Remove background-transition phases from /ultraresearch-local,
/ultraplan-local, /ultra-cc-architect-local, /ultrabrief-local.
All four commands now run their full pipelines inline in main
context; --fg is retained as a no-op alias for backwards
compatibility.
The Claude Code harness does not expose the Agent tool to
sub-agents, so orchestrators launched with run_in_background:true
cannot spawn their documented swarms (docs-researcher,
community-researcher, architecture-mapper, plan-critic, etc.) and
silently degrade to single-context reasoning. Foreground execution
keeps the swarms intact.
Source: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/19077
Confirmed empirically 2026-04-19.
BREAKING CHANGE: Default execution is foreground — the session
blocks until the brief/plan is ready. Use `claude -p` in a
separate terminal for long-running headless work.
Add /ultraresearch-local for structured research combining local codebase
analysis with external knowledge via parallel agent swarms. Produces research
briefs with triangulation, confidence ratings, and source quality assessment.
New command: /ultraresearch-local with modes --quick, --local, --external, --fg.
New agents: research-orchestrator (opus), docs-researcher, community-researcher,
security-researcher, contrarian-researcher, gemini-bridge (all sonnet).
New template: research-brief-template.md.
Integration: --research flag in /ultraplan-local accepts pre-built research
briefs (up to 3), enriches the interview and exploration phases. Planning
orchestrator cross-references brief findings during synthesis.
Design principle: Context Engineering — right information to right agent at
right time. Research briefs are structured artifacts in the pipeline:
ultraresearch → brief → ultraplan --research → plan → ultraexecute.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>