voyage/commands/trekexecute.md

name	description	argument-hint	allowed-tools	disallowed-tools
trekexecute	Disciplined plan executor — single-session, or multi-session through session orders the user starts, with failure recovery	[--project <dir>] [--fg | --resume | --dry-run | --validate | --step N | --session N] [plan.md]	Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep, AskUserQuestion	Agent, TeamCreate

Ultraexecute Local

Disciplined executor for trekplan plans. Reads a plan file, detects if it has an Execution Strategy (multi-session), and either executes directly or prepares one session order per session, wave by wave — all to realize one plan.

Voyage never starts a Claude Code session. Work that needs another session becomes an order plus a starter line the user gives a session they open themselves (Phase 2.6).

Phase 1 — Parse mode and validate input

Parse $ARGUMENTS for mode flags:

1. If arguments contain --project <dir>: extract the directory path.
   • Resolve {dir} (trim trailing slash).
   • Set project_dir = {dir}.
   • Derive implicit file path: {dir}/plan.md.
   • If {dir} does not exist or {dir}/plan.md is missing:

     Error: project directory missing plan.md: {dir}
     Run /trekplan --project {dir} to produce it.
     

   • If no explicit <plan.md> argument is provided after flag parsing, use the derived {dir}/plan.md. If a <plan.md> argument IS provided, use that path but keep project_dir set (user may be pointing at a recovery session spec inside the project).
   • Continue parsing remaining flags (they combine with --project).
2. If arguments contain --fg: extract the file path. Set mode = foreground.
3. If arguments contain --resume: extract the file path. Set mode = resume.
4. If arguments contain --dry-run: extract the file path. Set mode = dry-run.
5. If arguments contain --validate: extract the file path. Set mode = validate.
6. If arguments contain --step N (N is a positive integer): extract N and the file path. Set mode = step, target-step = N.
7. If arguments contain --session N (N is a positive integer): extract N and the file path. Set mode = session, target-session = N.
8. If arguments contain --gates: set gates_mode = true. Pause for operator confirmation after each wave's worktrees finish but before merge-back, AND before the main-merge gate. (The MAIN_MERGE_GATE in Phase 8 ALWAYS pauses regardless of gates_mode — --gates re-enables the per-wave pauses that auto mode otherwise skips.) Default gates_mode = false. The flag is consumed by the autonomy-gate state machine via the CLI shim: node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/util/autonomy-gate.mjs --state X --event Y --gates {true|false}.
9. Otherwise: the entire argument string is the file path. Set mode = execute.

If no path is provided (and --project was not used to derive one), output usage and stop:

Usage: /trekexecute <plan.md>
       /trekexecute --project <dir>
       /trekexecute --fg <plan.md>
       /trekexecute --resume <plan.md>
       /trekexecute --dry-run <plan.md>
       /trekexecute --validate <plan.md>
       /trekexecute --step N <plan.md>
       /trekexecute --session N <plan.md>
       /trekexecute --project <dir> --resume
       /trekexecute --project <dir> --session N

Modes:
  (default)      Auto — multi-session if plan has Execution Strategy, else foreground
  --project      Resolve plan.md inside an trekbrief project folder; progress.json
                 is written there too
  --fg           Force foreground — all steps sequentially, ignore Execution Strategy
  --resume       Resume from last progress checkpoint
  --dry-run      Validate plan and show execution strategy without running
  --validate     Schema-only check — parse steps + manifests, no security scan, no execution
  --step N       Execute only step N (foreground)
  --session N    Execute only session N from the plan's Execution Strategy

Examples:
  /trekexecute .claude/plans/trekplan-2026-04-06-auth-refactor.md
  /trekexecute --project .claude/projects/2026-04-18-jwt-auth
  /trekexecute --project .claude/projects/2026-04-18-jwt-auth --resume
  /trekexecute --fg .claude/plans/trekplan-2026-04-06-auth-refactor.md
  /trekexecute --session 2 .claude/plans/trekplan-2026-04-06-auth-refactor.md
  /trekexecute --dry-run .claude/plans/trekplan-2026-04-06-auth-refactor.md
  /trekexecute --validate .claude/plans/trekplan-2026-04-06-auth-refactor.md

If the file does not exist, report and stop:

Error: file not found: {path}

Report detected mode:

Mode: {execute | resume | dry-run | step N | session N}
Project: {project_dir or "-"}
File: {path}

Phase 2 — Detect file type and parse structure

Read the file. Determine whether it is an trekplan or a session spec:

• Session spec: contains ## Dependencies with Entry condition: AND ## Scope Fence AND ## Exit Condition sections.
• Voyage: contains ## Implementation Plan with numbered ### Step N: headings but no ## Scope Fence.

If neither structure is detected, report and stop:

Error: unrecognized file format. Expected an trekplan or session spec.

Parse steps

Extract every ### Step N: {description} heading (in order). For each step, extract:

• Files — file paths to create or modify
• Changes — what to modify
• Reuses — existing code to leverage (informational)
• Test first — test to run before implementation (optional)
• Verify — command to run after implementation
• On failure — recovery action (revert/retry/skip/escalate)
• Checkpoint — git commit command after success
• Manifest — YAML block following Checkpoint (v1.7+)

If a step is missing On failure, default to escalate and record a parse warning. If a step is missing Verify, record a parse warning.

Parse the Manifest block (v1.7+)

Read the plan header for a plan_version marker. Treat ≥ 1.7 as strict mode; absence or <1.7 as legacy mode.

Strict mode (plan_version ≥ 1.7):

• Every step MUST have a Manifest: block with a YAML fenced payload.
• Parse the YAML. Required keys: expected_paths (list), min_file_count (integer), commit_message_pattern (string), bash_syntax_check (list), forbidden_paths (list), must_contain (list of {path, pattern} dicts).
• Validate each commit_message_pattern compiles as a regex (use a tolerant parser — do not execute untrusted input against shell).
• If any step is missing its Manifest, or YAML is malformed, STOP with:

  Error: plan_version=1.7 but step {N} has invalid/missing Manifest.
  Re-run planning-orchestrator — plan is not executable.
  

Legacy mode (no plan_version, or < 1.7):

• Synthesize a minimal manifest per step:
  • expected_paths ← step's Files: list
  • min_file_count ← len(expected_paths)
  • commit_message_pattern ← regex-escape first 3 words of Checkpoint msg
  • bash_syntax_check ← auto-detect .sh in Files
  • forbidden_paths ← []
  • must_contain ← []
• Record legacy_plan: true in the progress file.
• Emit warning: Legacy plan (v1.6 or earlier) — manifests synthesized with reduced audit precision.

Parse Session Manifest (session specs only)

If the file is a session spec (v1.7+), parse the ## Session Manifest block into a YAML dict. Preserve session_manifest.* fields for Phase 7.5 audit. If missing and plan_version ≥ 1.7, record a parse warning but continue — the per-step manifests are still available for audit.

Parse session spec fields (if applicable)

• Entry condition from ## Dependencies
• Touch list and Never-touch list from ## Scope Fence
• Exit condition checklist from ## Exit Condition

Parse Execution Strategy (if present)

If the plan contains an ## Execution Strategy section, extract:

• Each ### Session N: {title} with its Steps, Wave, Depends on, and Scope fence
• The ### Execution Order with wave definitions

Set has_execution_strategy = true.

Report:

Type: {plan | session-spec}
Steps: {N}
{if has_execution_strategy}: Execution Strategy: {S} sessions across {W} waves
{if session spec}: Entry condition: {text}
{if session spec}: Scope fence: {N} touch, {N} never-touch
{if warnings}: Warnings: {list}

Phase 2.3 — Validate-only mode exit (if mode = validate)

If mode = validate, stop after Phase 2 parsing and emit a schema-only report. Do NOT run security scan, do NOT touch progress files, do NOT execute any steps. This gives the user a fast sanity-check of plan schema compliance without side effects.

Preferred path (since v3.1.0): invoke the plan validator directly. It returns the same diagnostic info Phase 2 derives in prose, with stable error codes for downstream tooling:

node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/validators/plan-validator.mjs --strict --json "{path}"

# When --project is in scope and progress.json exists, also validate it:
[ -f "{project_dir}/progress.json" ] && \
  node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/validators/progress-validator.mjs --json "{project_dir}/progress.json"

Map the validator's code field to the error templates below (e.g. PLAN_FORBIDDEN_HEADING → "Detected heading format" branch). When both calls exit 0, render the READY report. Otherwise render FAIL with the validator's first error code + message.

If Phase 2 parsing succeeded (no fatal errors, every step has a valid Manifest block in strict mode, or synthesized manifests in legacy mode):

=== Schema Validation: READY ===
File: {path}
Type: {plan | session-spec}
plan_version: {1.7 | legacy}
Steps: {N}
Manifests: {N valid | N synthesized (legacy)}
Warnings: {count}
{if warnings}: - {each warning on own line}

Plan is schema-compliant. Safe to run:
  /trekexecute {path}

If Phase 2 parsing failed (unrecognized format, missing Manifest in strict mode, malformed YAML, invalid regex):

=== Schema Validation: FAIL ===
File: {path}
Reason: {specific error from Phase 2}

{if format not recognized}:
  Detected heading format: {e.g. "### Fase 1:", "## Phase 1"}
  Expected: "### Step N: <description>"
  Fix: re-run /trekplan — planning-orchestrator must emit v1.7 format

{if missing manifest}:
  Step {N} has no Manifest block (plan_version=1.7 requires one per step)
  Fix: re-run /trekplan — planning-orchestrator must include manifest YAML

{if malformed YAML or invalid regex}:
  Step {N}: {specific YAML/regex error}
  Fix: edit the plan manually or re-run /trekplan

Exit after emitting the report. Do not continue to Phase 2.4 or later.

Phase 2.4 — Pre-execution security scan

Runs for all modes except dry-run and validate (those modes exit earlier or have their own report format).

Scan every Verify: and Checkpoint: command in the parsed plan against the executor security denylist. This catches dangerous commands before execution begins.

Extract commands

For each step in the plan, extract the command string from:

• Verify: field (the shell command after the backtick-quoted command)
• Checkpoint: field (the git commit command)

Also extract Exit Condition commands if present.

