Single autonomy-control surface (--gates) added to ultrabrief, ultraresearch,
ultraplan, and ultraexecute. When present, sets gates_mode = true and
re-enables approval pauses at every phase boundary + every wave for
high-stakes runs. When absent (default in auto), the chain runs continuously
to the main-merge gate (which always pauses regardless of --gates — that
boundary is the one always-on safety stop).
ultrabrief: pause after auto-mode confirmation; emit brief-approved event
ultraresearch: pause after each topic completes
ultraplan: pause after Phases 5, 7, 9
ultraexecute: pause after each wave's worktrees finish, before merge-back,
AND before the main-merge gate (MAIN_MERGE_GATE)
All four commands invoke the autonomy-gate state machine via the CLI shim
node lib/util/autonomy-gate.mjs (built in S8). Test pin in
tests/lib/gates-flag-coverage.test.mjs locks the contract.
Also wires the brief-approved stats emission into ultrabrief Phase 5 auto
path (was the SC4 wiring requirement from plan-v2 Step 11).
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>
