guide` ships validate-ready scaffolds under `skills/workflow-guide/scaffolds/`: | Scaffold | Use when | |---|---| | `foreach-reduce` | Extract a list of work items, verify each item, then synthesize a report. | | `support-partition` | Candidate findings need deterministic partitioning/dedup after verifier verdicts. | | `dag-required-reads` | A nested analysis DAG must expose one child output and force downstream artifact reads. | | `matrix-dag` | Multiple review lenses should run in parallel and then join through reducers. | | `object-tool-fallback` | A read-only workflow needs optional custom/web extraction fallback tooling. | Authoring checklist: 1. Start from a bundled workflow when one fits. 2. Start from a scaffold when its topology matches the requested new workflow. 3. Decide the workflow graph first: subagent stages (`single`, `foreach`, `reduce`, `loop`), `dag` containers, dynamic stages when adaptive runtime orchestration is required, and support nodes when deterministic local helper code is needed. 4. Make every data dependency explicit with `foreach.from`, `reduce.from`, support `from`, or dynamic `ctx.agent`/`ctx.helper`/`ctx.workflow` calls. 5. Keep read-only workflows read-only. 6. For write-capable workflows, choose a worktree policy and validation stage. 7. Add JSON output contracts for model-produced data that later stages depend on. 8. Run `/workflow validate ` before using the workflow. ### Roles A workflow can declare reusable role context under top-level `roles`. Compiled role text is injected into subagent task prompts as a `# Role Context` block, and `/workflow roles ` shows the compiled result per role. Role fields: - `fromAgent`: extract sections from a discoverable Pi agent's markdown body. By default only safe knowledge sections are included (`Core Principles`, `Domain Expertise`, `Safety Review`, `Rules`, `Research Manifest`); orchestration and output-format sections are always excluded. - `includeSections` / `excludeSections`: override which agent sections are extracted. - `prompt`: literal role text, appended after any extracted agent sections. - `maxChars`: compiled role budget (default 12000). Longer content is truncated and flagged in `/workflow roles` output. A model stage may select one or more declared roles with `role` (a string or string array). When omitted, all declared roles are retained for compatibility. A `foreach` stage's `each.role` replaces the stage selection for its generated workers. `each.agent`, `each.tools`, `each.model`, `each.thinking`, `each.maxRuntimeMs`, `each.readOnly`, and `each.worktreePolicy` likewise override the stage values on the generated worker template; runtime command-line overrides still have highest precedence. Unknown role names fail during compilation. `defaults.cwd` and `stage.cwd` are resolved from the project invocation directory and emitted as absolute task working directories. Dynamic stages do not accept an explicit `cwd`. ### Tool allowlists Workflow `tools` are still the child-worker allowlist. Entries can be strings: ```json { "tools": ["read", "grep", "workflow_web_search", "workflow_web_fetch_source", "workflow_web_source_read"] } ``` or object specs for custom/local providers: ```json { "tools": [ "read", { "name": "scrapling_fetch", "extensions": ["packages/pi-scrapling-access"], "classification": "read-only", "optional": true, "fallbackTools": ["workflow_web_fetch_source"] } ] } ``` Scope order is agent frontmatter fallback < `defaults.tools` < stage `tools`: the most specific defined list controls the final tool names, and selected string names can inherit broader object metadata for the same tool. Agent frontmatter `tools` remain the hard ceiling, so workflow specs cannot grant tools an agent did not declare. Built-in classifications win for built-in tools. Custom tools without an explicit object `classification` stay blocked for explicit review. Avoid hardcoded machine-local paths in bundled/public workflows; project-local workflows may use local package refs intentionally when they are part of that project. ## Safety and execution model - `/workflow` is an orchestrator, not an OS sandbox. - Workers run through `@agwab/pi-subagent`; sandbox/worktree behavior follows that package. - Workflow tool lists can only narrow agent-declared tool authority, even when object-form provider metadata is used. - `readOnly: true` is a safety declaration used for capability/worktree classification; it does not isolate the filesystem or make mutation-capable tools safe. - Write-capable workflows should use managed worktrees in git repositories. - In non-git workspaces with `worktreePolicy: "off"`, writes mutate the live directory. - No backend fallback exists. The compiled backend/strategy is fixed for the run. - Subagent process launches are gated per Pi process to avoid boot storms: at most `max(2, floor(cpu cores / 2))` concurrent launches, overridable with the `PI_WORKFLOW_MAX_CONCURRENT_LAUNCHES` environment variable. Queued tasks report a waiting message in their status. Deterministic boot failures (extension load or configuration errors) fail fast instead of consuming transient-failure retries. - External content, source files, and web pages used by workflow workers are untrusted