Check against denylist

For each extracted command, check against these patterns:

BLOCK patterns (stop execution immediately):

Pattern	Threat
rm with both -r and -f flags (any order)	Recursive force delete
chmod 777 or chmod -R 777	World-writable permissions
curl/wget piped to bash/sh/zsh	Remote code execution
eval with $, backtick, or $(	Code injection via eval
mkfs or dd writing to /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*, /dev/hd*	Disk destruction
shutdown, reboot, halt, poweroff	System shutdown
:(){ :|:& };: pattern	Fork bomb
base64 piped to bash/sh	Obfuscated code execution
crontab -e or writing to /etc/cron*	Persistence via cron
kill -9 -1 or pkill -9 -1	Kill all user processes
history -c or truncating ~/.bash_history	Evidence destruction

WARN patterns (report but continue):

Pattern	Concern
npm install --save, pip install, cargo add	Dependency changes during execution
git push --force	History rewrite
git reset --hard	Discard uncommitted changes

Scan output

For each match:

Security scan: Step {N} — {description}
  Command: {command}
  {BLOCKED | WARNING}: {pattern name}

If ANY BLOCK pattern is found:

SECURITY SCAN FAILED: {count} dangerous command(s) found in plan.

Blocked commands:
  Step {N}: {command} → {reason}

This plan contains commands blocked by the executor security policy.
The plan may have been tampered with or contain hallucinated dangerous commands.

Options:
  1. Review and fix the plan file: {path}
  2. Use --dry-run to inspect all commands without executing
  3. Use --fg for interactive execution (hooks provide additional protection)

Stop execution. Do NOT continue to Phase 2.5.

If only WARN patterns found: Continue execution but include warnings in the pre-execution summary. Report them in the final output under "Security advisories."

If clean: Report Security scan: PASS ({N} commands checked) and continue.

Phase 2.5 — Execution strategy decision

Determine how to execute this plan:

Run as single session (foreground) when ANY of these are true:

• --fg flag is set
• --step N mode
• --resume mode
• --session N mode (runs only that session's steps, foreground)
• Plan has no ## Execution Strategy section
• Plan has Execution Strategy with only 1 session

Run as multi-session (parallel orchestration) when ALL of these are true:

• mode = execute (default, no --fg)
• Plan has ## Execution Strategy with 2+ sessions
• At least one wave has 2+ sessions (parallelism possible)

Run as multi-session (sequential orchestration) when:

• mode = execute (default, no --fg)
• Plan has ## Execution Strategy with 2+ sessions
• All sessions are in different waves (no parallelism, but still separate sessions)

For single-session (including every --session N run inside a session's worktree): continue to Phase 3. For multi-session, first locate the main checkout and the wave marker:

GIT_DIR_ABS="$(cd "$(git rev-parse --git-dir)" && pwd -P)"
GIT_COMMON_ABS="$(cd "$(git rev-parse --git-common-dir)" && pwd -P)"
MAIN_ROOT="$(git worktree list --porcelain | sed -n '1s/^worktree //p')"
if [ "$GIT_DIR_ABS" != "$GIT_COMMON_ABS" ]; then
  echo "Error: this is a linked worktree. Run this from the main checkout $MAIN_ROOT." >&2
  exit 1
fi
if [ -f "$MAIN_ROOT/.claude/trekplan-sessions/{slug}/orders/wave.json" ]; then echo "WAVE_IN_FLIGHT"; else echo "NO_WAVE"; fi

Exit 1 means this is a session's (or another) linked worktree: stop and report the message — the multi-session path runs only from the main checkout, whose root the first entry of git worktree list names (--show-toplevel would name the linked worktree and miss the wave). WAVE_IN_FLIGHT: a wave is awaiting its sessions — skip Phase 2.55 (its clean-tree and stale-worktree checks would touch the live worktrees) and jump to Phase 2.6, which collects the wave. NO_WAVE: run Phase 2.55, then Phase 2.6.

Report:

Strategy: {single session | N sessions (M parallel, K sequential)}

Phase 2.55 — Pre-flight safety checks

Only runs for multi-session parallel execution. These checks prevent the catastrophic data loss that occurs when parallel sessions share a working directory.

Check 1 — Clean working tree

Run git status --porcelain -- ':(top,exclude).claude/trekplan-sessions/' (the whole repo, from any subdirectory, minus Voyage's own session state: orders, archived progress and kept session worktrees are never merged, and counting them would stop every re-run after a failed wave). If there are ANY uncommitted or untracked changes:

Error: working tree is not clean. Parallel execution requires a clean git state.
Uncommitted changes are invisible to worktrees and will be lost during merge.

Untracked/modified files:
{output of git status --porcelain}

Commit or stash your changes, then re-run.
To run sequentially instead: /trekexecute --fg {plan-path}

Stop execution. Update progress with status: "stopped".

Also write .session-state.local.json (Handover 7) — this surfaces the stopped state to /trekcontinue so the next session can prompt the user to clean the working tree before resuming. Write atomically alongside progress.json:

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "project": "{project_dir}",
  "next_session_brief_path": "{project_dir}/brief.md",
  "next_session_label": "{current session label, or 'Continue'}",
  "status": "stopped",
  "updated_at": "{ISO-8601 now}"
}

Verify with node lib/validators/session-state-validator.mjs --json {project_dir}/.session-state.local.json. On validator failure, emit a warning to stderr but do NOT block the stop; progress.json is still authoritative.

Also write sibling NEXT-SESSION-PROMPT.local.md with frontmatter (produced_by: trekexecute, produced_at: <ISO-8601>, status: stopped) so the next-session producer-mismatch check has both candidates available. Use the same combined ESM block pattern as Phase 8.

Check 2 — Plan file reaches every worktree

Worktrees are created from HEAD, so tracking the plan file is the cheapest way to make it visible in each one. But the project directory may be gitignored — .claude/projects/ is tool-managed and local-only, and a repo that ignores it is normal, not exotic. git add -f is not the answer there: it would push operator-local artifacts into history, and into whatever remote the repo publishes to. When the plan file is ignored, Phase 2.6 Step 2a' (which copies brief/plan/research into each worktree) is the delivery path, and this check must step aside instead of failing.

PLAN_PATH="{plan-path}"
if git ls-files --error-unmatch "$PLAN_PATH" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  PLAN_TRACKING="tracked"
else
  git check-ignore -q "$PLAN_PATH"
  case "$?" in
    0) PLAN_TRACKING="ignored" ;;
    1) PLAN_TRACKING="untracked" ;;
    *) echo "Error: git check-ignore failed on $PLAN_PATH - a fatal probe is not an answer about ignore status." >&2
       exit 1 ;;
  esac
fi
if [ "$PLAN_TRACKING" = "untracked" ]; then
  git add "$PLAN_PATH"
  git commit -m "chore: track plan file for parallel execution"
fi

Report by outcome:

PLAN_TRACKING	Report
tracked	Plan file already tracked.
untracked	Plan file committed for worktree visibility.
ignored	Plan file is gitignored — not forced into history. Step 2a' copies it into each worktree.

Any other git check-ignore exit code is fatal and stops execution: a probe that failed is not a probe that answered "not ignored".

Check 3 — Scope fence overlap validation

For each wave that has 2+ sessions, validate that no file appears in the Touch list of two different sessions in the same wave:

1. For each session in the wave, extract the "Touch" list from the Execution Strategy.
2. For each pair of sessions (A, B) in the same wave, compute the intersection of their Touch lists.
3. If any intersection is non-empty:

Error: scope fence overlap detected in Wave {W}.
Sessions {A} and {B} both touch: {overlapping files}
These sessions cannot safely run in parallel.

Fix the Execution Strategy in the plan, or use --fg for sequential execution.

Stop execution. This is a defense-in-depth check — the planning-orchestrator should have prevented this, but verifying at execution time catches plans that were manually edited or have bugs.

Check 4 — Stale worktree cleanup

Clean up what an earlier run of this plan left under trekplan-sessions/{slug}/ — never with force. It refuses from a linked worktree and while a wave is awaiting its sessions (those worktrees and branches are live or finished session work, not stale). git worktree remove without force refuses a worktree with modified or untracked files, and git branch -d refuses an unmerged branch: both are kept, reported, and never retried with force.

GIT_DIR_ABS="$(cd "$(git rev-parse --git-dir)" && pwd -P)"
GIT_COMMON_ABS="$(cd "$(git rev-parse --git-common-dir)" && pwd -P)"
MAIN_ROOT="$(git worktree list --porcelain | sed -n '1s/^worktree //p')"
if [ "$GIT_DIR_ABS" != "$GIT_COMMON_ABS" ]; then
  echo "Error: this is a linked worktree. Run this from the main checkout $MAIN_ROOT." >&2
  exit 1
fi
SESSIONS="$MAIN_ROOT/.claude/trekplan-sessions/{slug}"
if [ -f "$SESSIONS/orders/wave.json" ]; then
  echo "Error: $SESSIONS/orders/wave.json exists - a wave is awaiting its sessions. Stale-worktree cleanup refused." >&2
  exit 1
fi
cd "$MAIN_ROOT" || exit 1
for wt in "$SESSIONS/worktrees"/session-*; do
  [ -d "$wt" ] || continue
  GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git worktree remove "$wt" 2>/dev/null || echo "KEPT worktree $wt"
done
GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git worktree prune
git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short)' "refs/heads/trek/{slug}/" | while read -r b; do
  GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git branch -d "$b" >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "KEPT branch $b"
done
KEPT="$(ls -d "$SESSIONS/worktrees"/session-* 2>/dev/null; git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short)' "refs/heads/trek/{slug}/")"
if [ -n "$KEPT" ]; then
  echo "Earlier session work kept (changes or unmerged commits):" >&2
  echo "$KEPT" >&2
  exit 1
fi

Exit 0: report Cleaned stale worktrees and merged branches from a previous run. Exit 1: stop and report its message. For every kept item say what the user can do: a worktree — inspect it (git -C <path> status --short), commit or move what matters, then git worktree remove <path>; a branch — inspect it (git log HEAD..<branch>), merge it by hand, or delete it themselves once its commits are not needed. Then re-run.

