Run a verified multi-agent goal

Bernstein is a deterministic multi-agent orchestrator for CLI coding agents. This skill wraps the three-step operator loop: submit a goal, monitor progress, and verify the finished run against its Merkle-chained lineage journal and HMAC audit chain.

Prerequisites

• bernstein on PATH (pip install bernstein or uv tool install bernstein).
• Run commands from the project root (the directory holding .sdd/ after

the first run).

• First-time setup: bernstein init scaffolds config and templates.

Workflow

1. Submit

bash
bernstein run -g "<goal>"

• The goal is a plain-English description of what to build or fix.
• Bernstein plans tasks, assigns roles (backend, frontend, qa, security,

devops), and spawns agents in isolated git worktrees.

• Preview without spending: bernstein run --dry-run -g "<goal>".

2. Monitor

bash
bernstein status
bernstein cost

• status shows task summary and agent health.
• cost shows the spend so far against configured budgets.

3. Verify

bash
bernstein lineage verify <run_id>
bernstein audit verify

• lineage verify recomputes the run's Merkle hash chain and every HMAC

tag; exit 0 means the chain is intact and non-empty.

• audit verify checks the HMAC audit chain and Merkle tree across the

whole workspace; run it before trusting or shipping the result.

Report the run as complete only when both verifications exit 0.

Verifying this skill's own install

Installs of this skill are receipt-backed. To confirm bernstein is on PATH and the bundled skill asset resolves in this session:

bash
bernstein skills package show

To prove the skill content the session is driving matches what was installed:

bash
bernstein skills package verify --dest <path-to-this-skill-directory>

Exit 0 means the installed tree's content address matches a receipt anchored in the lineage spine and audit chain. These two commands are the self-check contract the multi-host conformance sweep replays per agent host (bernstein skills package conformance).

Notes

• Never mark a goal done from agent output alone; the lineage and audit

verifications are the completion evidence.

• If bernstein is not installed, say so and point at the prerequisites

above; do not attempt to reimplement orchestration inline.

• See references/worked-examples.md for end-to-end transcripts and

per-host invocation notes.