Follow one task from the moment it's dispatched to the moment it lands back in RoadWork — and see the only point where the console asks you for anything. Every step drills into the two console concepts, the matching diagram, and the requirements + test cases.
Agent Engine is three surfaces, one engine: RoadWork tracks the work · Pulse lets you watch it move · ExMan is the console you drive it from.
Open the landing to see where this sits — the ratified flow is Blueprint decides → RoadWork tracks → Agent Engine executes. Everything below is the "executes" half, opened up.
A task arrives from RoadWork's queue (or a PM / MEET relay). The engine reuses an idle worker or spawns one — you never pick a worker.
The concurrency is capped at four. A message from MEET (which runs in a claude.ai browser tab, outside the engine's reach) crosses in through a file-inbox bridge — it writes one line to an inbox file the engine tails and types into PM. That crossing is the single biggest daily copy-paste, and it dies here.
ExMan hosts a Claude Code terminal that runs the local claude — on your Claude subscription. The console never calls the API.
The security invariant that makes "no API" true: a controller can only read another terminal's scrollback and type into it — no shell, no file write, no network. The routing brain's output can only ever become typed text into a terminal that already exists. There's no API key anywhere in the console.
The wall shows one summary card per terminal — name, task, a state glyph, its last emit, and a timestamp. Summaries by default, not a wall of live streams.
State is carried by four channels at once — shape + word + lightness + motion — never colour alone, never red/green. Every card field is a system-verifiable fact; a field with no real source hides rather than showing a fabricated number.
Stay on the summaries by default; click (or keyboard) any card to open the actual live terminal — because you asked for it on purpose.
The two concepts diverge here: Concept A opens a right drawer; Concept B opens an inline panel below the rail. Either way it's the same live read of the same terminal — and opening a second card closes the first, so the wall never becomes N live streams. An empty terminal reads "No output yet," never invented text.
Who's talking to whom, in one feed — a hosted-terminal hop and an external inbox hop render identically, because both use one message shape.
The inspector reads only real logged hops — orchestration-log for hosted terminals plus the inbox bridge for outside ones — in the shape {from, to, kind, body, ts, token}. A blocked "needs you" hop is marked by shape and word, never colour alone. Concept A draws it as a docked list; Concept B as a timeline spine.
Only the things that truly need you, batched: merges, approvals, deploys, SQL runbooks. The machine surfaces the exact command and never runs it.
Every card is a real judgment tagged "your click / your hands · SO #30". Defaultable choices never appear here. The honest best state is empty — "You're clear — 0 actions." Concept A docks the tray and lets it rise to a banner when something's pending; Concept B makes it the full-width hero and collapses it to a slim bar when clear.
The worker writes its done-file; the console reads it (a signal, not a timer) and the card flips to Done; the RoadWork lane updates — and the loop closes.
Done-detection is signal-based, never timing-based: the worker writes .exman-done-<token>.json as its last step and the controller reads that one known file — reflow-proof and echo-proof. RoadWork is the truth for work; if a view ever disagrees with it, RoadWork wins.
Both render the same four elements with the same invariants; they differ only in what leads and where each sits. The build proceeds identically on whichever you pick — nothing in the requirements depends on the choice.
| Shared element | Concept A · Mission Control recommended | Concept B · Signal Bar alternative |
|---|---|---|
| The wall | Grid of summary cards — the hero; the floor leads | Horizontal rail of compact cards below the desk |
| Live terminal | Right drawer (modal · scrim · Escape) | Inline panel below the rail (in-flow) |
| Routing inspector | Docked list in the right rail | Drawn timeline spine (right column) |
| Action tray | Docked; rises to a banner when pending, recedes when clear | Full-width "Your Desk" hero; collapses to a slim bar when clear |
| Character | Calm, scannable, you-as-observer | Attention-first, opinionated, louder |
APPROVED <class>
◆ SQL / database
◆ Deploys
stay your hands · SO #30