After all 4 checks pass:

Pre-flight: PASS (clean tree, plan reaches worktrees, no overlaps, no stale worktrees)

Phase 2.6 — Multi-session orchestration (worktree-isolated, session orders)

Only runs for multi-session execution. Voyage never starts a Claude Code session. This phase prepares ONE wave at a time: it creates an isolated git worktree for each session in the wave, writes a session order for each (the worktree, the steps, the done-condition) plus a one-line starter, and stops. The user opens each session themselves, in the directory the order names, and gives it the starter. Running the same /trekexecute command again in the main checkout collects the wave: it reads every session's progress file, merges the session branches back sequentially, cleans up, and prepares the next wave. After the last wave, jump to Phase 8 (final report).

CRITICAL SAFETY RULE: Every session MUST run in its own git worktree. Never run two sessions in the same working directory. This rule exists because parallel git operations in a shared worktree cause index corruption, race conditions, and repository destruction. Each order names its own worktree.

Step 0 — Resolve paths and detect a wave in flight

# The MAIN checkout, never a linked worktree (Phase 2.5): in a session's
# worktree --show-toplevel names that worktree.
GIT_DIR_ABS="$(cd "$(git rev-parse --git-dir)" && pwd -P)"
GIT_COMMON_ABS="$(cd "$(git rev-parse --git-common-dir)" && pwd -P)"
REPO_ROOT="$(git worktree list --porcelain | sed -n '1s/^worktree //p')"
if [ "$GIT_DIR_ABS" != "$GIT_COMMON_ABS" ]; then
  echo "Error: this is a linked worktree. Run this from the main checkout $REPO_ROOT." >&2
  exit 1
fi
# The plan path relative to the main checkout: every session-orders.mjs call
# runs from $REPO_ROOT with it, and each session finds the plan there in its
# own worktree.
PLAN_REL="$(python3 -c 'import os.path,sys; print(os.path.relpath(os.path.realpath(sys.argv[1]), os.path.realpath(sys.argv[2])))' "{plan-path}" "$REPO_ROOT")"
case "$PLAN_REL" in
  ""|..*)
    echo "Error: the plan {plan-path} is not inside the main checkout $REPO_ROOT." >&2
    exit 1 ;;
esac
SESSION_DIR="$REPO_ROOT/.claude/trekplan-sessions/{slug}"
WORKTREE_DIR="$SESSION_DIR/worktrees"
ORDERS_DIR="$SESSION_DIR/orders"
ORIGINAL_BRANCH="$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
# Resolve the plugin root ONCE (same reason as Phase 7: the variable is
# substituted in this command's text but EMPTY in the Bash tool's env).
# Only the literal form is substituted (a `:-` default is never replaced); the
# fallback takes the highest installed version under cache/<market>/voyage/.
VOYAGE_ROOT="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}"
case "$VOYAGE_ROOT" in
  /*) ;;
  *) VOYAGE_ROOT="$(ls -d "$HOME"/.claude/plugins/cache/*/voyage/[0-9]*/ 2>/dev/null \
       | awk -F/ '{ split($(NF-1), v, "."); printf "%09d%09d%09d %s\n", v[1], v[2], v[3], $(0) }' \
       | sort | tail -1 | cut -d' ' -f2-)"
     VOYAGE_ROOT="${VOYAGE_ROOT%/}" ;;
esac
if [ ! -f "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/util/session-orders.mjs" ]; then
  echo "[voyage] session orders cannot be written - plugin root unresolved." >&2
  exit 2
fi
if [ -f "$ORDERS_DIR/wave.json" ]; then echo "WAVE_IN_FLIGHT"; else echo "NO_WAVE"; fi

Record REPO_ROOT, PLAN_REL, SESSION_DIR, WORKTREE_DIR, ORDERS_DIR, VOYAGE_ROOT and ORIGINAL_BRANCH for the later steps. All paths except PLAN_REL must be absolute.

• WAVE_IN_FLIGHT → read the wave number W from $ORDERS_DIR/wave.json and jump to Step 3 (collect). Phase 2.55 was skipped for this run (Phase 2.5).
• NO_WAVE → prepare the lowest wave not yet merged:

  (cd "$REPO_ROOT" && node "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/util/session-orders.mjs" next-wave --plan "$PLAN_REL" --session-dir "$SESSION_DIR")
  

  A number is W: continue to Step 1. none means earlier runs merged every wave: go to Step 4. The record it reads, $ORDERS_DIR/merged-waves.json (plan path + sha256 of the plan's content), is written by Step 3 after each merged wave, survives Step 5, and is cleared by Step 6 only when every wave is merged and Step 4 passed, so a re-run after a later wave failed never prepares an already-merged wave again. If next-wave exits 1, the record belongs to another plan or another version of this one ({slug} is the plan's file name, so plans can share $SESSION_DIR). Stop, touch nothing, and tell the user exactly what its message says: an unfinished multi-session run of that plan holds $ORDERS_DIR. Finish that run (re-run it with its own plan), or clear it and re-run this one: (cd "$REPO_ROOT" && node "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/util/session-orders.mjs" clear --session-dir "$SESSION_DIR").

Step 1 — Create worktrees for wave W

mkdir -p "$WORKTREE_DIR" "$ORDERS_DIR"

2a. Create worktrees for this wave's sessions:

First make sure no session of this wave left a branch or a worktree behind in an earlier attempt — it may hold that session's work, so it is neither reused nor deleted:

EXISTING=""
for N in {wave W session numbers}; do
  if git rev-parse -q --verify "refs/heads/trek/{slug}/session-$N" >/dev/null || [ -e "$WORKTREE_DIR/session-$N" ]; then
    EXISTING="$EXISTING trek/{slug}/session-$N"
  fi
done
if [ -n "$EXISTING" ]; then
  echo "Error: left by an earlier attempt:$EXISTING (branch or $WORKTREE_DIR/session-N)." >&2
  exit 1
fi

If it exits 1, stop and report (no Step 5, no Phase 8; nothing was created or deleted): name each branch and worktree, and what the user can do — inspect it (git log HEAD..<branch>, git -C <worktree> status --short), merge it by hand, or delete it themselves once its work is not needed — then re-run.

Then, for each session N in this wave:

BRANCH_NAME="trek/{slug}/session-{N}"
WORKTREE_PATH="$WORKTREE_DIR/session-{N}"
GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git worktree add -b "$BRANCH_NAME" "$WORKTREE_PATH" HEAD

GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 disables .git/index.lock background polling races during parallel worktree operations (research/02 R2; GH #47721).

If git worktree add fails, report its error and stop the wave: never delete a branch to make room. Jump to Step 5 (it removes the worktrees this wave just created, without force), then Phase 8.

Report:

Worktree created: session-{N} → {WORKTREE_PATH} (branch: {BRANCH_NAME})

2a'. Copy gitignored project artifacts into each worktree (addresses plugin-in-monorepo + gitignored-state topology):

git worktree add clones HEAD only. The plugin's .gitignore excludes .claude/projects/, so the project directory (brief.md, plan.md, research/) is missing in the freshly-created worktree. Each session needs to read brief.md, plan.md, and research/* from ${PROJECT_DIR} to do real work.

Insert this block AFTER the worktree-creation loop and BEFORE the orders are written (Step 2):

PROJECT_SOURCE="$(realpath "${PROJECT_DIR}")"
REPO_ROOT_REAL="$(realpath "${REPO_ROOT}")"
# Compute destination relpath: PROJECT_DIR relative to REPO_ROOT.
# This makes $wt/$PROJECT_REL valid regardless of whether the operator
# passed --project as relative (.claude/projects/...) or absolute.
# python3 + os.path.relpath is stdlib and portable - see the note below the
# block for why no realpath flag may be used here.
PROJECT_REL="$(python3 -c 'import os.path,sys; print(os.path.relpath(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2]))' "$PROJECT_SOURCE" "$REPO_ROOT_REAL")"
case "$PROJECT_REL" in
  ""|..*)
    echo "Error: cannot derive a project relpath inside the repo ($PROJECT_SOURCE vs $REPO_ROOT_REAL)." >&2
    exit 1 ;;
esac
for wt in "$WORKTREE_DIR"/session-*; do
  [ -d "$wt" ] || continue
  mkdir -p "$wt/$PROJECT_REL"
  cp "$PROJECT_SOURCE"/brief.md "$wt/$PROJECT_REL/"
  cp "$PROJECT_SOURCE"/plan.md  "$wt/$PROJECT_REL/"
  if [ -d "$PROJECT_SOURCE/research" ]; then
    cp -r "$PROJECT_SOURCE/research" "$wt/$PROJECT_REL/"
  fi
done

Do not "improve" the relpath line into realpath --relative-to=.... That flag is GNU coreutils only; BSD realpath (the macOS default) rejects it, and the failure is silent — the command substitution leaves PROJECT_REL empty, so mkdir -p "$wt/" and cp ... "$wt//" both succeed and drop brief.md/plan.md at the worktree root, where no session looks for them. Measured on an Intel Mac 2026-08-31: realpath --relative-to=... → realpath: illegal option -- -, while bare realpath <path> works; a whole wave ran with zero steps executed. Both realpath calls above are bare path resolution, which BSD and GNU handle identically; resolving both operands before the relpath is what keeps it correct when one side goes through a symlink (macOS /var → /private/var).

Failure modes: an underivable relpath (empty, or outside the repo) aborts before anything is copied — better a loud stop than files delivered where no session reads them; any cp failure exits the wave non-zero, reported via Step 5 cleanup. A project without research/ is not a failure. Source: brief Constraint 2.

Step 2 — Write the session orders for wave W, then stop

(cd "$REPO_ROOT" && node "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/util/session-orders.mjs" write --plan "$PLAN_REL" --wave "{W}" --session-dir "$SESSION_DIR")

$PLAN_REL is relative to the main checkout (Step 0; the tool refuses an absolute path): each session resolves it inside its own worktree, which has the same repo content from HEAD. The tool writes $ORDERS_DIR/wave-{W}-session-{N}.md per session (naming its worktree, directory and progress file) and $ORDERS_DIR/wave.json (status: awaiting-sessions, the plan path and the sha256 of its content), and prints, per session, the directory to open and the starter line (/trekexecute --session {N} $PLAN_REL). A session's per-session cwd: field in the Execution Strategy moves the directory it opens in to that subdirectory of its worktree (plugin-in-monorepo layouts, brief Constraint 1, Option B); default . is the worktree root.

