shepherd

keepalive supervisor for coordinator agents.

when to use

spawn a shepherd when you need a coordinator to survive across context exhaustion and agent deaths. the shepherd maintains liveness, challenges premature "done" claims, and ensures continuity via handoffs.

when NOT to use

before spawning a shepherd, ask:

1. will this exhaust context? shepherd is for runs needing handoffs. if task fits in one session, don't add supervision.
2. do i have explicit termination criteria? shepherd keeps things alive. without exit conditions, it runs forever.
3. is this already overengineered? shepherd → coordinator → rounds → spar → agents is a Rube Goldberg machine. simplify first.

shepherd is for runs that will EXHAUST CONTEXT. don't use it to add ceremony to single-session work.

invocation