Date: 2026-05-13
Assessor: Lucienne (Chief of Staff) with specialist subagent analysis
Framework: WAT (Workflows, Agents, Tools)
Scope: Mission Control runtime architecture, Runtime Workbench, WAT orchestration
Reference Documents:
- /Users/elmar/Projects/Mission-Control/docs/runtime-architecture-refresh.md (canonical)
- /Users/elmar/Projects/Mission-Control/docs/runtime-workbench-prd.md (supporting)
- /Users/elmar/PKA/Team/roster.md (team definitions)
- /Users/elmar/PKA/Vault/memory/MEMORY.md (memory index)
Mission Control's Luci runtime architecture is a mature, tmux-backed execution platform that maps surprisingly well to the WAT framework, but with significant gaps in the Workflow orchestration layer and cross-cutting governance controls. The Agent and Tool layers are well-developed; the Workflow layer lacks conditional branching, parallel execution, and an explicit state machine. The roadmap (10 items) correctly identifies the highest-priority gaps, but four foundational items remain unstarted.
| Dimension | Score (1-5) | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Workflows | 2.5 | ⚠️ Sequential only — missing conditional, parallel, iterative |
| Agents | 3.5 | ✅ Strong roles and context loading; missing registry and council memory |
| Tools | 3.5 | ✅ Rich provider diversity; missing MCP schema and composition |
| Governance (cross-cutting) | 2.5 | ⚠️ HITL and observability present but coarse |
| Overall | 3.0 / 5.0 | Functional but not yet fully WAT-native |
The only defined workflow template is dev_review_qa with 6 strictly sequential phases:
| Order | Phase | Role | Required | Default |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | research | scott | False | False |
| 1 | implement | larry | True | True |
| 2 | council_review | council | False | True |
| 3 | code_review | luci | False | True |
| 4 | validate | tessa | True | True |
| 5 | signoff | atlas | False | False |
14 workflow actions exist (10 operator-initiated + 4 operational signals). State transitions are ticket-status-based, not phase-state-based. The workflow_events table provides nonce-based idempotent audit logging.
| WAT Workflow Type | Status | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Sequential | ✅ Implemented | Strict order field; child ticket chaining |
| Parallel / Fan-out | ❌ Missing | No concurrent phase execution model |
| Conditional / Routing | ⚠️ Partial | required: False gates only; no runtime branching on results |
| Iterative / Loop | ⚠️ Implicit | "Return for fixes" is manual; no auto-retry counter or max-iteration guard |
CRITICAL does not auto-loop to implementation with retry tracking| Priority | Recommendation | Effort | Roadmap Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Add explicit workflow state machine with phase-level statuses | Medium | New |
| High | Implement conditional branching — auto-loop on CRITICAL with retry counter (max 3) | Medium | Partially #1 |
| Medium | Add parallel phase support (fan-out/fan-in) | High | New |
| Medium | Phase-runtime profile binding | Medium | #2 |
| Medium | Per-phase observability (timestamps, token costs, retry counts) | Low | New |
| Low | Workflow pause/resume actions | Low | New |
Six roles are defined in WORKFLOW_ROLE_PROFILES, mapping directly to the PKA roster:
| Role | Jurisdiction | Context Loading | Runtime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luci | Orchestration, continuity | Persistent runtime | CLI (tmux) |
| Larry | Code implementation | Per-ticket runtime | SSH + CLI |
| Tessa | UX validation | Test plans in tests/ |
Browser tools |
| Scott | Research | Source hierarchy + skills | Web search + scrape |
| Atlas | Architecture sign-off | Wiki + Vault MCP + Graphify | Read + analysis |
| Council | Multi-AI review | Stateless per-run | Codex + Gemini CLI |
| Role | Reasoning | Memory | Tools | HITL | Observability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luci | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Larry | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Tessa | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Scott | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Atlas | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌* | ✅ |
| Council | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ⚠️ |
* Atlas is informative-only (no action approval needed for briefs)
| Priority | Recommendation | Effort | Roadmap Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Agent Registry / Supervisor View — runtime_sessions-backed active agent dashboard |
Medium | #5 |
| High | Council Memory — lightweight findings accumulator across reviews | Low | New |
| Medium | Cross-agent Context Packs — formalize what travels on handoff | Medium | New |
| Medium | Agent Capability Declaration — machine-readable tool profiles per agent | Low | New |
| Medium | Bounded Supervisor Check-ins — progress summaries without action | Medium | #6 |
| Low | Scott Sanity Gate — optional Lucienne review for Deep Scout | Low | New |
Runtime Profile Catalog: 9 profiles across 6 providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax) with CLI and API backends. Each profile declares capabilities (skills, MCP, hooks, agents, file_tools, shell_tools, tmux_attach, direct_api).