Show the tool's output to the user verbatim, then report and stop:

Wave {W}: {N} session order(s) written in {ORDERS_DIR}. Awaiting sessions.
Open each session yourself in the directory its order names and give it the
starter line. When every session is done, run this same /trekexecute command
again here to merge the wave.

This run ends here. It writes no Phase 8 report: the plan is not finished, and the orders are the hand-over.

Step 3 — Collect wave W (a later run)

(cd "$REPO_ROOT" && node "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/util/session-orders.mjs" status --plan "$PLAN_REL" --wave "{W}" --session-dir "$SESSION_DIR")

If it exits 1, wave.json was written for another plan or another version of this one: stop and report its message, touching nothing. Re-run with the plan (version) that wrote the wave, or abandon the wave (the way out below).

The JSON names each session's progress file (the file --session N writes, Phase 3), its raw status, and its state, exactly one of: completed; running — no progress file yet, pending, in-progress, in_progress, or any status not named here (an unknown status is never treated as ended); ended-bad — failed, stopped, partial, blocked or unreadable. running and ended_bad list the sessions in each state. Check in this order:

• Any running (checked FIRST): a session is still open. Report which sessions are still running, with their raw status, point at their order files ($ORDERS_DIR/wave-{W}-session-{N}.md), and stop — even when another session in the wave already ended badly. Touch no worktree, no branch and not wave.json: no merge, no archive, no cleanup. Way out of a stuck wave (a session the user decided not to run): the user deletes $ORDERS_DIR/wave.json and re-runs. That run takes the fresh path, and Phase 2.55 Check 4 removes the wave's clean worktrees and merged branches without force and stops on everything that holds work, listing it to merge by hand or delete.
• No session is running. Before any worktree is removed (the failure branch's Step 5 and the merge below both remove them), archive every session's progress file:

  (cd "$REPO_ROOT" && node "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/util/session-orders.mjs" archive --plan "$PLAN_REL" --wave "{W}" --session-dir "$SESSION_DIR")
  

  It copies each one to $ORDERS_DIR/wave-{W}-session-{N}.progress.json. Step 5 never deletes these copies; Step 6 and Phase 8 read them.
• Any ended-bad:

  Wave {W} FAILED: Session {N} ended {status}.
  Stopping — later waves depend on this wave.
  See its order: {ORDERS_DIR}/wave-{W}-session-{N}.md
  

  Do NOT merge. Do NOT prepare later waves. Jump to Step 5 (cleanup; it keeps every unmerged branch and every worktree git refuses to remove), then Phase 8.
• all_completed: true: if gates_mode is true, pause for operator confirmation before merge-back. Then continue with the merge.

Merge session branches back (SEQUENTIAL, one at a time):

Return to the main worktree and make sure it is clean. While the sessions ran the user may have kept working here, and Phase 2.55 (its Check 1) did not run for this collect:

cd "$REPO_ROOT" || exit 1
if ! git diff --quiet || ! git diff --cached --quiet; then
  echo "Error: uncommitted changes in $REPO_ROOT. Commit or stash your changes in $REPO_ROOT, then re-run." >&2
  exit 1
fi

If it exits 1, stop and report its message: no merge, no cleanup, and keep wave.json, so the re-run collects this wave again.

For each session N in the wave (in order), push BEFORE merge so the wave branch survives even if cleanup races ahead (research/02 R3 — converts an unrecoverable failure to a recoverable one). Push failure is non-fatal (no remote, offline, etc.):

GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git push origin "trek/{slug}/session-{N}" 2>/dev/null || true
if GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git merge --no-ff "trek/{slug}/session-{N}" \
     -m "merge: trekplan session {N} — {session-title}"; then
  echo "MERGED session {N}"
elif git rev-parse -q --verify MERGE_HEAD >/dev/null; then
  git diff --name-only --diff-filter=U
  git merge --abort
  echo "MERGE_CONFLICT session {N}"
  exit 1
else
  echo "MERGE_REFUSED session {N}"
  exit 1
fi

• MERGED: continue to the next session.
• MERGE_REFUSED: git refused to start the merge (no MERGE_HEAD; its message names the local changes or untracked files in the way). Stop and report commit, stash or move your changes in {REPO_ROOT}, then re-run: no Step 5, and keep wave.json. Sessions merged before it in this wave stay merged; the re-run merges them again as no-ops.
• MERGE_CONFLICT: a real conflict, already aborted. Report:

  Wave {W} MERGE CONFLICT: Session {N} branch conflicts with merged state.
  Conflicting files:
  {the files the block printed}
  
  Session {N} order: {ORDERS_DIR}/wave-{W}-session-{N}.md
  Aborting further merges. Sessions already merged in this wave are preserved.
  

  Mark remaining sessions as "merge-failed". Jump to Step 5 (it keeps every unmerged branch), then Phase 8.

Record the merged wave, then remove its worktrees:

After successful merge of all sessions in the wave, record it (Step 0 reads the record, so a later run never prepares this wave again):

(cd "$REPO_ROOT" && node "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/util/session-orders.mjs" record-merged --plan "$PLAN_REL" --wave "{W}" --session-dir "$SESSION_DIR")

Then drop the wave marker and remove each session's worktree and merged branch, never with force. A progress file still in a worktree is deleted only when it is untracked and byte-identical to its archived copy (the archive is the record); anything else in a worktree makes git refuse, and that worktree — and the branch checked out in it — is kept and reported:

cd "$REPO_ROOT" || exit 1
rm -f "$ORDERS_DIR/wave.json"
for N in {wave W session numbers}; do
  WT="$WORKTREE_DIR/session-$N"
  ARCHIVED="$ORDERS_DIR/wave-{W}-session-$N.progress.json"
  P="$(sed -n 's/^- progress file: //p' "$ORDERS_DIR/wave-{W}-session-$N.md")"
  if [ -n "$P" ] && [ -f "$P" ] && cmp -s "$ARCHIVED" "$P" \
     && ! git -C "$WT" ls-files --error-unmatch "$P" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    rm -f "$P"
  fi
  GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git worktree remove "$WT" 2>/dev/null || echo "KEPT worktree $WT"
  GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git branch -d "trek/{slug}/session-$N" >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "KEPT branch trek/{slug}/session-$N"
done
GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git worktree prune

Report: Wave {W}: {N} sessions merged. plus every KEPT line, each with what the user can do (inspect it with git -C <path> status --short, commit or move what matters, then git worktree remove <path> and git branch -d <branch>).

Next wave: run Step 0's next-wave command. A number is the next W: go back to Step 1 — this run prepares that wave's orders and stops again. none (every wave merged): continue to Step 4.

Step 4 — Run master verification

After all waves complete and merge successfully, run the plan's ## Verification section commands to verify the integrated result.

Step 5 — Cleanup (ALWAYS runs when the run ends, even on failure)

This step MUST execute whenever this phase ends the run with a failure, a merge conflict, or after the last wave — never while a wave is awaiting its sessions (Step 2, and a Step 3 that finds a session running or a dirty or refused merge, stop without it). It is the worktree equivalent of a finally block, and it never forces: git worktree remove without force refuses a worktree with modified or untracked files, git branch -d refuses an unmerged branch, and whatever git refuses is kept and reported, never retried with force. From $ORDERS_DIR it deletes only wave.json: the orders, the archived progress copies and the merged-waves record stay until Step 6 clears them.

cd "$REPO_ROOT" || exit 1

# Remove worktrees git agrees are clean (GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 to avoid lock-file races)
for wt in "$WORKTREE_DIR"/session-*; do
  [ -d "$wt" ] || continue
  GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git worktree remove "$wt" 2>/dev/null || echo "KEPT worktree $wt"
done
GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git worktree prune

# Delete merged session branches; every unmerged one is kept
git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:short)' "refs/heads/trek/{slug}/" | while read -r b; do
  GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 git branch -d "$b" >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "KEPT branch $b"
done

# Clean up the wave marker and an empty worktree directory
rm -f "$ORDERS_DIR/wave.json"
rmdir "$WORKTREE_DIR" 2>/dev/null || true

Report:

Cleanup: worktrees removed and merged branches deleted.
Kept (they hold work): {every KEPT line}

For every kept item, the report says what the user can do: a worktree — inspect it (git -C <path> status --short), commit or move what matters, then git worktree remove <path>; a branch — inspect it (git log HEAD..<branch>), merge it by hand (git merge --no-ff <branch>), or delete it themselves once its commits are not needed. A re-run stops at Phase 2.55 Check 4 until they are dealt with.

Step 6 — Aggregate results

Read every archived copy, $ORDERS_DIR/wave-*-session-*.progress.json, into an aggregated report — never the worktree copies, which Steps 3 and 5 remove with their worktrees (earlier waves' in earlier runs).

Then clear the orders directory — orders, archived copies and the merged-waves record — only when next-wave said none (every wave merged) AND Step 4 passed, so a later plan with the same {slug} starts clean:

(cd "$REPO_ROOT" && node "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/util/session-orders.mjs" clear --session-dir "$SESSION_DIR")

On any other outcome keep it: the next run resumes at the lowest wave not yet merged (Step 0), or re-runs Step 4 when every wave is merged. Jump to Phase 8.

--session N mode

When mode = session N:

1. Find session N in the Execution Strategy
2. Extract its step numbers (e.g., Steps: 4, 5, 6)
3. Extract its scope fence (Touch / Never touch lists)
4. Execute ONLY those steps, in order, using the single-session protocol (Phase 3→7)
5. Enforce the session's scope fence as if it were a session spec's scope fence
6. Report results for those steps only

This mode is what each session order's starter runs, in a session the user opened in that order's worktree. It can also be used manually to re-run a specific session.

When --session N runs inside a git worktree (as each session order sets up), all git operations (add, commit) apply to the worktree's branch. The session does not need to know it is in a worktree — git handles this transparently.

Phase 3 — Progress file setup

The progress file location depends on whether --project is in use:

• With --project <dir>: progress lives at {project_dir}/progress.json.
• Without --project: progress lives at {plan-dir}/.trekexecute-progress-{slug}.json, where {slug} is the plan filename without extension.

Session-scoped naming: When mode = session N:

• With --project: {project_dir}/progress-session-{N}.json.
• Without --project: {plan-dir}/.trekexecute-progress-{slug}-session-{N}.json.

