name: conductor description: Validate, run, and execute workflows; creating new workflows when explicitly asked. Use when orchestrating AI agents via YAML workflow files, executing an existing workflow, debugging execution, configuring routing between agents, setting up human-in-the-loop gates, or understanding workflow YAML schema. Only create new workflows when explicitly asked.

Conductor

CLI tool for defining and running multi-agent workflows with the GitHub Copilot SDK or Anthropic Claude.

DO NOT create new workflow files unless the user explicitly asks you to create one. Default to running, validating, or debugging existing workflows. If the user's request is ambiguous, assume they want to run or modify an existing workflow rather than create a new one.

Error Handling

CRITICAL — do NOT improvise workarounds. If conductor fails for any reason (installation failure, provider error, missing dependency, platform bug), you MUST:

1. Report the exact error to the user — include the full error message.
2. Stop and wait for user direction. Do NOT attempt to simulate, replicate, or approximate the multi-agent workflow yourself. The value of this skill is the structured multi-agent orchestration — a single-agent attempt is not an equivalent substitute.

Setup

Conductor is installed automatically when needed. If a conductor command fails with "command not found", install it. For installation instructions, see references/setup.md.

Quick Reference

conductor run workflow.yaml --input question="Hello"     # Execute (full output by default)
conductor run workflow.yaml -q --input question="Hello"  # Quiet: lifecycle + routing only
conductor run workflow.yaml -s --input question="Hello"  # Silent: JSON result only
conductor run workflow.yaml --log-file auto               # Log full debug output to file
conductor run workflow.yaml --web --input q="Hello"       # Real-time web dashboard
conductor run workflow.yaml --web-bg --input q="Hello"    # Background mode (prints URL, exits)
conductor validate workflow.yaml                         # Validate only
conductor registry add official myorg/workflows --default # Add a registry
conductor registry list official                          # List registry workflows
conductor run qa-bot@official@1.0.0 --input q="Hello"    # Run from registry
conductor stop                                           # Stop background workflow
conductor update                                         # Check for and install latest version
conductor resume workflow.yaml                           # Resume from last checkpoint
conductor checkpoints                                    # List available checkpoints

Full output is shown by default. Use -q (quiet) for minimal output or -s (silent) for JSON-only.

When to Use Each Guide

Creating or modifying workflows? → See references/authoring.md

• Agent definitions, prompts, and output schemas
• Routing patterns (linear, conditional, loop-back)
• Parallel and for-each groups
• Human gates
• Context modes and MCP servers
• Cost tracking configuration

Running or debugging workflows? → See references/execution.md

• CLI options and flags (run, resume, checkpoints, stop, update)
• Debugging techniques
• Error troubleshooting
• Checkpoint/resume after failures
• Environment setup and providers

Need complete YAML schema? → See references/yaml-schema.md

• All configuration fields with types and defaults
• Validation rules
• Type definitions

Minimal Workflow Example

workflow:
  name: my-workflow
  entry_point: answerer
  input:
    question: { type: string }

agents:
  - name: answerer
    prompt: "Answer: {{ workflow.input.question }}"
    output:
      answer: { type: string }
    routes:
      - to: $end

output:
  answer: "{{ answerer.output.answer }}"

For runtime config, context modes, limits, and cost tracking, see references/authoring.md.

Key Concepts

For pattern examples (linear, loop, conditional, parallel, for-each, human gate) and template syntax, see references/authoring.md.