Run pipeline

Run Pipeline — Closed-Loop Orchestrator

Meta process skill. Threads the staged spine into one resumable loop — sequences leaf skills, stops at every gate, records the loop tree; it does NOT do each stage's work. Orchestrate, don't fuse (CLOSED-LOOP.md §2).

Core Question: "Can a future agent resume this from one loop folder — the live stage, the gate it waits on, what shipped — instead of re-deriving the chain?"

Stage model, gate rules, loop-tree contract: references/pipeline-spec.md [SPEC]. Shares the schema in _shared/eval-loop-spec.md.

Critical Gates

1. Orchestrate, don't fuse. Each stage dispatches its leaf skill (research-*, brief-*/write-*, produce-*, evaluate-*); this skill owns only sequencing + pipeline.md.
2. Stop at every gate — never auto-approve. Execute pauses for the execution fork (_shared/execution-fork.md); brief/execute outputs land decision_state: pending (architecture §9.2). Guard this here, not in the leaf.
3. Fork is registry-gated. list_tools(category) per _shared/tool-registry-spec.md: 0 verified → Brief-only; ≥1 → offer Assisted/Direct. Degrade cleanly.
4. Close the loop. Evaluate scores the re-ingested real asset (return-leg §6), not the brief. No ingest → open loop; flag it.
5. Shared tree, no new store. State lives in .forsvn/loops/[slug]/. No database.

Quality Gate

Critic (agents/critic-agent.md) PASS/FAIL:

• Stage integrity — all 6 stages named, each maps to a real leaf skill or gate; current-stage pointer present.
• Gate discipline — execute + brief stages marked with their gate; no auto-approve.
• Resumability — pipeline.md alone tells a fresh agent the live stage + next action.
• Schema integrity — results.tsv 8-col header matches the evaluate-* contract.
• Loop closure — ingest stage present so the evaluator scores the shipped asset.

FAIL → revise pipeline.md once, re-score. Eval-only runs are gated by the Eval Loop Critic instead (agents/eval-loop-critic-agent.md, all dimensions ≥ 8/10).

Before Starting

Prior loop folder in .forsvn/loops/[slug]/ → resume (read Current stage), don't re-scaffold. Verified engines (list_tools) decide the fork options. Manifest stale → bun bin/manifest-sync.ts. Full: references/_shared/before-starting-check.md [PLAYBOOK].

Pre-Dispatch

Warm/Cold Start: references/_shared/pre-dispatch-protocol.md. Cold Start needs: initiative name, asset category, primary metric, the measurable surface (eval-only adds mutable/frozen surface + baseline — see the mode reference). Mode: references/_shared/mode-resolver.md; --fast collapses Layer 1 + skips Critic revision on clean PASS, never the 5 Critical Gates. Session execution profile (single-vs-multi): inherit per references/_shared/execution-policy.md.

Dispatch

Scaffold via bun scripts/scaffold-pipeline.ts "<name>" [--category <cat>] (idempotent). Per cycle: read state → dispatch the current stage's leaf → stop at its gate → on approval, advance Current stage + log the transition. At execute, the fork; at ingest, forsvn-preview attach; at evaluate, the matching evaluate-* appends a results.tsv row. Full sequence + resume rules: references/pipeline-spec.md.

Eval-Only Mode

--eval-only (or an eval-scaffold ask: improvement loop, experiment ledger, loop workspace) scaffolds/resumes the loop workspace without pipeline.md or the execute/ingest stages, via scripts/scaffold-eval-loop.ts. Gates, cold-start bundle, agents, loop-file conventions, upgrade path: references/eval-only-mode.md [PROCEDURE]. Per-cycle scoring still routes to the matching evaluate-* sibling.

Agent Manifest

Agent (agents/*.md)	Mode	Focus
Pipeline Architect → Critic	full loop	Stage plan → Quality Gate above
Loop Architect + Metric Designer → Scope Guard → Eval Loop Critic	eval-only	Loop contract + measurement plan → boundary + rubric

Artifact Contract

Loop folder layout (pipeline.md is the one artifact THIS skill owns; eval-only creates the same tree minus it): references/pipeline-spec.md § Shared loop tree. Frontmatter per _shared/artifact-contract-template.md. Cross-stack contract: results.tsv schema changes ripple to _shared/eval-loop-spec.md — evaluate-* siblings consume it.

Anti-Patterns

references/anti-patterns.md [ANTI-PATTERN] — fusing a stage, auto-approving a gate, closing a loop without ingest, metric-less loops, skill-centered folders, hand-edited ledgers.

Worked Example

"Launch hero image" end to end, plus the eval-only entry on the same tree: references/examples/closed-loop-walkthrough.md [EXAMPLE].

Durable Rules (protected)

<!-- SLOW_UPDATE_START --> <!-- No pinned rules yet. Populate via the slow-update workflow (see references/slow-update-fence.md). Each pinned rule must (a) be procedural not instance-specific, (b) be earned from a regression or critic-flagged failure, (c) cite the artifact / decision record that justified pinning. --> <!-- SLOW_UPDATE_END -->

Completion Status

• DONE — pipeline (or eval-only loop) scaffolded/resumed; current stage + next gate clear.
• DONE_WITH_CONCERNS — a stage lacks a leaf skill, the loop is open (no ingest), or the metric/baseline is weak.
• NEEDS_CONTEXT — missing initiative surface, asset category, or metric.
• BLOCKED — filesystem/scaffold failure or conflicting loop state.

Next Step

Dispatch the Current stage's leaf skill; on the human's gate decision, advance the pointer and log the transition. Eval-only loops: dispatch the cycle's strategy or brief-* skill, then the matching evaluate-* sibling — keep rows promote into learnings.md.