This prevents merge conflicts when parallel sessions each write their own progress file.

Progress file schema

{
  "schema_version": "1",
  "plan": "{path}",
  "plan_type": "{plan | session-spec}",
  "started_at": "{ISO-8601}",
  "updated_at": "{ISO-8601}",
  "mode": "{execute | resume | step}",
  "total_steps": 0,
  "current_step": 0,
  "status": "{in-progress | completed | failed | stopped}",
  "steps": {
    "1": { "status": "pending", "attempts": 0, "error": null, "completed_at": null, "commit": null }
  },
  "iterations_remaining": 25,
  "entry_condition_checked": false,
  "exit_condition_checked": false,
  "plan_verification": null,
  "summary": null
}

plan_verification (additive-optional): written by Phase 7 when the input is a trekplan — {status, summary, failed_criteria}, where status is "passed" | "failed" | "not-run". null for session specs (they have an exit condition instead) and on early stop. Unknown keys are tolerated by progress-validator.mjs, so a legacy progress file without it still validates.

iterations_remaining (v1.7+, additive-optional): the remaining recovery/retry budget against the global hard cap (unit = iterations, per the brief — token/cost budgeting is out of scope). Seeded to TREKEXECUTE_MAX_RECOVERY_ITERATIONS (default 25) at start. Single writer: the executor decrements it by 1 on every recovery/retry iteration — each step attempt beyond the first, and each Phase 7.6 recovery dispatch. Backfill-on-absent: when resuming a legacy progress.json that lacks the field, seed it to the cap rather than hard-failing (forward/backward-compatible; shape-validated by progress-validator.mjs — non-negative integer, never required-top). The field is present in the spec at minimum — there is no (if wired) conditional.

Mode-specific behavior

mode = execute (fresh):

• If a progress file exists with status in-progress or failed: warn that --resume is available, then wait 3 seconds (sleep 3) and start fresh. This allows headless runs to proceed without blocking.
• Otherwise: create the progress file with all steps in pending status.

mode = resume:

• If no progress file exists: start from step 1 (same as fresh execute).
• If progress file exists: find the first step with status != passed.

  Resuming from step {N}. {M}/{total} steps already completed.
  

mode = dry-run:

• Do NOT create or modify the progress file.

mode = step N:

• Create the progress file if it does not exist.
• Only step N will be executed.

Phase 4 — Entry condition check (session specs only)

Skip for trekplans. Skip in dry-run mode (report what would be checked instead).

Read the entry condition. Evaluate it:

• "none" or similar → pass immediately
• References git state (e.g., "git status clean") → run git status --porcelain
• References passing tests → run the specified command
• References a previous session → check git log --oneline for commit pattern

If the entry condition fails:

Entry condition FAILED: {condition text}
Reason: {what was checked, what was found}
Complete the prerequisite first, then re-run.

Update progress file with status: "stopped". Stop execution.

Also write .session-state.local.json (Handover 7) with the same status: "stopped" and next_session_brief_path pointing at the brief that the failed entry-condition session was supposed to consume. This lets /trekcontinue surface the stop in the next session. Use the same atomic write pattern + validator check as Phase 2.55. On validator failure, warn but do not block.

Also write sibling NEXT-SESSION-PROMPT.local.md with frontmatter (produced_by: trekexecute, produced_at: <ISO-8601>, status: stopped) — same combined ESM pattern as Phase 8 — so Phase 1.5 of /trekcontinue can compare project-dir and plugin-root candidates.

If the entry condition passes:

Entry condition: PASS

Update entry_condition_checked: true in the progress file.

Phase 5 — Dry-run report (dry-run mode only)

Only runs when mode = dry-run. Produces a validation report, then stops.

## Dry Run Report: {filename}

**Type:** {plan | session-spec}
**Steps:** {N}

### Step Validation

| Step | Description | Verify | On failure | Checkpoint | Issues |
|------|-------------|--------|------------|------------|--------|
| 1 | {desc} | {cmd} | {action} | {msg} | {none / missing X} |

### File References

{For each file in Files: fields, check existence with Glob}
- {path}: EXISTS | NOT FOUND {(marked as new file) | (unexpected — may be missing)}

### Entry / Exit Conditions (session specs)

{What would be checked}

### Execution Preview (only when plan has Execution Strategy)

If `has_execution_strategy = true`, show a preview of multi-session orchestration:

Sessions: {S} across {W} waves

Wave	Session	Steps	Depends on	Starter (the user runs it in a session they open)
1	Session 1: {title}	{nums}	none	/trekexecute --session 1 {path}
1	Session 2: {title}	{nums}	none	/trekexecute --session 2 {path}
2	Session 3: {title}	{nums}	S1, S2	/trekexecute --session 3 {path}

### Verdict

{READY | NEEDS ATTENTION — N issues found}

Stop after the dry-run report. Do not execute anything.

Phase 6 — Step execution loop

The core execution phase. Runs for modes: execute, resume, step.

Determine starting step

• execute: step 1
• resume: first step where status != passed
• step N: step N only

For each step

Update progress: steps.{N}.status = "running", current_step = N, updated_at = now.

--- Step {N}/{total}: {description} ---

Sub-step A — Scope fence check (session specs only)

Before touching any file, verify that every file in the step's Files: field is in the session spec's Touch list (or is a new file to create). If ANY file is in the Never-touch list:

SCOPE VIOLATION: Step {N} requires {file} which is in the never-touch list.
Escalating — this step cannot be executed within this session's scope.

Treat this as an automatic escalate. Jump to the stop-and-report logic.

Sub-step B — Test first (if present)

If the step has a Test first: field:

1. If test file is marked (new): note it will be created during implementation.
2. If test file exists: run it. Expect failure (RED state).
3. If test unexpectedly passes: warn but continue — step may already be done.

Do not block on test-first failures — they are expected.

Sub-step C — Implement changes

Read the step's Files: and Changes: fields. Implement exactly as described.

Rules:

• Follow Changes: exactly — do not improvise, add scope, or optimize
• Use Edit for modifications, Write for new files
• If Reuses: references existing code, read that code first for context
• Only touch files listed in Files: — nothing else

Sub-step D1 — Command verification

Security check (mandatory): Before running the Verify command, check it against the executor security denylist. If the command matches ANY of these patterns, refuse to execute — treat as On failure: escalate regardless of the plan's On failure setting:

• rm -rf or rm -fr with any path
• chmod 777 or chmod -R 777
• Pipe-to-shell: curl ... | bash, wget ... | sh, base64 ... | bash
• eval with variable expansion: eval $VAR, eval $(cmd), eval `cmd`
• mkfs, dd writing to block devices (/dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
• shutdown, reboot, halt, poweroff
• Fork bomb patterns
• crontab writes, /etc/cron* modifications
• kill -9 -1 or pkill -9 -1 (kill all processes)
• history -c or truncating ~/.bash_history

If matched:

1. Do NOT execute the command
2. Set step status = "failed"
3. Log: SECURITY: Verify command blocked — matches executor denylist: {pattern name}
4. Apply On failure: escalate regardless of the plan's On failure setting
5. Include in final report under a "Security blocks" section

If the command passes the security check, run it:

Run the Verify: command exactly as written, via Bash.

Rules:

• Always a fresh run — never trust prior results
• Exit code is the authoritative truth:
  • Exit 0 + expected output (if specified) = PASS
  • Exit non-zero = FAIL regardless of output text
  • Exit 0 but wrong output = FAIL

Verify: {command}
Result: {PASS | FAIL} (exit code {N})
{if FAIL}: Output (first 10 lines): {output}

Step 0 sentinel: if the Verify command exits 77 AND the step's manifest has sandbox_preflight: true, do NOT treat as a normal failure. Set step status = blocked and apply On failure: escalate. Skip D2 manifest verification (nothing to verify for a read-only sandbox test). Commit none — jump straight to Phase 7 with a structured "sandbox-blocked" reason.

If PASS: proceed to Sub-step D2 (manifest verification).

Sub-step D2 — Manifest verification

After the Verify command passes, verify the step's Manifest block. This is the objective completion predicate: a step is not passed until its manifest holds, regardless of Verify exit code.

Checks to run (in order):

1. Expected paths exist: for each expected_paths entry, verify the file exists in the repo. Count how many exist.
2. min_file_count satisfied: count from (1) must be ≥ min_file_count.
3. Forbidden paths untouched: for each forbidden_paths entry, run git diff --name-only HEAD~{attempts} HEAD -- {path} (since this step began). Any modified forbidden path = fail.
4. Bash syntax check: for each entry in bash_syntax_check AND any .sh file that appears in git diff --name-only HEAD~1 HEAD (safety net for unlisted scripts), run bash -n {path}. Non-zero exit = fail.
5. must_contain patterns: for each {path, pattern} pair, run grep -E "{pattern}" {path}. No match = fail.

On manifest failure:

Manifest verification FAIL for step {N}:
- {which check failed with detail}

Apply the step's On failure: clause (same as Sub-step D1 failure). Increment attempts. Manifest failures count against the retry cap equally with command failures.

If all manifest checks pass: proceed to Sub-step F (checkpoint).

Record per-step manifest audit result in progress file: steps.{N}.manifest_audit = "pass" | "fail", steps.{N}.manifest_drift = [{check: reason, ...}] on fail.

Sub-step E — On failure handling

If FAIL, read the On failure: clause. Apply the retry cap: maximum 2 retries (3 total attempts). Track attempts in steps.{N}.attempts.

On failure: revert

• If attempts < 3: analyze the failure, re-implement with adjustments, re-verify.

  Attempt {A}/3 failed. Retrying...
  

• If attempts == 3: revert this step's changes:

  git checkout -- {files from Files: field}
  

  Record failure. Do NOT proceed to next step. Jump to Phase 7.

On failure: retry

• If attempts < 3: use the alternative approach described in the On failure clause.
• If attempts == 3: revert and stop. Jump to Phase 7.

On failure: skip

• Mark step as skipped regardless of attempt count. Continue to next step.

  Step {N}: SKIPPED (non-critical per plan)
  

  Update steps.{N}.status = "skipped".

On failure: escalate

• Stop immediately regardless of attempt count.

