/swarm — Portfolio-Wide PD Dispatch

What it does: Spawns all active PDs in parallel, each in an isolated subagent context. The parent session only holds the digest — not the full PD briefs. Fast and cheap.

Command Variants

Command	Question sent to each PD
/swarm	What are you currently working on? Any blockers? ETA for next deliverable?
/swarm-blocker	What is your current blocker? Who owns it? What's the workaround or path to resolution?
/swarm-continue	What can continue without you? Any pre-reqs you need from others?
/swarm-priority	What are your top 3 priorities right now? Any priority conflicts with other PDs?
/swarm-all	Full status dump — current work, blockers, wins, decisions pending, next steps.

How It Works

Step 1 — Discover PDs

Read ~/.claude/teams/agency-council/config.json. Extract member names that end in -pd (Project Directors). These are the inbox names for SendMessage.

For each PD, derive their project directory:

~/.claude/projects/{project-name}/   (most PDs)
~/Projects/{project-name}/memory/     (ltv)
~/projects/{project-name}/memory/     (website-pitch, sightsee)

If a PD has no known project, skip them.

Step 2 — Dispatch All PDs in Parallel

Spawn one pd-coordinator subagent per PD. Each agent:

• Sets team_name: agency-council (so it can send back via SendMessage)
• Sets run_in_background: true
• Receives only: their inbox name, project directory, and the question
• Does NOT load the full PD-BRIEFING — only reads heartbeat.md and the question
• Responds directly to team-lead via SendMessage with a one-line status

Agent prompt for each PD:

You are checking in on {project-name} as a swarm dispatch from /swarm.

Do NOT load PD-BRIEFING.md or any other briefing files.
Read only: {project-dir}/memory/heartbeat.md

Answer this question in ONE LINE (under 80 chars for status/blocker, up to 2 lines for continue):
{question}

Include your PD name at the start of your response.
Send your response via SendMessage to "team-lead".

Example response format:
examplecrm-pd: BLOCKED — Railway auth needed from the operator; workaround is local dev

Subagent config:

• subagent_type: Explore
• model: sonnet

Step 3 — Wait for Responses

Wait for all spawned agents to complete (they send back via SendMessage).

Step 4 — Handle Silent PDs

If a PD does not respond within the agent's reasonable run time:

1. Note: ⚠️ {pd-name} silent — respawned
2. Re-spawn the same PD agent once
3. If still silent after respawn: note ❌ {pd-name} did not respond after respawn

Step 5 — Present Digest

Format the digest as:

## /swarm — {command-variant} — {timestamp}

### Responding ({n})
| PD | Project | Response |
|----|---------|----------|
| {pd-name} | {project} | {one-line status} |

### Silent / Respawned ({n})
| PD | Project | Status |
|----|---------|--------|
| {pd-name} | {project} | silent → respawned / no response |

### Portfolio Summary
{1-2 sentence synthesis}

Dispatch Isolation

Each PD agent runs in a completely isolated context:

• Only reads heartbeat.md (not the full CLAUDE.md/PROJECT.md/PROJECT-BRIEFING)
• No shared state between agents
• No mutual blocking between agents
• Parent session holds zero PD context until responses arrive

PD Standard Protocol — Also Applies Here

Even for one-shot /swarm dispatches, PDs that receive work items must:

1. Decompose tasks into smallest independent sub-tasks
2. Parallelize — spawn one subagent per sub-task simultaneously
3. Report every sub-task completion to "team-lead" via SendMessage immediately

If a PD receives a task during a swarm check-in (not just a status query), apply the full PD Standard Protocol from /pd-resume.

PD Directory Map

PD	Project Directory
my-app-pd	~/.claude/projects/my-app/
example-crm-pd	~/.claude/projects/example-crm/
landing-site-pd	~/projects/landing-site/

If a project directory doesn't exist, skip that PD silently.

Anti-Patterns

• DO NOT load all PD-BRIEFING files into the parent session before spawning
• DO NOT run PDs sequentially — that defeats the purpose
• DO NOT aggregate in the parent session — let each PD speak for themselves
• DO NOT include CLAUDE.md or PROJECT.md content in the digest — heartbeat only
• DO NOT chase silent PDs more than once — note and move on