ai-modcon/prism/prism-multi-agent-workflow

PRISM — Multi-Agent Workflow

Default assumption: another agent is editing this clone right now. This repo is multi-agent by design (parallel agents on different PRs), so the bare working tree is a shared resource — another agent's git checkout / git stash / edit can silently change your state between turns. For the generic patterns, see the installed `multi-agent-git-hygiene` skill; this is the PRISM-specific drill.

Mandatory: work in an isolated worktree

• Call EnterWorktree at the start of any session that edits files or git state

→ creates .claude/worktrees/<name> on a fresh branch off origin/main.

• Spawning editing subagents? Pass isolation: "worktree" to the Agent tool.
• The bare clone (/lus/flare/projects/ModCon/ngetty/BaseMM_PRISM) is

read-only — never commit or branch-switch there.

Mandatory: verify branch before you claim it

Before saying "I created branch X" / "I'm on branch Y" / "I'll commit to Z":

git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD          # the branch in your context may be stale

If you're on a branch you didn't create, STOP — git reflog | head -10; another agent almost certainly moved you. Do not commit. Back up your edits to /tmp/ first, then sort out where they belong.

A git status that shows your earlier edits as "no modifications" is a drift signal, not a no-op. Grep the file for a distinctive token from your edit before trusting it.

GitHub PRs are the source of truth for in-flight work

• Before a non-trivial task: gh pr list --state open to see what's already in

flight. Don't pick up something another agent has open.

• One agent = one branch = one PR. Don't pile unrelated changes onto a branch

another agent owns.

Two destructive traps

1. Check open PRs before pruning anything. Always gh pr list --state open

first; never delete a branch/worktree backing an open PR even if the local name looks stale. (PR #87's worktree was nuked this way — 2026-05-25.)

1. Stacked PRs need base-retarget before squash-merge. Squash-merging a

stacked PR whose base is a deleted branch silently orphans the content. Retarget the child PR's base to main first. (PRs #80/#81 lost — 2026-05-25.)

Launching jobs from a worktree

PBS scripts generated from a worktree need a ${PBS_O_WORKDIR:-...} fallback and a correct LAUNCHER_PRISM_DIR for the venv tarball — a hardcoded bare-clone path fails in ~1s when a plan YAML doesn't exist there. See prism-launching-jobs.

See also

• CLAUDE.md "Concurrency" section.
• prism-launching-jobs.
• Generic installed skills: multi-agent-git-hygiene, shell-quoting-traps.