  Step {N}: ESCALATED — requires human judgment
  

  Commit all completed work before stopping. Stage ONLY files from steps with status: "passed" in the progress file — collect their Files: fields. Never use git add -A (risks staging secrets, binaries, or unrelated work).

  git add {files from passed steps' Files: fields} && git commit -m "wip: trekexecute stopped at step {N} — escalation needed"
  

  Jump to Phase 7.

Sub-step F — Checkpoint

Run the Checkpoint: git commit command exactly as written in the plan.

If the commit fails (nothing to commit, etc.): warn but do NOT fail the step. The step's verification already passed — the commit is bookkeeping.

Step {N}: PASS (committed: {hash})

Commit-message-pattern check: after the commit succeeds, read the HEAD commit message (git log -1 --pretty=%s) and match it against the step's commit_message_pattern. Mismatch does NOT fail the step (verification already passed) but is recorded as checkpoint_drift: {expected_pattern, actual_message} in the progress file. Phase 7.5 audit reports drift as an advisory.

Update progress: steps.{N}.status = "passed", steps.{N}.commit = {hash}, steps.{N}.completed_at = now, steps.{N}.manifest_audit = "pass".

Step mode exit

If mode = step N: after completing step N (pass or fail), skip remaining steps and jump to Phase 8 (final report).

Phase 7 — Exit / verification check

Runs only when all steps passed (not on early stop). Which check runs depends on what was executed:

Input	Check
session spec	the ## Exit Condition checklist
trekplan	the plan's ## Verification criteria

Phase 4's entry-condition skip for trekplans stands — a plan carries no entry condition. The exit side is not symmetrical: a trekplan's ## Verification section is where the brief's success criteria land, and it used to run only on the multi-session wave path (Phase 2.6 Step 4). A single-session run therefore reported completed without ever executing the criteria it was measured against. It no longer does.

Session specs — exit condition checklist

Run each exit condition command from the ## Exit Condition checklist:

Exit condition check:
- [ ] {command} → {PASS | FAIL}
- [ ] {command} → {PASS | FAIL}

If all pass: exit_condition_checked: true in progress file. If any fail: record which failed. Include in final report.

trekplans — run the plan's ## Verification

Run the criteria runner over the plan file parsed in Phase 1 ({plan_path}). It parses the ## Verification section, screens every command through the plugin's own PreToolUse denylist before it reaches a shell, and runs what survives — in the FOREGROUND, never backgrounded. (A command spawned from node does not pass through the Bash tool, so that hook cannot fire by itself; the runner invokes it over its documented stdin protocol instead of carrying a second copy of the denylist.)

# Resolve the plugin root ONCE. ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} is substituted in this
# command's text but is EMPTY in the Bash tool's process env, and a bare
# `node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/…` then runs `node /lib/…`, which exits 1 —
# indistinguishable from a criterion that failed.
# Only the literal form is substituted (a `:-` default is never replaced); the
# fallback takes the highest installed version under cache/<market>/voyage/.
VOYAGE_ROOT="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}"
case "$VOYAGE_ROOT" in
  /*) ;;
  *) VOYAGE_ROOT="$(ls -d "$HOME"/.claude/plugins/cache/*/voyage/[0-9]*/ 2>/dev/null \
       | awk -F/ '{ split($(NF-1), v, "."); printf "%09d%09d%09d %s\n", v[1], v[2], v[3], $(0) }' \
       | sort | tail -1 | cut -d' ' -f2-)"
     VOYAGE_ROOT="${VOYAGE_ROOT%/}" ;;
esac
if [ ! -f "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/verification/criteria-runner.mjs" ]; then
  echo "[voyage] plan verification could not run - plugin root unresolved (exit 2)."
  echo "         NOT a pass: report it and never emit result: completed."
  exit 2
fi

# The working tree the criteria run in. It is where every allowlisted command
# is executed and where a `bash tests/<script>.sh` criterion resolves, so it is
# resolved, never left to the process cwd - and a repo-less checkout falls back
# rather than passing "".
CRITERIA_CWD="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)"

node "$VOYAGE_ROOT/lib/verification/criteria-runner.mjs" --plan "{plan_path}" \
  --json --cwd "$CRITERIA_CWD"

The exit code is the verdict, and it is not advisory:

Exit	Meaning	Executor
0	every criterion passed	plan_verification.status = "passed"; continue
1	a criterion failed, was blocked, or could not run (no command, or a command outside the allowlist of test runners)	plan_verification.status = "failed"; progress status: "failed"
2	the runner itself could not run	plan_verification.status = "not-run"; treated exactly like exit 1

A plan with no ## Verification section exits 1 with error.code = NO_VERIFICATION_SECTION. That is deliberate: a plan that promises no end-to-end check cannot be reported as verified.

A plan whose ## Verification section IS there but declares nothing the runner can read exits 1 with error.code = NO_CRITERIA and a source line ({plan_path}:NN). Say that in the report in plain words — "the plan's ## Verification at {plan_path}:NN declares no criterion the runner reads; the plan is what failed here, not the run" — and name the two forms it does read (a bullet whose first backticked span is the command; a shell-tagged fence). Measured 2026-09-18: nine ordinary shapes of that section — an untagged fence, a ```text fence, a table, ## Verification (acceptance), ### Verification — all parsed to zero criteria, and Phase 7 then forbade result: completed without anyone being told that the format, not the code, was the problem. Silence is what made an unreadable section indistinguishable from a broken run.

Record in the progress file (additive-optional; unknown keys are tolerated by progress-validator.mjs, so a legacy progress file still validates):

• plan_verification.status — "passed" | "failed" | "not-run"
• plan_verification.summary — {total, passed, failed, blocked, unrunnable}
• plan_verification.failed_criteria — [{label, command, exit_code}]

A failing criterion FELLS the run. It is not "recorded and included in the final report": the executor MUST NOT emit result: completed while plan_verification.status != "passed". This is clause 2 of the stop-signal contract below (Phase 7.5) — "the plan's Verify command(s) passed (exit 0)" — now enforced on the single-session path and not only on the multi-session one. Continue to Phase 7.5 either way: the manifest audit is independent, and a verification failure must not hide a manifest drift.

Phase 7.5 — Manifest audit (independent)

Runs for all modes except dry-run. This is the last-line-of-defense check: it ignores the executor's own per-step bookkeeping and re-verifies session-wide state directly from the filesystem and git log. If the audit disagrees with the executor's self-report, the audit wins.

This phase exists because agents can hallucinate completion. Phase 7.5 produces an independent truth based on objective state, not self-narrative.

Steps:

1. Enumerate expected paths: aggregate expected_paths across every step manifest (and the session_manifest, if present). Deduplicate.

2. Filesystem check: for each expected_path, confirm the file exists.

3. Commit-count check: count commits since session-start (git rev-list --count {start_sha}..HEAD). Expected count = number of steps with status=passed (excludes Step 0 if sandbox_preflight).

4. Commit-message pattern sweep: walk git log {start_sha}..HEAD and confirm each commit matches one of the declared commit_message_patterns (in any order — order is advisory).

5. Bash syntax sweep: for every .sh file in git diff --name-only {start_sha} HEAD, run bash -n. Collect failures.

6. Forbidden-path sweep: for each scope_forbidden entry, check git diff --name-only {start_sha} HEAD -- {path} is empty.

Compare the audit result against the executor's progress.status:

• Audit pass + progress=completed: status stays completed.
• Audit fail + progress=completed: OVERRIDE to partial. The executor believed it was done; the filesystem says otherwise. This is the Wave 1 hallucination case — the audit is the defense.
• Audit fail + progress=failed/stopped: status stays as-is; drift is informational.

Record in progress file:

• manifest_audit.status = "pass" | "drift"
• manifest_audit.drift_details = [{check, expected, actual}, ...]

Machine-verifiable completion gate (stop-signal contract)

Sealed inline so the termination rule survives even when the executor model is the very thing it constrains.

This is the machine-verifiable completion gate (the stop-signal contract): the executor may emit result: completed ONLY when BOTH hold —

1. Objective predicate — the Phase 7.5 manifest audit (above) PASSED, re-verified directly from the filesystem + git log, ignoring the executor's own per-step bookkeeping. "The audit wins"; a self-reported completed over a drifting audit is OVERRIDDEN to partial (Phase 7.5, :1221).
2. Explicit stop-signal — a signal distinct from the executor's self-assessment is satisfied: the plan's Verify command(s) passed (exit 0) / lint clean / an explicit DONE token emitted AFTER the Phase 7.5 audit ran (never before, never in place of it). A transcript that merely "feels done" is NOT a stop-signal — victory-declaration bias is the exact failure mode this gate exists to defeat. For a trekplan this clause is Phase 7's plan_verification.status == "passed" — a real exit code from lib/verification/criteria-runner.mjs, on the single-session path as well as the multi-session one. "failed" or "not-run" OVERRIDES completed to failed, exactly as the audit-override does.
3. Counter liveness (deterministic, defeats "never decremented") — the gate reconciles the budget counter against the ground-truth counters the Phase 7.5 audit already derives: iterations_remaining == TREKEXECUTE_MAX_RECOVERY_ITERATIONS − (recovery_depth + Σ steps.*.attempts-beyond-first). A field left un-decremented (or tampered) fails this reconciliation and the result is OVERRIDDEN completed → partial, exactly as the audit-override already does (:1221). So the counter's liveness is auditable at the gate, not merely asserted in prose.

Termination authority therefore rests on the deterministic audit + an objective stop-signal, never on the model's narrative. Native /goal (when capability-probed and wired) is an OPTIONAL accelerator only: transcript-only, it cannot run the real check, so it can never be the sole gate.

Phase 7.6 — Recovery dispatch (multi-session parent context only)

Preconditions:

• This is the parent trekexecute invocation (not a child --session N)
• Phase 7.5 reported drift
• recovery_depth < 2 (hard cap to prevent infinite loops)

Skip otherwise. Recovery in child context or at depth 2+ escalates to the user for manual resolution.

Synthesize a recovery session spec:

1. Determine the missing step numbers from manifest_audit.drift_details (steps whose expected_paths are absent or whose commits are missing).
2. Read the original session spec. Copy only the missing steps (preserving their Manifest blocks) into a new file: {output_dir}/session-{N}-recovery-{depth}.md
3. Populate ## Recovery Metadata:
   • recovery_of: {original session spec path}
   • recovery_depth: {current depth + 1}
   • missing_steps: [N, M, ...]
   • entry_condition_override: "previous partial session committed at {sha}"
   • parent_progress_file: {path}
4. Prepend the synthetic Step 0 pre-flight (same as normal session specs).
5. Set recovery_dispatched = true in parent progress file.

