Work Execution Command

Execute work efficiently while maintaining quality and finishing features.

Introduction

This command takes a work document (plan or specification) or a bare prompt describing the work, and executes it systematically. The focus is on shipping complete features by understanding requirements quickly, following existing patterns, and maintaining quality throughout.

Beta rollout note: Invoke ce-work-beta manually when you want to trial Codex delegation. During the beta period, planning and workflow handoffs remain pointed at stable ce-work to avoid dual-path orchestration complexity.

Input Document

<input_document> #$ARGUMENTS </input_document>

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS for the following optional tokens. Strip each recognized token before interpreting the remainder as the plan file path or bare prompt.

Token	Example	Effect
delegate:codex	delegate:codex	Activate Codex delegation mode for plan execution
delegate:local	delegate:local	Deactivate delegation even if enabled in config

All tokens are optional. When absent, fall back to the resolution chain below.

Fuzzy activation: Also recognize imperative delegation-intent phrases such as "use codex", "delegate to codex", "codex mode", or "delegate mode" as equivalent to delegate:codex. A bare mention of "codex" in a prompt (e.g., "fix codex converter bugs") must NOT activate delegation -- only clear delegation intent triggers it.

Fuzzy deactivation: Also recognize phrases such as "no codex", "local mode", "standard mode" as equivalent to delegate:local.

Settings Resolution Chain

After extracting tokens from arguments, resolve the delegation state using this precedence chain:

1. Argument flag -- delegate:codex or delegate:local from the current invocation (highest priority)
2. Config file -- extract settings from the config block below. Value codex for work_delegate activates delegation; false deactivates.
3. Hard default -- false (delegation off)

Config (pre-resolved): !(top=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null); [ -n "$top" ] && cat "$top/.compound-engineering/config.local.yaml" 2>/dev/null) || echo '__NO_CONFIG__'

If the block above contains YAML key-value pairs, extract values for the keys listed below. If it shows __NO_CONFIG__, the file does not exist — all settings fall through to defaults. If it shows an unresolved command string, read .compound-engineering/config.local.yaml from the repo root using the native file-read tool (e.g., Read in Claude Code, read_file in Codex). If the file does not exist, all settings fall through to defaults.

If any setting has an unrecognized value, fall through to the hard default for that setting. For optional settings without a hard default (work_delegate_model, work_delegate_effort), an unrecognized or unparseable value resolves to unset — the corresponding flag is omitted from the codex exec invocation so Codex resolves from ~/.codex/config.toml. Never substitute an invalid value into the CLI flags.

Config keys:

• work_delegate -- codex or default false
• work_delegate_consent -- true or default false
• work_delegate_sandbox -- yolo (default) or full-auto
• work_delegate_decision -- auto (default) or ask
• work_delegate_model -- Codex model to use. Optional — when unset or unparseable, defers to the user's ~/.codex/config.toml default. Passthrough — any non-empty string is accepted as valid; only YAML parse failures or empty values resolve to unset.
• work_delegate_effort -- one of minimal, low, medium, high, or xhigh. Optional — when unset or set to a value outside this enum, resolves to unset and defers to the user's ~/.codex/config.toml default.

Store the resolved state for downstream consumption:

• delegation_active -- boolean, whether delegation mode is on
• delegation_source -- argument or config or default -- how delegation was resolved (used by environment guard to decide notification verbosity)
• sandbox_mode -- yolo or full-auto (from config or default yolo)
• consent_granted -- boolean (from config work_delegate_consent)
• delegate_model -- string from config, or unset (defer to Codex config)
• delegate_effort -- string from config, or unset (defer to Codex config)

---

Execution Workflow

Phase 0: Input Triage

Determine how to proceed based on what was provided in <input_document>.

Plan document (input is a file path to an existing plan or specification) → skip to Phase 1.

Bare prompt (input is a description of work, not a file path):

1. Scan the work area

   • Identify files likely to change based on the prompt
   • Find existing test files for those areas (search for test/spec files that import, reference, or share names with the implementation files)
   • Note local patterns and conventions in the affected areas

2. Assess complexity and route

   Complexity	Signals	Action
   Trivial	1-2 files, no behavioral change (typo, config, rename)	Proceed to Phase 1 step 2 (environment setup), then implement directly — no task list, no execution loop. Apply Test Discovery if the change touches behavior-bearing code
   Small / Medium	Clear scope, under ~10 files	Build a task list from discovery. Proceed to Phase 1 step 2
   Large	Cross-cutting, architectural decisions, 10+ files, touches auth/payments/migrations	Inform the user this would benefit from /ce-brainstorm or /ce-plan to surface edge cases and scope boundaries. Honor their choice. If proceeding, build a task list and continue to Phase 1 step 2

