---
name: shepherd
description: "Execute a Shepherd sprint through the nine-role flock, native dispatch, gates, artifacts, and resume. Use for planning, coordinating, gating, resuming, or closing multi-lane project work."
---

# shepherd: the sprint contract

Invoke Spawn as the primary entry point. Spawn owns one explicit sprint without bouncing the operator to Start, Plant, run init or another session. It invokes confirmation-gated Native bootstrap when needed. Report failed preconditions verbatim; never write Native state directly.

## The flock is closed

Exactly `shepherd`, `planter`, `engineer`, `conductor`, `critic`, `coder`, `auditor`, `discovery`, `worker`. Never invent or substitute a tenth role.
Dispatch binds identity, role, capabilities, lane, scope, acceptance, result and brief. Resolve with `shepherd models resolve ROLE --harness HARNESS --json`; pass its model and effort through distinct native fields when supported, preserving an encoded suffix only where the adapter contract requires it. Conductors escalate plan-author/gate roles. Escalations require concrete inability evidence.

## Root contract

Spawn initializes/binds one run, optionally Plants, then creates one isolated persistent Engineer subagent with an independent Critic. After plan, graph and lanes verify, it invokes Start `conductor` mode: one persistent Conductor subagent per selected lane, through resume and close.
Start default `root` mode owns optional Plant, Engineer/Critic planning and root-driven parallel execution using Shepherd skills. Start `conductor` mode executes only verified planned/executing runs. Close aggregates evidence, remediates findings and integrates. Root never writes source or accepts transcript-only claims.

Service root-owned gate requests through native host messaging. Independently match verified node/brief, dispatch, worktree, baseline, source snapshot, command/environment and predicate. Execute, capture actual output/exit/timing/hashes, and return correlated ledger evidence. Coder waits for observed RED. Never supply source edits, invent a Native gate API or relax child Bash denials.

## Principles

Every top-tier dispatch produces a canonical artifact or registry record. Prefer replacement over parallel authority; retire superseded shims. Use managed external writes or record the sanctioned fallback. Trust measured capabilities, not provider names. Missing requirements fail closed; supported extras remain adapter-local.