Hand the recovery session over as an order (Voyage does not start it):

Report the recovery spec as a session order and stop the run as partial:

Recovery order: session {N}, depth {depth}
Open a Claude Code session yourself in {REPO_ROOT} (the main checkout, which
holds the session's merged work) and give it:
    /trekexecute --session {N} {recovery spec path}
That session runs the missing steps and its own Phase 7.5 audit.

Nothing routes a later run of this command back to the recovery: the recovery session's own audit is its check. It runs as a child, so if it still drifts it stops partial and escalates to the user (the preconditions above) instead of dispatching again. If Phase 7.5 drifts here while recovery_depth is already 2, report instead:

RECOVERY EXHAUSTED: session {N} drifted after 2 recovery attempts.
Missing: {steps and details}
Status: partial (recovery_depth=2, escalated to user)

Do NOT dispatch a third recovery. Report to the user.

Iteration caps + global recovery/retry budget

Every recovery/retry loop in this executor has a documented numeric bound. These are three distinct axes — not one nested counter:

• Per-step retry cap — attempts ≤ 3 (initial + maximum 2 retries; Hard Rule 5 / Sub-step E). Bounds the retries of a single step.
• Per-session recovery cap — recovery_depth < 2 (Phase 7.6 hard cap). Bounds how deep recovery dispatch nests.
• Global recovery/retry budget — a new env-overridable constant TREKEXECUTE_MAX_RECOVERY_ITERATIONS (default 25) — the aggregate ceiling on the total count of recovery + retry iterations across the whole execution. This is the case the two caps above do NOT bound: many steps each retrying up to 3× can sum unbounded. It primarily backstops the retry aggregate (recovery dispatch is already hard-capped at 2). Surfaced and enforced via the iterations_remaining counter (Phase 3 schema; decremented on every recovery/retry iteration; reconciled at the Phase 7.5 completion gate).

Default 25 is an independent value from the cap research (practitioner range 10–50; OWASP Agentic ASI08 financial-DoS), tuned down from the research ~50 starting point for a tighter backstop. Operators may override: TREKEXECUTE_MAX_RECOVERY_ITERATIONS=10 /trekexecute --project .... The effort=='low' single-foreground-loop path and the wave path are both subject to this aggregate ceiling; it is an execution-spec ceiling (enforced via the iterations_remaining counter), not a code-loop edit.

Phase 8 — Final report

Always produce a final report.

Main-merge gate (MAIN_MERGE_GATE — always pauses)

Before writing the final progress + state files (and before any "merge to main" prose), emit the main-merge-gate lifecycle event so observability and operator tooling can see that the pipeline reached its terminal boundary:

node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/stats/event-emit.mjs \
  --event main-merge-gate \
  --payload "{\"plan\":\"${PLAN_PATH}\",\"wave_count\":${WAVE_COUNT}}"

Pause for operator confirmation via AskUserQuestion:

Question: "All waves merged. Ready to proceed with the main-merge step and finalize the run?"

Option	Action
Confirm — main-merge	Emit main-merge-approved, proceed to write progress + state files.
Decline — hold for review	Emit main-merge-declined. Wave commits remain on their session branches for inspection. The run is recorded as partial.

This pause is always on, regardless of gates_mode. The --gates flag re-enables earlier per-wave pauses; this gate is the one boundary that ALWAYS pauses on every run — it is the safety stop between completed waves and the merge that publishes the integrated result.

On confirm:

node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/stats/event-emit.mjs \
  --event main-merge-approved \
  --payload "{\"plan\":\"${PLAN_PATH}\"}"

On decline:

node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/stats/event-emit.mjs \
  --event main-merge-declined \
  --payload "{\"plan\":\"${PLAN_PATH}\",\"reason\":\"${reason}\"}"

Recovery surface: if declined, --resume re-enters at the gate — re-running /trekexecute --resume --project <dir> jumps directly back to the main-merge gate AskUserQuestion (skipping completed waves). The wave session branches are preserved for inspection (Hard Rule 19's push-before-cleanup ensures they survive on the remote even if local cleanup ran). To inspect: git log trekplan/<slug>/session-N per wave.

Progress + state-file writes

Update progress file: status to completed/failed/stopped, updated_at, summary.

Also atomically write .session-state.local.json (Handover 7) at this convergence point — every successful, failed, stopped, or partial run that reaches Phase 8 must produce or refresh the state file. Schema:

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "project": "{project_dir}",
  "next_session_brief_path": "{determined from Execution Strategy: next session's brief path, or current brief path if last session}",
  "next_session_label": "{label of next session from Execution Strategy, or 'Complete' if last}",
  "status": "{same as progress.json status — completed | failed | stopped | partial}",
  "updated_at": "{ISO-8601 now}"
}

Use lib/util/atomic-write.mjs (atomicWriteJson) — same crash-safety as progress.json. Then verify: node lib/validators/session-state-validator.mjs --json {project_dir}/.session-state.local.json. On validator failure, warn to stderr but do NOT block — Phase 8 must always reach the final report.

Also write sibling NEXT-SESSION-PROMPT.local.md (Bug 3 frontmatter contract — see docs/HANDOVER-CONTRACTS.md § Handover 7 Lifecycle) in the project directory. The frontmatter MUST contain produced_by: trekexecute and produced_at: <ISO-8601> so /trekcontinue Phase 1.5 can detect producer drift between project-dir and plugin-root candidates. Use a single ESM inline block so state-file + prompt-file writes succeed or fail together:

node --input-type=module -e "
import path from 'node:path';
import { writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
import { atomicWriteJson } from './lib/util/atomic-write.mjs';
const [, dir, briefPath, label, status] = process.argv;
const now = new Date().toISOString();
const stateObj = { schema_version: 1, project: dir, next_session_brief_path: briefPath, next_session_label: label, status, updated_at: now };
atomicWriteJson(path.join(dir, '.session-state.local.json'), stateObj);
const promptBody = '---\\nproduced_by: trekexecute\\nproduced_at: ' + now + '\\nproject: ' + dir + '\\nstatus: ' + status + '\\n---\\n\\n# ' + label + '\\n\\nResume via /trekcontinue.\\n';
writeFileSync(path.join(dir, 'NEXT-SESSION-PROMPT.local.md'), promptBody);
" '{project_dir}' '{next_session_brief_path}' '{next_session_label}' '{status}'

Note: this block is a runtime template for Phase 8 orchestration; the {project_dir}/{next_session_brief_path}/{next_session_label}/{status} placeholders are filled in by the orchestrator at execution time. The leading ! prefix that previously wrapped this block was removed because Claude Code's slash-command parser auto-executes !...patterns at skill-load time, even inside bash code fences — seedocs/HANDOVER-CONTRACTS.md` § Handover 7 Lifecycle for context.

This single insertion covers every multi-session execution path that converges here (Path A: successful single session, Path B: --session N explicit, Path C: compaction-survival recovery, Path D: standard plan completion). Phase 2.55 and Phase 4 cover the early-stop paths E1/E2. Phase 2.3 (validate exit) and Phase 5 (dry-run) intentionally do not write — neither path is resumable.

## Ultraexecute Local Complete

**Plan:** {path}
**Type:** {plan | session-spec}
**Mode:** {execute | resume | step N}
**Result:** {COMPLETED | FAILED at step N | STOPPED (escalation) | PARTIAL (N/total passed)}

### Step Results

| Step | Description | Result | Attempts | Commit | Manifest |
|------|-------------|--------|----------|--------|----------|
| 0 | Sandbox pre-flight | PASS | 1 | — | n/a |
| 1 | {desc} | PASS | 1 | abc1234 | pass |
| 2 | {desc} | FAIL | 3 | — | — |
| 3 | {desc} | — | 0 | — | — |

### Plan Verification (Phase 7, trekplans only)

- **Status:** {passed | failed | not-run | n/a}
- **Criteria:** {passed}/{total} passed, {failed} failed, {blocked} blocked, {unrunnable} not run
- **Failed criteria:** {label + command + exit code, one per line; empty when passed}

### Manifest Audit (Phase 7.5)

- **Status:** {pass | drift}
- **Drift details:** {enumerated; empty on pass}
- **Recovery dispatched:** {true | false}
- **Recovery depth:** {N}
- **Legacy plan:** {true | false}

### Summary

- Passed: {N}/{total}
- Skipped: {N}
- Failed: {N}
- Not reached: {N}
- Blocked (sandbox): {N}

{if all passed + exit condition passed + plan verification passed}:
All steps completed. Exit condition: PASS. Plan verification: PASS.

{if failed/stopped}:
### Failure Details

Step {N}: {description}
On failure: {action}
Error: {error output, first 20 lines}
Attempts: {N}

### What Remains

{Numbered list of unexecuted steps}

To resume: /trekexecute --resume {path}

Result vocabulary (v1.7, strict):

• completed — all steps passed AND Phase 7.5 manifest audit passed AND (for trekplans) Phase 7 plan verification passed
• partial — steps passed per executor but Phase 7.5 found drift, OR Phase 7.6 recovery incomplete
• blocked — Step 0 sandbox pre-flight exited 77; no real work attempted
• failed — a step failed and On failure was revert/retry (retry cap hit)
• stopped — On failure: escalate triggered

JSON summary block (always at the end, machine-parseable):

{
  "trekexecute_summary": {
    "plan": "{path}",
    "plan_type": "{plan | session-spec}",
    "plan_version": "{1.7 | 1.6 | legacy}",
    "result": "{completed | partial | blocked | failed | stopped}",
    "steps_total": 0,
    "steps_passed": 0,
    "steps_failed": 0,
    "steps_skipped": 0,
    "steps_not_reached": 0,
    "steps_blocked": 0,
    "failed_at_step": null,
    "exit_condition": "{pass | fail | skipped | n/a}",
    "plan_verification": "{passed | failed | not-run | n/a}",
    "manifest_audit": "{pass | drift | n/a}",
    "drift_details": [],
    "recovery_dispatched": false,
    "recovery_depth": 0,
    "iterations_remaining": 25,
    "legacy_plan": false,
    "progress_file": "{path}"
  }
}

The trekexecute_summary key makes it grep-able in a session's output.

