/autoresearch-multi — Multi-Campaign Orchestration

Decompose a broad optimization goal into focused campaigns, dispatch them in parallel via subagents, monitor progress, and synthesize results.

Announce at start: "I'm using the autoresearch-multi skill to orchestrate a multi-campaign optimization."

When to Use

Use this skill when a single /autoresearch loop is insufficient because the goal spans multiple dimensions. Examples:

• Optimize both test speed AND binary size for the same module
• Compare multiple approaches to the same problem (e.g., caching vs. batching vs. parallelism)
• Run comparative experiments across different metrics or configurations
• Explore a hypothesis from multiple angles simultaneously
• Broad module optimization where several independent subsystems can be improved in parallel

Do NOT use this skill for simple, single-metric optimization — use /autoresearch directly instead.

Prerequisites

Required Tools

The interlab MCP tools must be available:

• Campaign orchestration: plan_campaigns, dispatch_campaigns, status_campaigns, synthesize_campaigns
• Single-campaign tools: init_experiment, run_experiment, log_experiment

Verify with a quick mental check: can you see these tools in your tool list? If not, the interlab plugin is not loaded — stop and tell the user.

Required Capabilities

• Subagent spawning (to dispatch parallel /autoresearch loops)
• Access to the target codebase with write permissions

Phase 1: Analyze

Read the codebase and identify optimization targets.

Step 1: Understand the Goal

Ask the user (or infer from context):

• What broad goal to pursue (e.g., "make the Skaffen agent faster and smaller")
• Which module(s) are in scope
• What constraints apply globally (tests must pass, no API changes, etc.)
• How many campaigns they expect (or let you decompose freely)

Step 2: Identify Targets

Read the codebase to identify independent optimization dimensions:

• Profile the module for distinct subsystems (build, runtime, tests, etc.)
• Identify metrics that can be optimized independently
• Map file ownership — which files belong to which campaign
• Flag files that multiple campaigns might want to touch (conflict zones)

Step 3: Write the Living Document

Create interlab-multi.md in the working directory:

# interlab-multi: <broad goal>

## Objective
<what we're optimizing across multiple campaigns and why>

## Campaigns

| # | Name | Metric | Direction | Status | Best |
|---|------|--------|-----------|--------|------|
| 1 | <name> | <metric> | lower/higher | planned | — |
| 2 | <name> | <metric> | lower/higher | planned | — |

## File Ownership
- **Campaign 1**: <files>
- **Campaign 2**: <files>
- **Shared (conflict zone)**: <files needing coordination>

## Global Constraints
<hard rules that apply across all campaigns>

## Progress Log
<updated as campaigns dispatch, complete, or produce insights>

Phase 2: Plan

Step 1: Call plan_campaigns

Prepare a decomposition JSON and call plan_campaigns:

{
  "goal": "<broad optimization goal>",
  "campaigns": [
    {
      "name": "<campaign-name>",
      "metric_name": "<primary metric>",
      "metric_unit": "<unit>",
      "direction": "lower_is_better | higher_is_better",
      "benchmark_command": "<command>",
      "files_in_scope": ["<file1>", "<file2>"],
      "constraints": ["<constraint1>"]
    }
  ]
}

Design campaigns so that:

• Each campaign optimizes one primary metric
• File scopes are disjoint wherever possible
• Each campaign can run independently without blocking others

Step 2: Resolve File Conflicts

If two campaigns need to modify the same file:

1. Prefer splitting — can the file be refactored so each campaign owns distinct sections?
2. Serialize — mark one campaign as depends_on the other, so they run sequentially
3. Shared constraint — allow both but add a constraint that neither may change the shared file's public API

Document the resolution in interlab-multi.md under "File Ownership".

Step 3: Write Benchmark Scripts

For each campaign, write (or verify) a benchmark script that outputs METRIC name=value lines. Name them distinctly:

interlab-<campaign-name>.sh

Each script must be independent — no shared state between campaign benchmarks.

Phase 3: Dispatch

Step 1: Call dispatch_campaigns

Call dispatch_campaigns to register all planned campaigns and mark them as ready for execution.

Step 2: Spawn Subagents

For each campaign in ready status, spawn a subagent with instructions to:

1. Run the /autoresearch skill
2. Use the campaign-specific benchmark script
3. Respect the campaign's file scope and constraints
4. Write results to the campaign's own interlab.md and interlab.jsonl

Each subagent operates in isolation — it runs a full /autoresearch loop for its assigned campaign.

