Work Distribution

The Work Lifecycle

Every piece of work in Gas Town follows a defined lifecycle from creation to completion.

Work States

Exit States (Polecat Completion)

When a polecat finishes work, it exits in one of four states:

State	Meaning	Next Action
COMPLETED	Work done, MR submitted	Refinery processes merge
ESCALATED	Hit blocker, needs human	Escalation routes to Mayor/Overseer
DEFERRED	Paused, still open	Another agent can pick up later
PHASE_COMPLETE	Phase done, waiting	Gate opens, next phase begins

Work Assignment

The Sling Command

gt sling is the primary command for assigning work:

# Assign to a rig (auto-spawns polecat)
gt sling gt-abc12 myproject

# Assign to a specific agent
gt sling gt-abc12 myproject --agent cursor

# Assign multiple items
gt sling gt-abc12 gt-def34 myproject

What happens:

1. Bead status changes to hooked
2. Work attaches to target's hook
3. Polecat spawns in the rig
4. Polecat's startup hook finds the work
5. Polecat begins execution

Hook Persistence

The hook is Gas Town's durability primitive. Work on a hook survives:

• Session restarts
• Context compaction
• Handoffs between sessions
• Agent crashes

# Check what's on your hook
gt hook

# Manually attach work
gt hook gt-abc12

# Remove from hook
gt unsling gt-abc12

The Propulsion Principle

"If it's on your hook, YOU RUN IT."

This is Gas Town's core work scheduling rule. When an agent starts a session:

1. Check hook for attached work
2. If work found → execute it immediately
3. If no work → check inbox → wait for instructions

This creates automatic momentum — agents always know what to do.

Convoy Tracking

Convoys bundle related work for tracking:

# Create convoy from issues
gt convoy create "Feature X" gt-a1 gt-b2 gt-c3

# Check progress
gt convoy list
gt convoy show hq-cv-001

# Add more issues
gt convoy add hq-cv-001 gt-d4

# Find stranded convoys with ready work
gt convoy stranded

Convoys auto-close when all tracked issues complete.

Molecules: Structured Workflows

Molecules define multi-step workflows for agents. A molecule is an epic bead with child step beads that guide execution:

# Agents check their current steps
bd ready                    # Shows steps with no blockers

# Work through steps sequentially
bd update <step> --status=in_progress
# ... do the work ...
bd close <step>
bd ready                    # Next step appears

The standard polecat workflow molecule (mol-polecat-work) includes steps like:

1. Load context and verify assignment
2. Set up working branch
3. Verify tests pass on main
4. Implement the solution
5. Self-review changes
6. Run tests and verify coverage
7. Clean up workspace
8. Prepare work for review
9. Submit work and self-clean

Molecules provide crash recovery — if an agent restarts, bd ready shows the next incomplete step, so work resumes from where it left off.

Cross-Rig Work

For work spanning multiple projects:

• Dogs handle infrastructure tasks across rigs
• Convoys track issues across multiple rigs
• Mayor coordinates cross-rig strategy

# Dogs handle infrastructure
gt dog list

# Prefix-based routing lets you reference any rig's beads
bd show gt-abc12            # Routes to gastown rig
bd show hq-abc              # Routes to town-level beads