Runtime Types: 6 distinct runtime types (persistent, ticket, workflow role, scheduled/batch, Larry, operator console) with appropriate routing rules.
MCP Tools: Vault MCP (5 tools), Claude Preview MCP (9 browser automation tools). No MC-specific MCP tools yet.
Tmux as Container: Core architectural choice providing process isolation, persistence, and raw console access.
| WAT Tool Requirement | Status | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Focused, deterministic tools | ✅ | Capability flags per profile |
| Tool descriptions | ⚠️ | Descriptions exist; no usage examples |
| Agent selects appropriate tool | ✅ | Runtime dropdown + Switch runtime |
| Tool result feeds back | ✅ | Harvest path to MC History |
| Tool composition / chaining | ❌ | Not modeled |
| Tool result caching | ❌ | Same work rerun per ticket |
| Tool sandboxing | ❌ | Larry has full SSH |
| Priority | Recommendation | Effort | Roadmap Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | MC-Specific MCP Tools — ticket ops, runtime mgmt, workflow actions | Medium | New |
| High | Tool Result Schema — JSON schemas for MCP outputs | Low | New |
| Medium | Tool Composition / Chaining — declarative chains in workflow phases | High | New |
| Medium | Per-Tool Cost Tracking — token spend per MCP invocation | Medium | New |
| Medium | Runtime Health Probes — periodic ping; auto-restart stale/failed | Medium | New |
| Low | Tool Cache Layer — TTL-based cache for expensive ops | Medium | New |
| Low | Tool Sandbox for Larry — network restrictions on external host | High | New |
Current gates: Elmar sign-off, Tessa validation (mandatory before Elmar sees UI), Council CRITICAL blocking, Atlas sign-off for PKA changes, explicit runtime switch.
Gaps: No per-action approval within a running runtime; needs_input is ticket-coarse not action-fine; no deployment approval gate for Larry.
Current: runtime_sessions ledger, workflow_events audit log, MC History, pane_mirror, clean/raw console dual views.
Gaps: No distributed tracing across handoffs; no per-step timing; no correlation ID across runtime switch; Council output is file-based not structured; token costs are approximate.
Current stack: Session context → MC History → runtime_sessions → vault.db → Wiki → Agent definitions.
Gaps: No "context diff" on handoff; no shared scratchpad for concurrent agents; memory is read-heavy, write-light; GBrain retirement removed semantic search (Vault MCP + wiki are reliable but not semantic).
| # | Item | Status | WAT Layer | Critical? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mandatory WAT review policy | ❌ Not started | Workflow | Yes |
| 2 | Role-specific runtime profile overrides | ❌ Not started | Agent+Tool | Yes |
| 3 | Cheaper API profiles for triage | ⚠️ Partial | Tool | No |
| 4 | Kimi CLI smoke checks | ⚠️ In progress | Tool | No |
| 5 | Agent Registry / supervisor view | ❌ Not started | Agent | Yes |
| 6 | Bounded supervisor check-ins | ❌ Not started | Agent | No |
| 7 | Runtime archive on close | ❌ Not started | Tool | No |
| 8 | Telegram per-target queueing | ⚠️ Partial | Workflow | No |
| 9 | Stable pre-deploy regression | ⚠️ Partial | Workflow | No |
| 10 | Workflow/council hooks | ❌ Not started | Workflow | Yes |
Critical Path: Items 1, 2, 5, and 10 are foundational to WAT compliance. The remaining 6 items are operational improvements that can follow.