---

Phase 1: Quick Start

1. Read Plan and Clarify (skip if arriving from Phase 0 with a bare prompt)

   • Read the work document completely
   • Treat the plan as a decision artifact, not an execution script
   • If the plan includes sections such as Implementation Units, Work Breakdown, Requirements (or legacy Requirements Trace), Files, Test Scenarios, or Verification, use those as the primary source material for execution
   • Check for Execution note on each implementation unit — these carry the plan's execution posture signal for that unit (for example, test-first or characterization-first). Note them when creating tasks.
   • Check for a Deferred to Implementation or Implementation-Time Unknowns section — these are questions the planner intentionally left for you to resolve during execution. Note them before starting so they inform your approach rather than surprising you mid-task
   • Check for a Scope Boundaries section — these are explicit non-goals. Refer back to them if implementation starts pulling you toward adjacent work
   • Review any references or links provided in the plan
   • If the user explicitly asks for TDD, test-first, or characterization-first execution in this session, honor that request even if the plan has no Execution note
   • If anything is unclear or ambiguous, ask clarifying questions now
   • If clarifying questions were needed above, get user approval on the resolved answers. If no clarifications were needed, proceed without a separate approval step — plan scope is the plan's authority, not something to renegotiate
   • Do not skip this - better to ask questions now than build the wrong thing
   • Do not edit the plan body during execution. The plan is a decision artifact; progress lives in git commits and the task tracker. The only plan mutation during ce-work is the final status: active → completed flip at shipping (see references/shipping-workflow.md Phase 4 Step 2). Legacy plans may contain - [ ] / - [x] marks on unit headings — ignore them as state; per-unit completion is determined during execution by reading the current file state.

2. Setup Environment

   First, check the current branch:

   current_branch=$(git branch --show-current)
   default_branch=$(git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null | sed 's@^refs/remotes/origin/@@')
   
   # Fallback if remote HEAD isn't set
   if [ -z "$default_branch" ]; then
     default_branch=$(git rev-parse --verify origin/main >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "main" || echo "master")
   fi
   

   If already on a feature branch (not the default branch):

   First, check whether the branch name is meaningful — a name like feat/crowd-sniff or fix/email-validation tells future readers what the work is about. Auto-generated worktree names (e.g., worktree-jolly-beaming-raven) or other opaque names do not.

   If the branch name is meaningless or auto-generated, suggest renaming it before continuing:

   git branch -m <meaningful-name>
   

   Derive the new name from the plan title or work description (e.g., feat/crowd-sniff). Present the rename as a recommended option alongside continuing as-is.

   Then ask: "Continue working on [current_branch], or create a new branch?"

   • If continuing (with or without rename), proceed to step 3
   • If creating new, follow Option A or B below

   If on the default branch, choose how to proceed:

   Option A: Create a new branch

   git pull origin [default_branch]
   git checkout -b feature-branch-name
   

   Use a meaningful name based on the work (e.g., feat/user-authentication, fix/email-validation).

   Option B: Use a worktree (recommended for parallel development)

   skill: ce-worktree
   # The skill will create a new branch from the default branch in an isolated worktree
   

   Option C: Continue on the default branch

   • Requires explicit user confirmation
   • Only proceed after user explicitly says "yes, commit to [default_branch]"
   • Never commit directly to the default branch without explicit permission

   Recommendation: Use worktree if:

   • You want to work on multiple features simultaneously
   • You want to keep the default branch clean while experimenting
   • You plan to switch between branches frequently

3. Create Task List (skip if Phase 0 already built one, or if Phase 0 routed as Trivial)

   • Use the platform's task tracking tool (TaskCreate/TaskUpdate/TaskList in Claude Code, update_plan in Codex, or the equivalent on other harnesses) to break the plan into actionable tasks
   • Derive tasks from the plan's implementation units, dependencies, files, test targets, and verification criteria
   • When the plan defines U-IDs for Implementation Units, preserve the unit's U-ID as a prefix in the task subject (e.g., "U3: Add parser coverage"). This keeps blocker references, deferred-work notes, and final summaries anchored to the same identifier the plan uses, so progress and traceability remain unambiguous across plan edits
   • Carry each unit's Execution note into the task when present
   • For each unit, read the Patterns to follow field before implementing — these point to specific files or conventions to mirror
   • Use each unit's Verification field as the primary "done" signal for that task
   • Do not expect the plan to contain implementation code, micro-step TDD instructions, or exact shell commands
   • Include dependencies between tasks
   • Prioritize based on what needs to be done first
   • Include testing and quality check tasks
   • Keep tasks specific and completable

4. Choose Execution Strategy

   Delegation routing gate: If delegation_active is true AND the input is a plan file (not a bare prompt), read references/codex-delegation-workflow.md and follow its Pre-Delegation Checks and Delegation Decision flow. If all checks pass and delegation proceeds, force serial execution and proceed directly to Phase 2 using the workflow's batched execution loop. If any check disables delegation, fall through to the standard strategy table below. If delegation is active but the input is a bare prompt (no plan file), set delegation_active to false with a brief note: "Codex delegation requires a plan file -- using standard mode." and continue with the standard strategy selection below.