data, not instructions. ### Durable launch and batch controls Provider-capable launches require the bundled runtime's opt-in `durable-launch-barrier-v2` API; the workflow does not silently downgrade to the weaker v1 release protocol. The worker writes READY and remains paused before Pi/provider initialization. An external grant digest is bound through the descriptor, worker execution plan, READY receipt, and immutable gate decision. The workflow durably records the provisional backend handle and execution-plan digest, then commits consumed launch authority and the release payload before competing for one exclusive `released`-or-`revoked` decision. A revocation that wins this decision prevents worker execution. A release that wins remains visible as `release_won_cancellation_pending` during later cancellation. Workflow stop, lease loss, timeout, and fail-fast cleanup require both an explicit interrupt result for the exact backend attempt and an observed terminal status for that same attempt. `unsupported`, `not-found`, mismatched-attempt, and timeout results leave cancellation pending and retain the durable stop intent and backend handle. Crash recovery validates READY/decision/ACK receipts and never respawns the attempt; incomplete stale barriers are revoked and reaped fail-closed. Startup fails before spawn when v2 is unavailable or any bound receipt drifts. Launch-bootstrap provenance also binds the canonical workflow state-root identity (device, inode, owner, mode, canonical path, and private persisted nonce) and the post-preparation effective tool-provider surface. Private state-root capabilities are in-memory, unforgeable handles; persisted digests are evidence, not authority. New transparent max-2 foreach batches persist a root-bound capability subject and an immutable inspected schedule. A dispatch reservation is included in the same durable commit that precedes barrier release. If recovery finds a reservation with no terminal receipt, the exact batch is marked `non_reusable` and its items fail closed instead of being silently relaunched. Legacy batch records remain readable but do not gain authority from missing hardened fields. ## Web tools New workflows should use `workflow_web_search`, `workflow_web_fetch_source`, and `workflow_web_source_read` — tool semantics, batching forms, and the run-scoped cache are documented under "Run-scoped web-source cache" above. The normalized search result is an additive typed `ok | partial | empty | failed | cancelled` envelope with bounded candidates, counts, truncation, and provider attribution. Provider lists distinguish actual execution (`providers`) from requested selectors (`selectedProviders`); reserved selectors `auto` and `all` are never accepted as actual provider IDs, so attribution is unavailable without a concrete provider. Cancellation is authoritative even while waiting for the durable budget lock or ledger I/O: it returns zero candidates/usage and does not rewrite the ledger. Explicit source-read terms are limited to 16 per read, and a combined source-read batch is limited to 20 requests; over-limit calls fail as `invalid_params` rather than silently dropping evidence. Source cards retain the validated effective redirect URL and aliases, so a later fetch by either the requested or effective URL reuses the same source. The visible source budget is durable per `(runId, taskId)` in the private run cache. Each invocation uses a private counter and rebases its committed delta under the short budget lock, so concurrent calls cannot corrupt telemetry. Retries or resumed workers continue the same cumulative budget; a changed configured limit fails closed, while a different task ID is isolated. Aggregate `budget.truncated` is true only when visible text was clipped by `maxChars` or remaining budget, not merely when an operation is partial or failed. The visible-budget ledger's atomic rename is its commit point: cancellation before rename wins; cancellation after rename observes the committed result. The bundled `pi-web-access` adapter remains the default provider for legacy `web_search`, `fetch_content`, and `get_search_content` calls. A custom legacy provider is accepted only when one extension coherently owns every selected legacy web tool; it is imported inside the generated cache wrapper with `providerKind: "extension"`, while the bundled storage adapter remains in use. Split, multiple, or incompatible ownership fails before child dispatch. Required capabilities are validated by canonical tool name. If configuration renames or disables a required canonical tool, launch fails fast before the first model or provider-tool execution; pi-workflow does not guess compatibility from labels or schemas. pi-workflow's separate narrow compatibility extension preserves the legacy read-only `code_search({ query, maxTokens? })` surface through fixed Exa transport; a code-search-only task does not load or gain the other provider tools. - Object-form custom tool `extensions` are merged with built-in mappings and deduplicated for the subagent launch. - Web calls can still fail when network access, provider credentials, browser state, or quota are unavailable; research workflows should report those limits instead of guessing.