Auto-Continue Mode Skill

Auto-Continue Mode

Disciplined automatic continuation through multi-step tasks. Eliminates unnecessary pauses while preserving mandatory safety gates.

Core Principle

Auto-continue through unambiguous work. Stop only at real decision points.

Mandatory Gates (ALWAYS STOP)

| Gate | Trigger | What happens | |---|---|---| | GATE 0 — Agora Gate | Agora outputs AWAITING_APPROVAL OR ## 🏛️ Agora Council synthesis block appears | HARD STOP. Do not call any tool, do not continue any todo, do not suggest next steps. Wait for user to type: APPROVE / REQUEST CHANGES / DISCARD. "ok", "yes", "sure", "continue" are NOT valid. | | GATE 1 — Plan Approval | Athena generates a plan | User confirms scope before code is written | | GATE 2 — Phase Review | Themis reviews implementation | User sees changes before next phase | | GATE 3 — Git Commit | After each phase is approved | User controls git history; no auto-commit |

Agora is always GATE 0: any response containing AWAITING_APPROVAL or a ## 🏛️ Agora Council block overrides all auto-continue rules.

Auto-Continue Rules

Continue automatically when:

Next todo is a direct consequence of the current one
Action is reversible (file edits, tests, linting)
Scope is within the approved plan
No new ambiguity has emerged

Stop and ask when:

A todo requires a decision not covered by the plan
An unexpected error changes the approach
A dependency is missing or broken
A task would exceed remaining steps budget

Implementation Pattern

1. Create todos for all steps at start
2. Mark first todo in_progress
3. Complete work → mark completed immediately
4. Mark next todo in_progress → repeat
5. Do NOT ask "should I continue?" between clear steps
6. Stop at Gate 1, 2, or 3
7. After gate approval, resume with next todo

Never batch-complete todos. Mark each completed as soon as done.

Safety Checks Before Continuing

[ ] Previous step completed successfully (tests pass, no errors)
[ ] Next step is within approved plan scope
[ ] No new blocking issues emerged
[ ] steps counter has sufficient budget remaining

Cooldown Pattern

Between phases, execute a brief synthesis handoff to prevent context drift and prepare the next phase:

Phase Summary Template

Phase N complete. Summary:
- What was done: <2 bullet points>
- What changed: <files modified>
- What's next: <Gate 2 review OR next phase>
- Will continue: <YES / after gate approval>

Cooldown Rules

Between parallel waves (no dependency): No cooldown needed — wave results are independent
Between sequential waves (with dependency): Always run cooldown — dependencies may have changed context
After Themis review (GATE 2): Cooldown is mandatory — review findings may change the plan
Session reuse check: Before starting next phase, check if a specialist session from a previous phase can be reused (see session-goal skill)

Abbreviated Cooldown

When auto-continuing between sequential non-gated phases, the cooldown is abbreviated to one line:

→ Phase N done. Next: Phase N+1. [auto-continuing]

Only expand to full cooldown when hitting a mandatory gate.

Timeout & Retry Enforcement

When a delegated agent does not respond in time, enforce the timeout policy from routing.yml.

Behavior by Agent Role

| Agent Role | Timeout | Retry Policy | Fallback | Timeout Parcial? | |------------|---------|-------------|----------|------------------| | Explorer (apollo) | 60s | 2 retries, exponential backoff | athena | ✅ Yes — partial results OK | | Implementer (hermes, aphrodite) | 180s | 3 retries, exponential backoff | talos | ❌ No — must produce artifact | | Reviewer (themis) | 120s | 2 retries, exponential backoff | zeus | ❌ No — must produce verdict | | Infrastructure (prometheus) | 300s | 2 retries, exponential backoff | hermes | ❌ No | | Hotfix (talos) | 30s | 1 retry, no backoff | hermes | ✅ Yes — one-liner fix OK |

Timeout Parcial (Partial Results)

Timeout parcial is only allowed for read-only, independent agents:

✅ @apollo (codebase search) — can return partial file list
✅ @gaia (literature review) — can return partial findings
✅ @talos (hotfix confirmation) — can return without fix if timeout
❌ Never for implementers (@hermes, @aphrodite, @demeter) — must complete or fail
❌ Never for reviewers (@themis) — must produce a verdict

How to signal timeout parcial: When dispatching, set the expectation explicitly:

@apollo Search for all auth-related files. If you hit timeout, return whatever you have found so far — partial results are acceptable.

