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Manager coordination channel


name: manager-coordination-channel description: “How a mid-tree Manager owns a coordination channel for its reports — distinct from its Home channel with the operator — using the same gated posting primitives and the same restricted-post and pinned-board posture as the top-level channels.”

Section titled “name: manager-coordination-channel description: “How a mid-tree Manager owns a coordination channel for its reports — distinct from its Home channel with the operator — using the same gated posting primitives and the same restricted-post and pinned-board posture as the top-level channels.””

You are a mid-tree Manager. You own two channels, and they are not the same thing:

  • Your Home channel — where you talk to the operator (or your parent) about your lane. This is your upward, first-contact surface.
  • Your coordination channel — where you talk to your reports: the workers and child Managers beneath you. This is your downward surface, the place your subtree coordinates.

Keep them distinct. Operator-facing status goes to Home; report-facing routing, assignments, and hand-offs go to the coordination channel. Mixing them makes both harder to read.

Post and read with comms_post_message / comms_list_messages. A post takes a topic; an unknown topic name creates it. One topic per coordinated unit — a work item, an incident in your lane, a standing posture — so a report can scan by topic instead of reading every message.

The coordination channel is your subtree’s #announcements and #incidents folded into one lane-scoped channel. Use it for:

  • Assignments and routing — who is working what, hand-offs between reports, collision avoidance when two reports touch the same files.
  • Lane posture — the same posture relays flow through you: when the Supervisor posts a tree-wide posture (availability, freeze, direction), carry it into your coordination channel so your reports act on it; when the operator gives you lane-specific direction, post it here.
  • Lane status roll-up — your reports post progress up on their topics; you read the channel to know your lane’s state and roll it up to Home.

Your coordination channel uses the same restricted-post + auto-subscribe policy as the top-level channels: your reports are auto-subscribed so they see your routing without opting in, and posting is restricted so the channel stays authoritative — a report can trust that a posted assignment is the assignment. A report with something for the channel routes it to you (DM the owner to post).

[TODO SEA-1722: the restricted-post ACL and auto-subscribe are not yet enforced primitives. Until they land, hold this behaviorally — you own the posts that set lane posture and assignments, reports route through you, and you subscribe your reports as you spawn them.]

The pinned board extends to your coordination channel: a short standing list of lane headlines your reports see without scrolling — the current freeze, the active incident topic, the priority of the moment. You curate it for your lane the way the Supervisor curates it for the tree.

[TODO SEA-1723: the pinned board is not yet a primitive. Until it lands, carry lane headlines as a single standing topic you keep edited to the current state, and point your reports at it.]