Agent skill · product strategy · cursor
orchestrate
Use only when the user explicitly types `/orchestrate <goal>` to decompose a large task, spawn a tree of parallel cloud-agent workers/subplanners/verifiers via the Cursor SDK, and collect structured handoffs; do not invoke autonomously.
Why this skill is useful
Adds a structured orchestration script for managing parallel tasks across cloud agents, enhancing the AI's capability to handle complex workflows.
What it needs
Requires cursor-sdk installed locally. Requires cursor account access. About 2k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-06. 2,555 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Orchestrate An explicit /orchestrate <goal> fans out a large task across parallel Cursor cloud agents. Workers don't talk to each other; they talk up through structured handoffs. The spawn, wait, and handoff loop lives in scripts/cli.ts. The planner writes plan.json, the script executes it, and the planner reads handoffs to decide what comes next. Long-running agent loops drift; a script with a JSON state file keeps its footing. Required reading: the cursor-sdk skill (cursor/plugins/cursor-sdk). Spawning, auth, and the error taxonomy live there. Don't reimplement what that skill already documents. Setup CURSORAPIKEY must be a personal/user key. Create it from Cursor Dashboard > Integrations, then read cursor-sdk Auth before using it. SLACKBOTTOKEN is optional. When set, pass --slack-channel <id> to kickoff or the first run --root, or set SLACKCHANNELID. The script stores the channel in plan.slackChannel, posts the kickoff thread there, mirrors task status, and reads Andon reactions. When the token is unset, the script logs once and runs without Slack visibility; correctness does not change. Core principles These rules make the tree self-converging without global coordination. 1. Planners own scopes and publish tasks. They do no coding. Writing plan.json, reading handoffs, and deciding what's next are planner work. Editing files, running git merge, and fixing conflicts inline are not. If a planner feels the urge to code, it publishes a task for a worker instead. 2. Planners don't know who picks up their tasks. The script routes each task to a cloud agent. The planner's mental model stays at the task level. 3. Workers are isolated. One task, one clone of the repo, no channel to any other agent. One handoff when done. 4. Subplanners are recursive planners. A planner publishes a "subplan this slice" task; the subplanner fully owns that slice and hands back an aggregated handoff. 5. Continuous motion via handoffs. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills cursor/orchestrate