Timeout Tracking Table

Maintain a mental table of in-flight delegations:

| Agent | Started | Timeout | Status | Partial OK? | |-------|---------|---------|--------|-------------| | apollo | T+0s | T+60s | ✅ complete | ✅ | | hermes | T+0s | T+180s | ⏳ in progress | ❌ |

Examples

Good (auto-continues):

✅ Wrote migration file.
→ Running migration tests...
✅ Tests pass (3/3).
→ Next: write UserRepository query methods.

Good (stops at Gate 2):

✅ Phase 1 complete: migration + repository layer.
⏸️ GATE 2 — Themis review summary:
  - Coverage: 87% ✅ | No OWASP issues ✅
Ready for Phase 2? Waiting for go-ahead.

Bad (stops unnecessarily):

✅ Wrote the migration file.
Should I now run the migration tests? [waiting]

Session Heartbeat

Auto-save checkpoint every N turns (configurable, default 5).

Heartbeat File

.pantheon/deepwork/<slug>/heartbeat.json

Heartbeat JSON Format

{
  "slug": "task-identifier",
  "last_action": "2026-07-16T20:00:00Z",
  "turn_count": 10,
  "current_phase": 2,
  "status": "alive | warning | stalled | paused | completed",
  "next_action": "brief description of next planned action"
}

Heartbeat Rules

Update every 5 turns minimum (by default)
Contains NO context — only timestamps and counters
Single file, always overwritten (not versioned)
Used for quick "is this session alive?" checks

Checkpoint Persistence

Checkpoint File Structure

Each deepwork task maintains:

.pantheon/deepwork/<slug>/
├── PLAN.md                 # Immutable plan (created at start)
├── STATUS.md               # Human-readable current state (updated every phase)
├── heartbeat.json          # Lightweight ping (updated every N turns)
├── checkpoint-<N>.json     # Full state snapshot (created at phase boundaries)
├── session.json            # Session metadata (created at start, updated on stop)
└── REVIEW.md               # Final Themis review (created at end)

Checkpoint JSON Schema

{
  "slug": "string — unique task identifier",
  "phase": "integer — current phase number",
  "turn_count": "integer — total turns elapsed",
  "timestamp": "string — ISO 8601 timestamp",
  "context_hash": "string — first 8 hex chars of SHA-256 of STATUS.md",
  "version": "integer — schema version (current: 2)"
}

Checkpoint Rules

Save at every phase boundary AND before any delegate dispatch
Numbered sequentially (checkpoint-1.json, checkpoint-2.json, …)
Keep last 10 checkpoints; archive older ones
On resume: read the highest-numbered checkpoint for full state

Safety Policy Configuration

Configurable gates for different platforms and risk levels:

| Gate | Default | Auto-Approval Condition | |------|---------|------------------------| | GATE 0 — Council/Plan | Always Ask | N/A — always requires human | | GATE 1 — Plan Approval | Always Ask | Plan matches acceptance criteria + no risks flagged | | GATE 2 — Themis Review | Ask by Default | Auto-approve if: Themis APPROVED + no CRITICAL/HIGH issues + coverage ≥80% | | GATE 3 — Git Commit | Never Auto | N/A — always manual | | Deploy | Always Ask | N/A — always requires human | | Destructive DB Ops | Always Ask | N/A — always requires human |

Configuration Format (for agents/PLAN.md)

auto-continue:
  checkpoint_interval: 5     # turns between checkpoints
  idle_warning: 60           # seconds before warning
  idle_stall: 120            # seconds before stall detection
  idle_pause: 300            # seconds before auto-pause
  gates:
    plan_approval: always_ask
    themis_review: auto_approve_if_clean
    git_commit: never_auto
    deploy: always_ask
    destructive_ops: always_ask

Idle Detection

| Condition | Action | |-----------|--------| | No tool call for 60s | Log warning heartbeat (status: warning) | | No tool call for 120s | Trigger anti-stall protocol | | No tool call for 300s | Auto-save checkpoint and pause session | | Resume | User must acknowledge and restart |

Scope

Applies to: Zeus (multi-phase), Hermes/Aphrodite/Demeter (TDD cycles), Apollo (parallel searches), Talos (bug fixes).

Does NOT apply to: Athena planning (always presents plan = Gate 1), Iris (confirms before push), destructive operations (always ask).

Agent Skills: Auto-Continue Mode

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files