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home / skills / nickcrew / claude-cortex / task-orchestration

task-orchestration skill

/skills/task-orchestration

This skill coordinates complex multi-step tasks with structured orchestration, enabling discovery, parallel spawning, delegation, and validated outputs.

npx playbooks add skill nickcrew/claude-cortex --skill task-orchestration

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (6)
SKILL.md
1.4 KB
---
name: task-orchestration
description: Use when coordinating complex tasks with orchestration, delegation, or parallel workstreams - provides structured workflows for orchestrate:brainstorm, orchestrate:spawn, and orchestrate:task.
---

# Task Orchestration

## Overview
Coordinate complex tasks with structured orchestration: discover requirements, spawn parallel agents, and execute multi-step workflows with validation.

## When to Use
- Multi-step tasks requiring coordination or delegation
- Parallelizable workstreams
- Complex requirements discovery

Avoid when:
- The task is simple or single-file

## Quick Reference

| Task | Load reference |
| --- | --- |
| Orchestrated brainstorming | `skills/task-orchestration/references/brainstorm.md` |
| Spawn orchestration | `skills/task-orchestration/references/spawn.md` |
| Task orchestration | `skills/task-orchestration/references/task.md` |
| **Process Patterns** | `skills/task-orchestration/references/process-patterns.md` |
| **Task Decomposition** | `skills/task-orchestration/references/task-decomposition.md` |

## Workflow
1. Choose the orchestration mode (brainstorm, spawn, task).
2. Load the matching reference.
3. Execute with delegation and progress tracking.
4. Validate outputs and consolidate results.

## Output
- Orchestration summary
- Task progress and next steps

## Common Mistakes
- Spawning without clear task boundaries
- Skipping validation gates

Overview

This skill coordinates complex work by providing structured orchestration modes for brainstorming, spawning parallel agents, and executing multi-step tasks. It helps discover requirements, delegate workstreams, and consolidate validated outputs into a clear orchestration summary. Use it to move from ambiguous goals to tracked progress and actionable next steps.

How this skill works

Pick an orchestration mode (brainstorm, spawn, or task) that matches the problem pattern. The skill loads the relevant procedural reference, decomposes the goal into tasks, delegates or launches parallel agents where appropriate, and tracks progress through validation gates. Outputs include an orchestration summary, per-task progress, and recommended next steps for consolidation.

When to use it

  • Coordinating multi-step projects that require delegation or role separation
  • Managing parallelizable workstreams that benefit from concurrent agents
  • Running discovery or requirements workshops that need structured brainstorming
  • Decomposing large goals into validated, sequential tasks
  • Avoid when the work is a simple one-off or single-file change

Best practices

  • Define clear task boundaries and acceptance criteria before spawning agents
  • Choose the orchestration mode that matches the pattern: brainstorm for ideation, spawn for parallel work, task for linear workflows
  • Include validation gates after key steps to avoid cascading errors
  • Track progress with short, frequent updates and consolidate results into a single summary
  • Limit parallelism to independent subtasks to reduce coordination overhead

Example use cases

  • Running an ideation session to surface possible solutions, then ranking and selecting candidates
  • Spawning multiple agents to prototype integrations in parallel and converge on the best approach
  • Decomposing a product launch into sequenced tasks with owners, deadlines, and validation checks
  • Coordinating a cross-functional investigation where different teams gather evidence and report findings
  • Automating a multi-step data pipeline build with staged testing and consolidation

FAQ

How do I choose between brainstorm, spawn, and task modes?

Use brainstorm for open-ended ideation, spawn when you can split work into independent parallel agents, and task for sequential, dependent workflows.

What common mistakes should I avoid?

Avoid spawning agents without clear task definitions and skipping validation gates; both lead to rework and inconsistent outputs.