Step 3: Update Living Document

Update interlab-multi.md:

• Set campaign statuses to running
• Log dispatch timestamps
• Note which subagent is handling which campaign

Phase 4: Monitor

Step 1: Poll Status

Periodically call status_campaigns to check progress across all campaigns:

• Which campaigns are still running
• Which have completed (hit exit conditions)
• Current best metric values per campaign
• Any crashes or stuck campaigns

Step 2: Update Living Document

After each status check, update interlab-multi.md:

• Refresh the campaigns table with current status and best values
• Add progress notes to the log
• Flag any campaigns that appear stuck (no improvement for many iterations)

Step 3: Handle Completions

When a campaign completes:

1. Read its results (interlab.jsonl, interlab.md)
2. Check if its results affect other running campaigns
3. If a completed campaign unlocked a depends_on campaign, dispatch the dependent
4. Re-dispatch if a campaign crashed and retries are warranted

Step 4: Cross-Campaign Insights

If one campaign discovers something relevant to another:

• Add the insight to the dependent campaign's interlab.ideas.md
• Do NOT modify a running campaign's code or configuration directly — let the subagent pick up the idea on its next iteration

Phase 5: Synthesize

Step 1: Call synthesize_campaigns

Once all campaigns have completed (or been stopped), call synthesize_campaigns to aggregate results.

Step 2: Write Final Summary

Update interlab-multi.md with:

## Final Summary

### Overall Results
- **Campaigns**: <total> (<completed>/<stopped>/<crashed>)
- **Total experiments**: <sum across campaigns>

### Per-Campaign Results
| # | Name | Baseline | Best | Improvement | Experiments |
|---|------|----------|------|-------------|-------------|
| 1 | <name> | <value> | <value> | <delta> (<pct>%) | <count> |

### Cross-Campaign Insights
- <insight that emerged from comparing campaign results>

### Key Wins
- <top changes across all campaigns>

### Recommendations
- <what to do next, what wasn't explored, what needs human review>

Step 3: Archive

For each campaign, archive results to campaigns/<name>/:

• Copy interlab.jsonl to campaigns/<name>/results.jsonl
• Write campaigns/<name>/learnings.md with validated insights

Update campaigns/README.md index table with all campaign summary rows.

Clean up working directory: remove per-campaign interlab.jsonl, interlab.md, and benchmark scripts.

Keep interlab-multi.md as the permanent multi-campaign record.

Step 4: Broadcast Aggregate Results (if interlock available)

After synthesis completes, broadcast the campaign results so future sessions benefit:

1. For each campaign that improved its metric, call broadcast_message with:

   • topic: "mutation"
   • subject: "[multi:<parent_bead>] <campaign_name> improved <metric> by <delta>%"
   • body: JSON with the best approach for each campaign (task_type, hypothesis, quality_signal, campaign_id)

2. This is best-effort — failure does not block synthesis completion.

Exit Conditions

Stop orchestration when ANY of these are true:

• All campaigns complete: Every campaign has hit an exit condition (circuit breaker, convergence, ideas exhausted)
• User interrupts: User explicitly asks to stop
• No progress for 3 cycles: Three consecutive status checks show no metric improvement across ANY campaign
• Global constraint violated: A cross-campaign invariant breaks (e.g., combined binary size exceeds budget)

Resuming

If interlab-multi.md already exists when this skill is invoked:

1. Read interlab-multi.md for full context
2. Call status_campaigns to check current state
3. Re-dispatch any campaigns that were running but whose subagents are no longer active
4. Continue monitoring from Phase 4

Do not re-plan. Do not re-dispatch completed campaigns.

Rules

These are non-negotiable:

1. One subagent per campaign. Never run two subagents on the same campaign. Never have one subagent handle multiple campaigns.
2. Let /autoresearch handle experiments. This skill orchestrates campaigns — it does not run experiments directly. Each subagent runs its own /autoresearch loop.
3. Update the living document. Every status change, dispatch, completion, and insight gets logged in interlab-multi.md. This is the coordination record.
4. Don't modify campaign internals. Never edit a running campaign's code, benchmark script, or JSONL. The subagent owns its campaign's working state.
5. Disjoint file scopes. Design campaigns so they don't fight over the same files. When overlap is unavoidable, serialize or add shared constraints.
6. Cross-pollinate via ideas files. If campaign A discovers something useful for campaign B, write it to B's interlab.ideas.md — don't modify B's code directly.
7. Never ask to continue. The orchestration loop runs until an exit condition fires. Trust the per-campaign circuit breakers and the global progress check.

Common Mistakes

Overlapping file scopes without coordination

• Problem: Two campaigns edit the same file, creating merge conflicts or invalidating each other's results
• Fix: Map file ownership during Phase 2, serialize or split conflicting scopes

Running experiments directly instead of delegating

• Problem: This skill tries to edit code and run benchmarks itself
• Fix: This skill only orchestrates. Subagents running /autoresearch do the actual work.

Ignoring cross-campaign interactions

• Problem: Campaign A's optimization breaks campaign B's assumptions
• Fix: Check for interactions during Phase 4 monitoring, propagate insights via ideas files

Re-dispatching completed campaigns

• Problem: Wastes compute re-running campaigns that already converged
• Fix: Only re-dispatch if explicitly asked or if new information invalidates prior results

Forgetting to update interlab-multi.md

• Problem: Lose track of multi-campaign progress, duplicate work across sessions
• Fix: Update after every status check, dispatch, and completion