Multi-session path (Phase 2.6). Per-session results come from Step 6's aggregate of the archived copies $ORDERS_DIR/wave-*-session-*.progress.json. The report lists every worktree and trek/{slug}/* branch Steps 3 and 5 kept, with what the user can do (Step 5). If Step 6 kept the orders directory (not every wave merged, or Step 4 did not pass), say so: the next run resumes at the lowest wave not yet merged, and the clear command in Step 0 starts the plan over from its first wave instead.

Phase 9 — Stats tracking

Append one record to ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/trekexecute-stats.jsonl:

{
  "ts": "{ISO-8601}",
  "plan": "{filename only}",
  "plan_type": "{plan | session-spec}",
  "mode": "{execute | resume | dry-run | step}",
  "result": "{completed | failed | stopped | partial}",
  "steps_total": 0,
  "steps_passed": 0,
  "steps_failed": 0,
  "steps_skipped": 0,
  "failed_at_step": null
}

If ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA} is not set or not writable, skip silently. Never let stats failures block the workflow.

Profile (v4.1)

Accepts --profile <name> where <name> is economy, balanced, premium, fable, or a custom profile under voyage-profiles/. Default: premium.

Resolution order (per lib/profiles/resolver.mjs):

1. --profile flag (source: flag)
2. VOYAGE_PROFILE env-var (source: env)
3. Inherited from plan.md frontmatter profile: field (source: inheritance)
4. premium default for v4.0-style plans without profile: (source: default)

The selected profile drives phase_models.execute (model for execution orchestrator) and parallel_agents for wave-parallel sessions.

Examples:

/trekexecute --profile economy --project .claude/projects/2026-05-09-add-auth
VOYAGE_PROFILE=balanced /trekexecute --project ...

Stats records emit profile, phase_models, and profile_source per Phase 9 record.

Composition rule (v5.1)

Independent of the profile system. When brief.md carries phase_signals (brief_version ≥ 2.1), each downstream phase resolves effort + model as:

effort_for_phase = brief.phase_signals[<phase>]?.effort ?? 'standard'
model_for_phase  = brief.phase_signals[<phase>]?.model  ?? profile.phase_models[<phase>]

The brief signal wins per-phase when present; the profile fills any gaps. Both fields are mechanically resolved by the single composed CLI, invoked in Phase 2.4 alongside the sequencing-gate brief-validator call:

# v5.9 — composed phase-model resolution (brief > profile > default) for the
# execute phase. ONE call returns {effort, model, source}; captured as
# phase_signal_result. Append --profile {profile} when the operator passed
# --profile.
node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/profiles/resolver.mjs --resolve-phase-model --phase execute --brief-path "{dir}/brief.md" [--profile {profile}] --json

phase_signal_result.effort is consumed when picking the execution strategy (gates auto-escalation, parallel-wave choice — see High-effort behavior below). The resolver does NOT control the orchestrator's own model — that is fixed at invocation time (command frontmatter omits model:, so it follows the session model) and cannot be switched mid-turn. /trekexecute spawns no sub-agent swarm (Hard Rule 10), so phase_signal_result.model has no spawn site here; it is returned for cross-command uniformity and stats.

For /trekexecute specifically: effort == 'low' activates --gates open

• sequential-only execution (no worktree-isolated parallel waves — runs all sessions in a single foreground loop). effort == 'standard' (or absent) → no change (default execution strategy applies). effort == 'high' activates the high-effort behavior documented under ### High-effort behavior (v5.1.1) below.

Sequencing gate surface

When /trekexecute --project <dir> is invoked, ALWAYS run brief-validator.mjs --soft --json against {dir}/brief.md. If BRIEF_V51_MISSING_SIGNALS appears in errors (brief_version ≥ 2.1 without phase_signals or phase_signals_partial: true), halt with: Brief is brief_version 2.1 but does not carry phase_signals — re-run /trekbrief to commit them (Phase 3.5). Enforcement is validator-only; commands surface, don't re-enforce.

High-effort behavior (v5.1.1)

When phase_signal_result.effort == 'high' for the execute phase, set gates_mode = 'closed' automatically (equivalent to passing --gates closed on the command line). All autonomy boundaries become operator-stopping points: manifest-audit FAIL halts immediately, the main-merge gate pauses for operator confirm, and Phase 7.5 manifest-audit runs in its strictest form (fails on ANY mismatch, not just deltas above threshold). Operator explicit --gates flag still wins over the brief signal — if the operator passes --gates open on the command line while phase_signal_result.effort == 'high', the flag takes precedence and the override is logged to ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/trekexecute-stats.jsonl as {event: 'gates_mode_flag_override', flag: 'open', signal_effort: 'high'}.

Standard effort (or absent): use gates_mode = 'adaptive' (the default). Low effort: gates_mode = 'open' plus sequential-only execution (no parallel waves) — existing --quick-equivalent code-path.

Hard rules

1. No AskUserQuestion for execution decisions. All execution decisions come from the plan's On failure clauses. If the plan says escalate, stop and report — never ask.

2. No scope creep. Only touch files listed in the step's Files: field. If a file outside the list seems to need changing, record it as a finding in the final report — do not touch it.

3. Exit code is truth. The Verify command's exit code is authoritative. Non-zero = FAIL regardless of output. Zero with wrong output = FAIL.

4. Fresh verification. Re-run the Verify command from scratch every time. Never trust cached or prior results.

5. Retry cap = 3 attempts. Initial + 2 retries, then stop. Never loop forever.

6. Never corrupt completed work. Only revert files from the failing step. Never touch files from earlier passed steps.

7. Checkpoint discipline. Run the Checkpoint commit exactly as written. Do not combine, reorder, or skip checkpoints on passed steps.

8. Scope fence enforcement. For session specs: never modify files in the Never-touch list, regardless of what the Changes field says.

9. Progress file is ground truth. Resume uses the progress file, not git log.

10. No sub-agents. The executor reads and implements directly. No Agent tool, no TeamCreate, no delegation. Enforced (not just documented) via disallowed-tools: Agent, TeamCreate in the frontmatter, which removes both tools from the pool — allowed-tools alone does not, since omission leaves a tool callable (CC 2.1.152).

11. Worktree isolation is mandatory for multi-session execution. Every session order names its own git worktree. Never run two or more sessions in the same working directory. This rule has no exceptions. Sequential (single-session) execution does not require worktrees.

12. Worktree cleanup always runs, and never with force. Before producing the final report (Phase 8), remove the worktrees and merged session branches created during this execution, even if the run failed or was stopped — but only with git worktree remove without force and git branch -d. A worktree git refuses to remove or a branch it refuses to delete holds work: keep it, never retry with force, and list it in the final report with what the user can do (Phase 2.6 Step 5). Every unmerged trek/{slug}/* branch survives every failure path. The one exception to running cleanup: never while a wave awaits its sessions — a run that stops at Phase 2.6 Step 2, or at a Step 3 that finds a session running or a dirty or refused merge, writes no Phase 8 report and leaves every worktree and branch in place.

13. Merge sequentially, abort on conflict. After a parallel wave completes, merge each session's branch into the main branch one at a time with --no-ff. If any merge produces a conflict, run git merge --abort, report the conflicting files, and do not attempt further merges. Never use --force or --strategy-option theirs/ours to silently resolve conflicts.

14. Verify command security check. Before executing any Verify: or Checkpoint: command, check it against the executor security denylist (Sub-step D). If the command matches a blocked pattern, escalate immediately — do not execute, do not retry.

15. No writing outside the repository. During step execution, never write files outside the git repository root (git rev-parse --show-toplevel). Exception: .claude/ paths for plans, progress files, and stats, AND ~/.claude/projects/*/memory/ paths for memory files when the step's manifest declares memory_write: true. The memory_write: true opt-in is a second gate: unauthorized memory writes still fail. This prevents escape-from-repo attacks where a plan step modifies home directory or system files, while permitting the narrow case of deliberate memory updates.

16. No writing to security-sensitive paths. Never write to .git/hooks/ (git hook injection), ~/.ssh/, ~/.aws/, ~/.gnupg/, .env files, shell configs (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile), or .claude/settings.json / .claude/hooks/ (infrastructure self-modification).

17. Manifest is the completion predicate. A step may not be marked passed if its manifest does not verify, regardless of the Verify command's exit code. The manifest is the objective contract — Verify is necessary but not sufficient. For v1.7+ plans: a Verify pass with a manifest fail sets step result to failed and triggers the On-failure clause. For legacy v1.6 plans: synthesized manifests apply with the same force, but legacy_plan: true is logged in progress.

18. Last-activity rule + stop-signal. The executor's final tool call before writing Phase 8 must be a manifest check (Phase 7.5 audit), never an arbitrary file review. This prevents the "hallucinated completion" failure mode where a transcript ends on an unrelated Read and the agent self-reports completed without verifying. If Phase 7.5 has not run, the executor may not emit result: completed under any circumstances. Beyond that: result: completed requires the machine-verifiable completion gate (the stop-signal contract, Phase 7.5) satisfied in full — Phase 7.5 audit PASS and an objective stop-signal (Verify exit 0 / DONE token emitted AFTER the audit), never executor self-assessment alone.

19. push-before-cleanup. After successful git merge --no-ff of a wave branch, run git push origin <branch> BEFORE git worktree remove and git branch -d. Push failure is non-fatal (no remote, offline, etc.) — cleanup proceeds regardless. Rationale: this converts an unrecoverable failure (worktree removed, branch deleted, work lost) into a recoverable one (push succeeded, branch preserved on remote). Source: research/02 R3.

20. Three distinct iteration axes. Per-step attempts (≤3), per-session recovery_depth (<2), and the global TREKEXECUTE_MAX_RECOVERY_ITERATIONS budget (default 25 — aggregate recovery+retry backstop) are independent bounds, not one nested counter. Every recovery/retry loop is bounded by at least one of them. See "Iteration caps + global recovery/retry budget".

21. Never start Claude Code. No claude CLI invocation, no Agent SDK, no background process that runs a session — not for waves, not for recovery, not for a test. Work that needs another session becomes a session order plus a starter line the user gives a session they open themselves (Phase 2.6, Phase 7.6).