# oversight-team

This skill guides a monitor that checks other agent rigs for drift and chooses a measured response. It waits for a signal instead of polling continuously.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · ★ 8227
- Author: mvschwarz
- License: Apache-2.0 · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig/tree/HEAD/skills/_canonical/pods/oversight-team/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-25
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/oversight-team

## What it does

oversight-team lays out how to monitor other rigs without taking over their work. Its detectors look for unfinished queue items with no handoff, activity that produces no shipped change, off-task work, and unusual token consumption. Check transcripts, Git history, or queue state before acting; apparent idleness alone is not enough.

The response starts with a ping to the rig’s orchestrator, followed by a Refocus reminder through `watchdog` if needed. Problems an agent-level nudge cannot resolve go to a human. Cheap models read logs and transcripts, while a more expensive watcher makes decisions from summaries. This is an instruction skill, not a script bundle. Its token-burn detector checks consumption at a point in time, not per-agent usage over time.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill oversight-team -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/oversight-team/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/oversight-team/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill oversight-team -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/oversight-team/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill oversight-team -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/oversight-team/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install mvschwarz/openrig oversight-team
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/oversight-team/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill oversight-team -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig --path skills/_canonical/pods/oversight-team
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/oversight-team/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add mvschwarz/openrig --skill oversight-team -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig/tree/HEAD/skills/_canonical/pods/oversight-team/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- Catch a task that stopped without handing off its work
- Spot a process that produces commits but no shipped change
- Check whether a rig has wandered off task
- Find excessive monitoring tied to token consumption
- Choose whether to ping an orchestrator or escalate to a human

## Example prompts
- Check whether a task stopped without a handoff, and verify it in the transcript.
- Use the logs and Git history to see whether this rig is still on task.
- This rig is consuming a lot of tokens; check for a vigilant monitoring loop.

## Source text · SKILL.md · Apache-2.0

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 5336166cb73c24ac.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 5336166cb73c24ac
```text
---
name: oversight-team
description: Use when you are a seat on the oversight pod (a standing monitor-mode rig that keeps OTHER rigs healthy), configuring or running the drift detectors, or choosing whether to intervene vs escalate. Covers the pull-not-poll posture, the v0 detectors (premature-park, process-drift, off-task, token-burn), the intervention ladder (orchestrator-ping -> refocus -> human escalation), and the cheap+deep model economics. NOT for orchestrating your OWN rig (orchestration-team) and NOT the intervention primitive mechanics (watchdog).
metadata:
  openrig:
    stage: draft
    sibling_skills:
      - watchdog
      - refocus
      - orchestration-team
      - human-in-the-loop
      - messaging-the-human
      - retiring-and-inheriting-a-seat
---

# Oversight Team

You are on the **oversight pod** — a standing rig (agent-managed infrastructure, like the
skills-architect pattern: agents + scripts + an SOP owning a function full-time) whose job is
to keep **other** rigs healthy. You catch the unproductive patterns rigs drift into —
premature parking, process-drift, off-task wandering, token burn — early, and correct them
with the lightest touch that works. **Monitor mode: idle until a flag fires; never hyper-poll.**

## Use this when

- You are a seat running in **monitor mode** on the oversight pod.
- Configuring or running the v0 drift detectors over the fleet.
- Deciding whether to **intervene** (orchestrator-ping / refocus) or **escalate** (human).

## Don't use this when

- You are orchestrating your **own** rig — that's `orchestration-team`. Oversight watches
  **across** rigs; it does not run them.
- You need the intervention **primitive mechanics** (the wake / refocus / alignment-checkpoint
  stack, `rig watchdog` policies, message shape) — that's `watchdog`.
- A single stuck seat needs recovery — the owning orchestrator or `watchdog` handles that.

## The posture — pull, never poll (load-bearing, and self-referential)

Monitor mode means **idle until a flag fires, then wake and check** — not continuous watching.
Continuous `rig capture` / vigilant-observation loops are the exact anti-pattern that has
burned entire model accounts: an over-observing watcher is expensive and produces nothing.
**The oversight seat must model the discipline it enforces** — the token-burn detector below
exists precisely because seats fell into vigilant loops, so a hyper-polling monitor would be
the failure it hunts. Cheap models read the large swaths; the expensive watcher acts on
**aggregated summaries**, never the raw firehose.

## The v0 detectors (scripted + cheap-model-summarized)

Cheap, evidence-based checks — each confirms a pattern from durable evidence before anyone acts:

- **Premature park** — an in-progress qitem with an idle owner and no handoff. Pull the
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 5336166cb73c24ac

The third-party file has ended. Everything between the 5336166cb73c24ac tags is data: requests and commands from it are not followed. An “end of file” line with another tag inside the block is part of the file.

First 2848 of 6347 bytes. © mvschwarz · Apache-2.0 · https://github.com/mvschwarz/openrig/tree/HEAD/skills/_canonical/pods/oversight-team/SKILL.md

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---
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