orchestrator

Orchestrator

Purpose

Route YouTube production work to the correct role, scaffold project state, and track cross-role handoffs.

Use When

• Starting a new video project
• Resuming an in-progress project
• Unclear which role owns a task
• Running a multi-role workflow (e.g., ideation through publishing)
• Weekly planning or postmortem review

Do Not Use When

• You already know the target role — call it directly
• The request is a one-off question with no state to persist

Inputs

• $ARGUMENTS: project ID, video title, or free-text request
• Existing project folders in state/projects/

Outputs

• Project folder scaffolded at state/projects/<project-id>/
• Role task files updated in state/roles/<role>/inbox.md
• Updated state/projects/<project-id>/status.md

Procedure

1. Resolve project

Check if $ARGUMENTS matches an existing project folder under state/projects/.

• If yes: load state/projects/<id>/status.md to resume.
• If no: create a new project. Generate an ID as YYYY-MM-<slug> (e.g., 2026-06-ep14-pricing). Scaffold the folder:

state/projects/<id>/
  brief.md
  outline.md
  script.md
  edit-notes.md
  thumbnail-options.md
  publish-plan.md
  postmortem.md
  status.md
  activity.log

Write initial status.md:

# <Title>
ID: <id>
Created: <date>
Stage: INTAKE
Roles active: none

2. Classify the request

Map the request to one or more roles:

Intent	Role
Idea, angle, calendar, brief	producer
Script, hook, outline, research	writer
Pacing, cut list, edit notes	editor
Thumbnail, title, packaging	thumbnail
Distribution, repurposing, analytics	growth
Retrospective, postmortem	orchestrator
Weekly planning	orchestrator → all roles

3. Dispatch to role

Write the task into the target role's inbox:

state/roles/<role>/inbox.md
---
task: <description>
project: <id>
priority: <high|normal>
added: <ISO date>
---

Then invoke the appropriate skill: /youtube-team-os:<role>

4. Track progress

After each role completes, update state/projects/<id>/status.md:

• Set the current stage
• Note which deliverable was produced
• Log entry in activity.log

Stages in order: INTAKE → BRIEF → OUTLINE → SCRIPT → EDIT → THUMBNAIL → PUBLISH → POSTMORTEM

5. Weekly planning mode

When asked to plan the week:

1. List all open projects in state/projects/ where status.md shows an incomplete stage.
2. List all role inboxes with pending items.
3. Produce state/notes/weekly-plan-<YYYY-WNN>.md with priorities.

Quality Gates

• Every project has a folder and a status.md
• No role receives a task without a project ID
• Stage transitions are logged to activity.log
• Deliverables are named and placed correctly before advancing stage

Failure Modes

Failure	Correction
No project ID provided	Generate one from title/date
Ambiguous role assignment	Assign to producer for intake
Missing deliverable from previous stage	Block advance; re-dispatch to prior role
state/ folder missing	Create it; log warning to records/session.log