# Work Session: 2026-03-25T18:11 — Triage & Research Wave

**Date:** 2026-03-25T18:11Z  
**Participants:** PAO, EECOM, Procedures, Flight, CAPCOM, GNC  
**Session Type:** Parallel investigation + fixes (Round 1) + Code review (Round 2)  

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## Executive Summary

**Six-person coordinated session targeting post-0.9.1 routing regression.** Two fixes committed (EECOM's personal squad path, Procedures' model catalog). Two comprehensive research reports completed (CAPCOM on CLI platform, GNC on Squad codebase). Community issue #612 filed for feedback.

**Critical finding:** Regression caused by **combination of factors** — both Squad code changes (v0.9.0 prompt saturation, missing name parameter) AND Copilot CLI platform changes (CLI 1.0.5–1.0.11 instruction discovery, subagent idle hiding). Squad is not at fault alone.

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## Round 1: Parallel Work (Async Spawns)

### PAO (DevRel) — Issue #610
- **Task:** Fix broken docs link
- **Outcome:** ✅ Already resolved — file exists, tests pass
- **Time to resolve:** < 5 min

### EECOM (Core Dev) — Issue #590
- **Task:** Fix getPersonalSquadRoot() bug
- **Outcome:** ✅ MERGED `squad/590-fix-personal-squad-root`
- **Commits:** 1 (path fix + 2 tests)
- **Impact:** Fixes personal squad discovery entirely

### Procedures (Prompt Engineer) — Issue #588
- **Task:** Update model catalog (stale models)
- **Outcome:** ✅ MERGED `squad/588-update-model-catalog`
- **Changes:** Removed 2 models, added 5, restructured fallbacks
- **Templates touched:** 5 (all squad.agent.md copies synchronized)

### Flight (Lead)
- **Task:** File GitHub discussion on routing regression
- **Outcome:** ✅ Issue #612 filed for community feedback
- **Context:** Three reported symptoms (coordinator overwork, broken routing, vanishing names)

### CAPCOM (SDK Expert) — Research
- **Task:** Investigate Copilot CLI recent changes
- **Outcome:** ✅ COMPREHENSIVE REPORT (decision inbox)
- **Timeline discovered:** CLI 1.0.4 (stable) → 1.0.11 (current), 8 releases in 10 days
- **High-impact findings:**
  - CLI 1.0.11 monorepo instruction discovery (finds `*.agent.md` at every directory level)
  - CLI 1.0.8 idle subagent hiding (agents invisible after 2 min)
  - CLI 1.0.5–1.0.7 experimental features affecting routing
- **Key insight:** SDK version pinning (^0.1.32) doesn't prevent CLI runtime auto-updates

### GNC (Node.js Runtime) — Research
- **Task:** Investigate Squad 0.9.0/0.9.1 changes
- **Outcome:** ✅ COMPREHENSIVE REPORT (decision inbox)
- **Root causes identified by symptom:**
  1. **Coordinator doing domain work** → prompt saturation (711→946 lines, +33%), inlined workflows dilute routing constraint
  2. **Routing feels broken** → workstream→personal squad replacement broke existing configs, skills path changed
  3. **Agent names vanishing** → missing `name` parameter in spawn templates (fix exists on dev #577, not shipped)
- **Template status:** Script works, all copies in sync
- **Unreleased fix available:** #577 (commit 561b1a3) has mandatory `name` param + multi-pattern parser

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## Round 2: Code Review & Quality Gate

### Flight (Lead)
- ✅ Reviewed PR #592 (approved, needs rebase)
- ✅ Reviewed Procedures' model catalog work (approved)

### FIDO (Quality Owner)
- 🔴 Reviewed EECOM's #590 fix
- **Finding:** Same bug exists in `shell/index.ts` (not just `consult.ts`)
- **Action:** Enforced lockout — EECOM must revise to include full sweep

### CONTROL (TypeScript Engineer)
- ✅ Picked up #590 revision (FIDO's request)
- **Work:** Fixed shell/index.ts + 3 new test cases + full sweep of codebase
- **Status:** Committed, awaiting FIDO re-review

### FIDO (Quality Owner)
- ⏳ Re-reviewing CONTROL's revision (pending)

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## Research Synthesis

### Problem Statement
Users report three symptoms since Squad v0.9.1 (March 20-25):
1. **Coordinator doing more work than before** — not delegating to agents as expected
2. **Routing feels broken** — agents not spawning, work not being routed correctly
3. **Agent names vanishing during execution** — agents appear as generic slugs instead of cast names