| Priority | Recommendation | Effort | Roadmap Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Implement roadmap #1 — Mandatory WAT review policy | Medium | #1 |
| High | Structured council output — JSON schema in workflow_events | Low | #10 |
| High | Correlation IDs — trace ID surviving handoffs and reviews | Low | New |
| Medium | Per-action HITL — file edit approval within runtime | High | New |
| Medium | Agent scratchpad — shared mutable state for concurrent agents | Medium | New |
| Medium | Observability dashboard — real-time runtimes, token burn, phase progress | High | New |
| Low | Auto-compounding — every completed runtime logs learnings | Low | New |
| Item | Layer | Effort | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Mandatory WAT review policy | Workflow | Medium | Document defining when council/Tessa/Atlas are mandatory vs optional |
| 2. Role-specific runtime profile overrides | Agent+Tool | Medium | Phase → profile mapping in dev_review_qa template |
| 5. Agent Registry / supervisor view | Agent | Medium | Workbench panel or dashboard showing active agents, phases, token burn |
| 10. Workflow/council hooks | Workflow | Low | Council output written to workflow_events as structured JSON |
| Item | Layer | Effort | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explicit workflow state machine | Workflow | Medium | Phase statuses: pending/running/completed/failed/skipped |
| Conditional branching + auto-loop | Workflow | Medium | Council CRITICAL → auto-return to implement with retry counter |
| Item | Layer | Effort | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Correlation IDs | Governance | Low | Trace ID in runtime_sessions, workflow_events, council output |
| Structured council output | Governance | Low | JSON schema for council findings stored in workflow_events |
| Runtime health probes | Tool | Medium | Periodic ping from MC to runtimes; auto-restart stale |
| Per-phase observability | Workflow | Low | Timestamps, token costs, retry counts visible in Workbench |
| Item | Layer | Effort | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parallel phase support | Workflow | High | Fan-out/fan-in for concurrent research + scoping |
| Tool composition / chaining | Tool | High | Declarative tool chains in workflow phases |
| MC-specific MCP tools | Tool | Medium | Ticket ops, runtime mgmt as MCP tools |
| Observability dashboard | Governance | High | Real-time view of active runtimes, token burn, phase progress |
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Too much workflow automation hides what happened | Medium | High | Keep raw console; verbose workflow_events; never auto-close without explicit action |
| Too many child tickets fragment context | Low | Medium | Single-session rule already prevents this; maintain it |
| Council memory gap causes repeated findings | High | Medium | Phase 1 "Council memory" item; lightweight accumulator |
| Agent registry adds operational overhead | Medium | Low | Back it by existing runtime_sessions; don't build new infra |
| Per-action HITL slows down simple tasks | Medium | Medium | Only for sensitive ops; Tier 1 tasks exempt |
Mission Control's Luci runtime is a well-architected execution platform with strong Agent and Tool layers. The WAT framework provides a useful lens that reveals the Workflow layer as the primary gap: the system is sequential-heavy, conditional-light, and parallel-absent. The existing roadmap correctly identifies the highest-priority items, but four foundational pieces (items 1, 2, 5, 10) remain unstarted and should be prioritized.
The single-session dev loop (2026-04-29) was a significant WAT-alignment improvement — it reduced coordination overhead while preserving role separation. The tmux-backed runtime is a durable architectural choice that should be retained and enhanced, not replaced.
Bottom line: Luci is a capable agent operator. To become a fully WAT-native orchestration platform, invest in the Workflow layer's state machine, conditional branching, and the four foundational roadmap items.
Assessment generated by Lucienne with parallel specialist subagent analysis across Workflow, Agent, Tool, and Governance dimensions.