Judge Round Reference

Execution detail for Steps 11–15 and 17 of skills/herdr-teamlead/SKILL.md. Read it only when Step 10 or Step 18 names a judge trigger. Modes, triggers and both report contracts are in skills/herdr-teamlead/references/round-flow.md "The Judge".

Step 11 — Compose the Judge Brief

For a dispute, compose from skills/herdr-teamlead/templates/brief-judge.md through Step 5: the dispute, both positions with report paths, the governing rule, the tree. Copy each position's cited evidence into POSITION_A_EVIDENCE and POSITION_B_EVIDENCE, or "none cited"; never supply citations of your own. INVESTIGATION_REPORT is the investigator's report after an insufficient ruling, otherwise "none".

For an exhausted allowance, compose from skills/herdr-teamlead/templates/brief-judge-diagnosis.md through Step 5 under the role key judge-diagnosis, which writes brief-judge-diagnosis.md: the assessed investigator report, the task, rounds spent, remaining blocking work, the per-round history, the tree, and any prior remedy with what it changed. The pinned seat is still judge, so plan and dispatch that role and pass this file as its brief: --brief judge=<outdir>/brief-judge-diagnosis.md.

Skip Step 6 for the read-only judge. Proceed immediately to Step 12.

Step 12 — Re-measure the Shared Window

Run the skill's Step 12 measure alone, not the preflight. Add the round's --config <config-file> when it is not the default. Emits and saves the snapshot under Step 2's headroom contract; exit 1 names failed_agents. Resolve any unreadable judge window before planning. Pass the fresh snapshot to Step 13; never reuse the earlier reading as affordability proof. Proceed immediately to Step 13.

Step 13 — Plan the Judge Seat

Plan the pinned judge against Step 12's fresh snapshot. Use the installed plan invocation in skills/herdr-teamlead/references/round-setup.md Step 3 with this argument synopsis:

plan [--config <config-file>] \
  --roles judge --judge-mode <adjudication|diagnosis> \
  --snapshot <step-12-measure-output> --task <task-id>

adjudication for a dispute, diagnosis for an exhausted allowance — the same choice Step 11 made when it composed the brief. Use the recorded mode in Steps 14 and 15. An undeclared mode is refused.

Exit 0 names the judge worker; proceed immediately to Step 14. On non-zero, report the diagnostic and finish here. Never substitute a judge, lower its tier, or hand-write an assignment to bypass the refusal.

Step 14 — Start the Judge Worker on Its Pinned Tier

For an existing judge worker, proceed to Step 15 with a clearing dispatch. For an empty shell pane, complete retrospective checks for the start and run the skill's Step 14 start-judge-worker.sh command.

It starts the pinned judge and verifies launch argv, on the mode Step 13 recorded in the plan. Pass the config Step 13 planned with; a judge tier, agent kind or launch options that differ from that file are refused. The script header owns the contract.

• Exit 0 — proceed immediately to Step 15 with --no-clear.
• Any non-zero — report the diagnostic and finish here without briefing the worker or overriding its tier.

Step 15 — Dispatch the Judge

Use Step 13's plan under Step 8's dispatch contract. Use the installed apply invocation in the skill's Step 8 with this argument synopsis:

apply [--config <config-file>] \
  --assignments <plan-file> \
  --brief judge=<round>-judge.md --report judge=<absolute-report-path> \
  --common <path-to-COMMON.md> --judge-mode <adjudication|diagnosis> \
  --task <task-id> [--no-clear]

Pass the same --judge-mode Step 13 planned. Step 8's outcomes govern. Use --no-clear only for the worker just started in Step 14; an existing judge receives the default cleared relaunch with retrospective coverage. Apply verifies the live tier before input. Proceed immediately to Step 16.

Step 17 — Act on the Ruling or Remedy

Apply the Ruling Outcomes contract in skills/herdr-teamlead/references/round-flow.md. Investigation rulings return to Step 10's knowledge gate. Implementation rulings route unchanged-branch rulings to verified release or renewed verification, branch-changing rulings to the counted correction path, an insufficient ruling to an investigator and then back to Step 11, and a blocked ruling to its saved operator question. Only the operator overrides a ruling. Continue immediately to the step named by that outcome.