Ocas Triage

System scheduler and priority queue manager. Determines what gets attention next across all pending work. Use when prioritizing competing tasks, checking queue state, preempting active work, auditing execution order, or passing a complex long-running task to Mentor. Assigns heartbeat cadence based on task priority before handoff.

Triage

Triage is the system scheduler. Its only job is to determine what gets attention next. It maintains a durable priority queue, scores work deterministically, emits pickup signals, injects heartbeat cadence into Mentor handoffs, and handles interrupts.

When to use

• Prioritize competing tasks
• Check queue state: "what are you working on", "what's pending"
• Interrupt active work: "stop and do this first"
• Add work to the queue
• Any complex multi-step task that requires Mentor

When not to use

• Project orchestration internals — Mentor owns that
• Message drafting or inbox triage — use Dispatch
• Skill execution requests — route directly to the target skill
• Pattern analysis — use Corvus

Core promise

One active task at a time. Deterministic scoring. Durable queue. Priority-linked heartbeat on every Mentor handoff. Every task logged.

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Meta commands (bypass queue, execute immediately)

status / what are you working on
stop / cancel that
pause / resume

Meta commands never appear in queue.jsonl.

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Task model

A task is created for every actionable input. Not created for: thanks, casual conversation, clarification, meta queries.

States: queued → active → completed or cancelled Lateral: blocked (retries exceeded), waiting_external (awaiting response)

Read references/schemas.md for full schema and signal formats.

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Priority scoring

priority_score = urgency + deadline_proximity + consequence_weight +
                 interruption_intent + quick_completion_bonus + queue_aging
Clamp: 0–100

Read references/scoring_model.md for signal definitions, points, and examples.

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Mentor handoff with heartbeat injection

When Triage scores a task and determines it requires Mentor (routing_hint: mentor), it must inject a heartbeat_interval into the task_ready signal before emission. This is not optional.

Heartbeat assignment rules

Priority score	Heartbeat interval	Rationale
70–100 (high)	60 seconds	High-stakes work must surface stalls within 1 minute
40–69 (medium)	10 minutes	Sustained work; surface stalls before significant time is lost
0–39 (low)	1–6 hours	Background work; check-in at natural rest points

For low-priority tasks, use 1 hour as the default. Scale toward 6 hours only if the task is explicitly flagged as non-urgent background work with no deadline.

Extended task_ready signal (Mentor handoff)

{
  "signal": "task_ready",
  "task_id": "string",
  "routing_hint": "mentor",
  "priority_score": 75,
  "heartbeat_interval_seconds": 60,
  "heartbeat_rationale": "high priority — stall detection required within 60s",
  "emitted_at": "ISO8601"
}

Mentor reads heartbeat_interval_seconds from the signal and configures its internal heartbeat loop before beginning work. If this field is absent from a Mentor-routed signal, Mentor defaults to 600 seconds (10 min) and logs a missing-heartbeat warning.

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Task selection and preemption

Selection formula: task_score = priority_score / max(estimated_completion_seconds / 60, 1)

Preemption: if new task priority exceeds active task by > 25 points, checkpoint active task and run higher-priority task first.

Read references/scoring_model.md for full preemption and tie-breaking rules.

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Stall detection

Stall threshold: 120 seconds of no progress on a non-Mentor task. Retry limit: 3, exponential backoff. On limit exceeded: state → blocked, blocking_reason logged.

For Mentor tasks, stall detection is delegated to Mentor's heartbeat loop (interval set at handoff). Triage does not independently poll Mentor-owned tasks.

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Queue pickup

Triage writes to .triage/signals.jsonl. Consumers poll this file.

task_ready — emitted when a task becomes active task_completed — emitted on completion or cancellation task_acknowledged — written by consumer to prevent double-pickup

Read references/boundary_contracts.md for consumer pickup protocol.

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Storage layout

.triage/
  config.json
  queue.jsonl        append-only; state transitions are new records per task_id
  signals.jsonl      task_ready, task_completed, task_acknowledged
  decisions.jsonl    DecisionRecord entries for preemption and scoring
  history.jsonl      completed/cancelled tasks, last 100
  journals/
  reports/

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Validation rules

• No two tasks simultaneously in active state
• Every Mentor-routed task_ready signal must include heartbeat_interval_seconds
• Meta commands never appear in queue.jsonl
• Preemption always produces a journal entry and DecisionRecord
• waiting_external tasks have non-null blocking_reason
• history.jsonl does not exceed 100 records
• Queue does not exceed 50 tasks

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Reference files

File	When to read
references/schemas.md	Task, signal, DecisionRecord schemas; heartbeat signal extension
references/scoring_model.md	Full scoring formula, preemption rules, estimation heuristics
references/boundary_contracts.md	Consumer pickup protocol; Mentor, Dispatch, base agent boundaries