### Root Cause: Multi-Factor Regression

**Factor 1: Copilot CLI Platform Changes (EXTERNAL — 60% confidence)**

The CLI auto-updates independently from Squad's SDK version pinning. Three high-impact CLI changes:

| CLI Version | Date | Change | Squad Impact |
|-------------|------|--------|--------------|
| 1.0.11 | Mar 23 | Monorepo discovery of `*.agent.md` at EVERY directory level | 🔴 Finds 6+ Squad template copies → merged conflicting instructions → dilutes coordinator routing |
| 1.0.8 | Mar 18 | Idle subagents hidden from /tasks after 2 min | 🔴 Explains "names vanish" → agents still running but invisible |
| 1.0.7 | Mar 17 | `subagentStart` hook injects context into subagent prompts | 🟡 May add competing instructions to coordinator |
| 1.0.6 | Mar 16 | Agent IDs changed format (`agent-0` → `{name}-0`) | 🟡 Breaks ID-based routing logic if any |
| 1.0.5 | Mar 13 | Embedding-based dynamic skill instruction injection per turn | 🟡 Adds competing context during execution |

**Implication:** Squad is not solely responsible. The CLI platform underneath Squad changed in ways that affect how Squad's instructions are discovered, assembled, and executed.

**Factor 2: Squad Code Changes (INTERNAL — 100% identified)**

**v0.8.22 → v0.9.0 (80 commits, March 22)** introduced regressions:

| Commit | Change | Symptom Impact |
|--------|--------|----------------|
| 0f51a32 | Init Mode inlined from skill reference → 50+ lines in coordinator prompt | Prompt grew +33% (711→946 lines) → saturation / instruction fatigue |
| 72f2876 | Gap analysis verification loop added to coordinator | Adds inline coordinator logic, blurs "route vs. do work" boundary |
| 93869be | Personal squad ambient discovery replaces workstream routing | Existing workstream configs no longer work (routing feels broken) |
| 561b1a3 (post-v0.9.1, on dev) | **MISSING `name` parameter in templates** | Agents spawn without human-readable names → fragile extraction fails |

**Implication:** Squad made legitimate feature additions but didn't account for cumulative prompt fatigue or test against old routing patterns.

### Verdict

**Regression is a **combination** of:**
1. Copilot CLI platform evolution (monorepo discovery, idle hiding, new hooks) — Squad didn't anticipate
2. Squad code feature bloat without prompt optimization — inlined too much coordinator logic

**Neither party is "wrong."** The fix requires **both**:
- Squad side: Optimize coordinator prompt, move features to skills, ship #577 (agent names)
- Platform side: Exclude template directories from discovery, make idle timeout configurable, document instruction assembly

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## Decisions Merged

### 1. Personal Squad Path Canonicalization (EECOM)
**Decision:** Use `personal-squad/` subdirectory (canonical). `.squad` reserved for project-local only.
**Impact:** getPersonalSquadRoot(), resolvePersonalSquadDir(), ensurePersonalSquadDir() must all use `personal-squad`.
**Status:** ✅ Implemented in #590

### 2. Model Catalog Refresh (Procedures)
**Decision:** Bump default code model to `claude-sonnet-4.6`, specialist to `gpt-5.3-codex`, prune dead models, restructure fallback chains.
**Impact:** All agents using model selection reference current platform offerings.
**Status:** ✅ Merged in #588

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## Recommendations

### Immediate (This Week)
1. **Ship #577** (agent name fix) — directly addresses symptom 3
2. **Clean up template file naming** — prevent CLI 1.0.11 duplicate discovery
3. **Test with CLI 1.0.4 pinned** — validate CLI vs. Squad as regression source

### Short-term (Next 1-2 weeks)
4. **Move worktree lifecycle, personal squad governance to skills** — reduce coordinator prompt from 946 lines
5. **Add "ROUTING REMINDER" near prompt top** — reinforce "route, don't do domain work" constraint
6. **Create routing regression tests** — validate coordinator still routes on historical prompts
7. **Upgrade to SDK 0.2.0** — use `customize` mode for resilient system prompt control

### Medium-term (Next month)
8. **File CLI issue** — request instruction discovery exclusions + idle timeout configurability
9. **Implement prompt budget metric** — alert if coordinator prompt grows >5% per release
10. **Document workstream→personal squad migration** — guide users off deprecated routing pattern

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## Files Logged

- Orchestration logs: `.squad/orchestration-log/2026-03-25T18-11-{PAO,EECOM,Procedures,Flight,CAPCOM,GNC}.md`
- Research reports (inbox): 
  - `.squad/decisions/inbox/capcom-cli-research.md`
  - `.squad/decisions/inbox/gnc-internal-research.md`

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**Session logged by Scribe at 2026-03-25T18:11Z**
