roster

A pipeline framework for fast and correct software development with coordinated agent teams.

Three principles:

• Platform constraint: Claude Code and Codex support only bounded, single-level subagent delegation at runtime — a skill or lead can spawn specialist sub-agents (Claude via the Task tool; Codex via .codex/agents/*.toml, explicit and depth-limited, agents.max_depth default 1), but those sub-agents cannot spawn further, and neither runtime offers unbounded recursive spawning. Roster is designed around this depth limit: orchestration is one level deep per skill, and deeper multi-stage work is relayed through artifacts and human gates between sessions. This is not a feature — it is an architectural reality we work within.
• The team is the unit, not the agent. Adding an agent means wiring it into the pipeline: patching the lead, updating adjacent agents, validating the integration.
• Every plan needs a human who understood it. A structured quiz runs before any execution batch begins. Passive approval is not validation.

Install

Pick a channel — all install the recruiter, then /recruit assembles the team and offers to install the pipeline skills:

# Claude Code plugin marketplace (Claude Code)
/plugin marketplace add mathiasbourgoin/roster
/plugin install roster@roster

# npx, no clone/publish (any project with Node)
npx github:mathiasbourgoin/roster --runtime claude,opencode,codex

# curl | bash — universal, auto-detects your runtime
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mathiasbourgoin/roster/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Prerequisites:

Tool	Needed by	Notes
bash ≥ 4	installer	macOS ships 3.2 — brew install bash. The installer fails early with guidance if it's older.
curl or wget	installer	to download component files
jq + git	/recruit	required by sync-harness.sh (run during team assembly), not by the installer itself
gh	/roster-ship	optional — only for opening PRs

Detects and installs for all present runtimes simultaneously:

Runtime	Detected by	Recruiter target	Notes
Claude Code	.claude/	.claude/agents/recruiter.md + .claude/commands/recruit.md
OpenCode	.opencode/	.opencode/skills/recruit/SKILL.md	native Agent-Skills discovery
Codex (project)	.agents/	.agents/skills/recruit/SKILL.md
Codex (global)	~/.codex/skills/	~/.codex/skills/recruit/SKILL.md
Pi	.pi/	.pi/skills/recruit/SKILL.md	⚠️ untested

Options:

# Install for all runtimes (creates dirs)
curl -fsSL .../install.sh | bash -s -- --all

# Explicit runtimes
curl -fsSL .../install.sh | bash -s -- --runtime claude,opencode

# Team mode: appends one-liner to AGENTS.md so teammates get it automatically
curl -fsSL .../install.sh | bash -s -- --team

After install: run /recruit (Claude) or invoke the discovered recruit skill (OpenCode / Codex, via native Agent-Skills discovery) to assemble your team. The installed SKILL.md follows the open Agent-Skills standard, so it is also readable by other skill-aware tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot) that scan a compatible skills path — roster does not yet install to a Copilot-specific location.

The Pipeline

Roster ships as a set of slash-command skills. /roster-run is the entry point — it detects context and routes to the right phase automatically.

Three modes

/roster-run classifies every task into one of three depths before routing. Review is always mandatory — what changes is the upfront discovery and downstream documentation.

Mode	When	Pipeline
Express	No spec/KB impact — typo, rename, formatting, config tweak, dependency bump, doc fix, pure refactor	implement → review → ship
Fast	Quick change with possible spec/KB impact — bug fix, small behaviour change, missing case, perf fix	implement → review → qa → ship
Full	New capability, API change, design trade-offs, or "spec it first"	question → research → intake → spec → plan → implement → review → qa → ship

The classifier infers the mode from the task, but you can force one with a flag — /roster-run --full <task> (or --fast / --express). An explicit --full always wins; an explicit --express/--fast is honoured unless the task would skip a mandatory phase (e.g. a new public API), in which case /roster-run asks before downgrading.