   After creating the task list, decide how to execute based on the plan's size and dependency structure:

   Strategy	When to use
   Inline	1-2 small tasks, or tasks needing user interaction mid-flight. Default for bare-prompt work — bare prompts rarely produce enough structured context to justify subagent dispatch
   Serial subagents	3+ tasks with dependencies between them. Each subagent gets a fresh context window focused on one unit — prevents context degradation across many tasks. Requires plan-unit metadata (Goal, Files, Approach, Test scenarios)
   Parallel subagents	3+ tasks that pass the Parallel Safety Check (below). Dispatch independent units simultaneously, run dependent units after their prerequisites complete. Requires plan-unit metadata

   Parallel Safety Check — required before choosing parallel dispatch:

   1. Build a file-to-unit mapping from every candidate unit's Files: section (Create, Modify, and Test paths)
   2. Check for intersection — any file path appearing in 2+ units means overlap
   3. If overlap is found AND worktree isolation is unavailable: downgrade to serial subagents. Log the reason (e.g., "Units 2 and 4 share config/routes.rb — using serial dispatch"). Serial subagents still provide context-window isolation without shared-directory write races.
   4. If overlap is found AND worktree isolation is available: parallel dispatch is still safe — subagents work in isolation, and the overlap surfaces as a predictable merge conflict the orchestrator handles via the post-batch flow below. Log the predicted overlap so the post-batch flow knows which merges to expect conflicts on.

   Even with no file overlap, parallel subagents sharing the orchestrator's working directory face git index contention (concurrent staging/committing corrupts the index) and test interference (concurrent test runs pick up each other's in-progress changes). Worktree isolation eliminates both; the shared-directory fallback constraints below mitigate them.

   Subagent isolation — give each parallel subagent its own working tree:

   • Claude Code (Agent tool): pass isolation: "worktree" and run_in_background: true. The harness creates a per-subagent worktree under .claude/worktrees/agent-<id> on its own branch. Verify .claude/worktrees/ is gitignored before relying on this.
   • Other platforms without built-in worktree isolation (e.g., Codex spawn_agent, Pi subagent): subagents share the orchestrator's directory.

   Subagent dispatch uses your available subagent or task spawning mechanism. For each unit, give the subagent:

   • The full plan file path (for overall context)
   • The specific unit's Goal, Files, Approach, Execution note, Patterns, Test scenarios, and Verification
   • Any resolved deferred questions relevant to that unit
   • Instruction to check whether the unit's test scenarios cover all applicable categories (happy paths, edge cases, error paths, integration) and supplement gaps before writing tests

   Shared-directory fallback constraints — apply only when worktree isolation is unavailable:

   • Instruct each subagent: "Do not stage files (git add), create commits, or run the project test suite. The orchestrator handles testing, staging, and committing after all parallel units complete."
   • These constraints prevent git index contention and test interference between concurrent subagents.
   • With worktree isolation active, omit these constraints — subagents may stage, commit, and run their unit's tests within their own worktree branch.

   Permission mode: Omit the mode parameter when dispatching subagents so the user's configured permission settings apply. Do not pass mode: "auto" — it overrides user-level settings like bypassPermissions.

   After each subagent completes (serial mode):

   1. Review the subagent's diff — verify changes match the unit's scope and Files: list
   2. Run the relevant test suite to confirm the tree is healthy
   3. If tests fail, diagnose and fix before proceeding — do not dispatch dependent units on a broken tree
   4. Update the task list (do not edit the plan body — progress is carried by the commit)
   5. Dispatch the next unit

   After all parallel subagents in a batch complete (worktree-isolated mode):

