topology-mutation-and-seat-management

Topology Mutation and Seat Management

The ability to change a rig while it is alive: expand, shrink, launch, remove, discover, bind, adopt, and attach seats or sessions. Seat management includes the stable identifiers, edges, roles, and startup context that make those mutations coherent.

OpenRig should be easy to reach for. A user should be able to add capacity, retire capacity, adopt an existing session, or attach a terminal without rebuilding the whole topology. If mutation is rarely tested, users avoid it and the product collapses back into static launch scripts.

Use this when

• Adding seats to a running rig (rig grow <rig-id> <member...> for the simple case, a fragment with rig expand or rig add otherwise; see below)
• Removing capacity (rig shrink / rig remove)
• Launching/relaunching a node in a running rig (rig launch)
• Binding a discovered session into an existing logical node (rig bind)
• Adopting a topology + binding live sessions (rig adopt)
• Attaching a shell or agent into a rig node (rig attach --self)

Adding seats: rig grow first, a fragment when you need more

rig grow <rig-id> <member...> adds one or more seats to a running rig without writing YAML. Each seat gets the default agent spec and its default profile. Check rig grow --help on your installed version; at the time of writing:

• --pod <pod>: the target pod; inferred when the rig has one pod
• --new-pod <pod>: create a new pod for the seats (not together with --pod)
• --runtime <runtime>: one runtime for every named seat (default claude-code)
• --cwd <path>: one working directory for every named seat (default: the current directory)
• --json: output for agents

Write a fragment instead when a seat needs something rig grow does not set: an explicit model, a permission policy, a different agent spec or role profile, a per-seat runtime or working directory, or startup files. Use rig expand <rig-id> <pod-fragment-path> to add a pod, or rig add <rig-id> <pod-namespace> <member-fragment-path> to add one member to an existing pod.

Don't use this when

• The rig is being created fresh from scratch — use rig up (lifecycle, not mutation)
• The intent is to scale specifically (add specialized capacity) — use seat-scaling-and-specialization skill
• The intent is occupant replacement on a stable seat — use seat-continuity-and-handover skill

Failure modes (4)

1. A newly created seat lacks the queue, startup context, or role files it needs to operate. Topology mutation creates the seat, but the seat needs more than a tmux session to be useful.
2. Edges and permissions are not updated when a seat is added or removed. Topology references go stale; later workflows route to nonexistent seats.
3. Adopt/bind succeeds at the tmux/session layer but not at the OpenRig identity layer. The session is attached but rig whoami doesn't know about it; downstream consumers see partial state.
4. Shrink/remove leaves stale topology references that later workflows route into. Cleanup is part of the operation, not an afterthought.

Proof standard

Proof must cover mutation while a rig is active, not just in a clean test fixture. The useful matrix:

Operation	What to verify
Add seat	New seat has queue, startup context, role; rig whoami resolves it
Remove seat	Stale references cleaned; edges/permissions updated
Adopt existing session	tmux session bound at OpenRig identity layer; rig whoami reports correctly
Attach observer terminal	External CLI attachment recorded
Verify topology projections after each move	rig ps --nodes reflects current truth, not pre-mutation cache

A clean-fixture proof is necessary but not sufficient. Live-rig proof catches the failure modes that fixture-mode misses.

Stable roles during topology changes

Capacity changes must preserve useful roles, routing and durable work. Distinguish adding or removing a seat from replacing its occupant; use seat-continuity-and-handover for the latter.

Currently shipped surfaces

Per cli-reference.md v0.2.0:

• rig grow <rig-id> <member...> [--pod <pod> | --new-pod <pod>] [--runtime <runtime>] [--cwd <path>] (added after v0.2.0; check rig grow --help)
• rig expand <rig-id> <pod-fragment-path> (with optional session_source)
• rig shrink <rigId> <podRef>
• rig launch <rigId> <nodeRef>
• rig remove <rigId> <nodeRef>
• rig discover [--draft]
• rig bind <discoveredId> --rig <rigId> (--node <id> | --pod <ns> --member <name>)
• rig adopt <path> --bind <logicalId=tmuxSessionOrDiscoveryId>
• rig attach --self --rig <rigId> --node <logicalId>
• rig unclaim <sessionRef> / rig release <rigId>

Choose the proving environment and authority

Select an isolated active rig or an explicitly authorized live target for the relevant operation. Record its running build, before/after topology, continuity and outstanding work. A passing schema check or isolated fixture does not prove an existing live rig was changed correctly. A runtime timeout is indeterminate until its durable and process effects are reconciled; do not retry blindly.

The matrix above is verification guidance, not permission to modify another rig. Name the operation's owner and scope, preserve the state needed for recovery, and retain missing or failed checks in the result. No local experiment or unfinished proof obligation is implied by loading this skill.

See also

• openrig-user skill — CLI surface for rig grow / expand / shrink / launch / remove / bind / adopt / attach
• seat-scaling-and-specialization skill — when to add specialized capacity vs generic
• seat-continuity-and-handover skill — replacing an occupant on a stable seat (different shape than topology mutation)
• cross-host-rig-commands skill — cross-host topology mutation (deferred)