   1. Wait for every subagent in the current parallel batch to finish.
   2. For each completed subagent, in dependency order: review the worktree's diff against the orchestrator's branch. If the subagent did not commit its own work, stage and commit it inside that worktree.
   3. Merge each subagent's branch into the orchestrator's branch sequentially in dependency order. If a merge conflict surfaces, abort the merge (git merge --abort) and re-dispatch the conflicting unit serially against the now-merged tree — hand-resolving silently picks a side and discards one unit's intent. (Predicted overlap from the Parallel Safety Check surfaces here as a conflict, not as silent data loss in shared-directory mode.)
   4. After each merge, run the relevant test suite. If tests fail, diagnose and fix before merging the next branch.
   5. Update the task list (progress is carried by the merge commits).
   6. After merging, remove each subagent's worktree and delete its branch. Use the absolute path and branch name returned in the subagent's result.
      • Unlock the worktree first — the harness locks per-subagent worktrees: git worktree unlock <absolute-path>
      • Remove the worktree: git worktree remove <absolute-path>
      • Delete the branch: git branch -d <branch-name> (the branch outlives the worktree by default and accumulates as orphans if not cleaned up; -d lowercase refuses to delete unmerged branches, which is the safety we want — if it fails, investigate before forcing)
   7. Dispatch the next batch of independent units, or the next dependent unit.

   After all parallel subagents in a batch complete (shared-directory fallback):

   1. Wait for every subagent in the current parallel batch to finish before acting on any of their results
   2. Cross-check for discovered file collisions: compare the actual files modified by all subagents in the batch (not just their declared Files: lists). Subagents may create or modify files not anticipated during planning — this is expected, since plans describe what not how. A collision only matters when 2+ subagents in the same batch modified the same file. In a shared working directory, only the last writer's version survives — the other unit's changes to that file are lost. If a collision is detected: commit all non-colliding files from all units first, then re-run the affected units serially for the shared file so each builds on the other's committed work
   3. For each completed unit, in dependency order: review the diff, run the relevant test suite, stage only that unit's files, and commit with a conventional message derived from the unit's Goal
   4. If tests fail after committing a unit's changes, diagnose and fix before committing the next unit
   5. Update the task list (do not edit the plan body — progress is carried by the commits just made)
   6. Dispatch the next batch of independent units, or the next dependent unit

Phase 2: Execute

1. Task Execution Loop

   For each task in priority order:

   while (tasks remain):
     - Mark task as in-progress
     - Read any referenced files from the plan or discovered during Phase 0
     - **If the unit's work is already present and matches the plan's intent** (files exist with the expected capability, or the unit's `Verification` criteria are already satisfied by the current code), the work has likely shipped on a prior branch or session. Verify it matches, mark the task complete, and move on. Do not silently reimplement.
     - Look for similar patterns in codebase
     - Find existing test files for implementation files being changed (Test Discovery — see below)
     - If delegation_active: branch to the Codex Delegation Execution Loop
       (see `references/codex-delegation-workflow.md`)
     - Otherwise: implement following existing conventions
     - Add, update, or remove tests to match implementation changes (see Test Discovery below)
     - Run System-Wide Test Check (see below)
     - Run tests after changes
     - Assess testing coverage: did this task change behavior? If yes, were tests written or updated? If no tests were added, is the justification deliberate (e.g., pure config, no behavioral change)?
     - Mark task as completed
     - Evaluate for incremental commit (see below)
   

   When a unit carries an Execution note, honor it. For test-first units, write the failing test before implementation for that unit. For characterization-first units, capture existing behavior before changing it. For units without an Execution note, proceed pragmatically.

   Guardrails for execution posture:

   • Do not write the test and implementation in the same step when working test-first
   • Do not skip verifying that a new test fails before implementing the fix or feature
   • Do not over-implement beyond the current behavior slice when working test-first
   • Skip test-first discipline for trivial renames, pure configuration, and pure styling work

   Test Discovery — Before implementing changes to a file, find its existing test files (search for test/spec files that import, reference, or share naming patterns with the implementation file). When a plan specifies test scenarios or test files, start there, then check for additional test coverage the plan may not have enumerated. Changes to implementation files should be accompanied by corresponding test updates — new tests for new behavior, modified tests for changed behavior, removed or updated tests for deleted behavior.

   Test Scenario Completeness — Before writing tests for a feature-bearing unit, check whether the plan's Test scenarios cover all categories that apply to this unit. If a category is missing or scenarios are vague (e.g., "validates correctly" without naming inputs and expected outcomes), supplement from the unit's own context before writing tests:

   Category	When it applies	How to derive if missing
   Happy path	Always for feature-bearing units	Read the unit's Goal and Approach for core input/output pairs
   Edge cases	When the unit has meaningful boundaries (inputs, state, concurrency)	Identify boundary values, empty/nil inputs, and concurrent access patterns
   Error/failure paths	When the unit has failure modes (validation, external calls, permissions)	Enumerate invalid inputs the unit should reject, permission/auth denials it should enforce, and downstream failures it should handle
   Integration	When the unit crosses layers (callbacks, middleware, multi-service)	Identify the cross-layer chain and write a scenario that exercises it without mocks

   System-Wide Test Check — Before marking a task done, pause and ask: