specialization:gastown
Gastown reference
Gas Town is a multi-agent orchestration framework for AI-driven software development. It provides infrastructure roles (Mayor, Deacon, Witness, Refinery), worker roles (Crew, Polecats, Dogs), and a git-backed work unit system (Beads, Convoys, Molecules) for coordinating parallel agent execution with persistent attribution.
Gas Town Methodology
**Source**: steveyegge/gastown by Steve Yegge **Category**: Multi-Agent Orchestration / AI-Driven Software Development **License**: See upstream repository
Overview
Gas Town is a multi-agent orchestration framework for AI-driven software development. It provides infrastructure roles (Mayor, Deacon, Witness, Refinery), worker roles (Crew, Polecats, Dogs), and a git-backed work unit system (Beads, Convoys, Molecules) for coordinating parallel agent execution with persistent attribution.
Core Principles
- **GUPP** (Gas Town Universal Propulsion Principle): "If there is work on your Hook, YOU MUST RUN IT"
- **MEOW** (Molecular Expression of Work): Breaking goals into trackable atomic units
- **NDI** (Nondeterministic Idempotence): Ensuring useful outcomes through orchestration of unreliable processes
Process Files
| Process | File | Description | Task Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mayor Orchestrator | gastown-orchestrator.js | Global coordinator: convoys, agents, monitoring | 8 |
| Patrol Monitoring | gastown-patrol.js | Deacon/Witness health checks and recovery | 4 |
| Convoy Lifecycle | gastown-convoy.js | Create, assign, track, and land convoys | 6 |
| Molecule Workflow | gastown-molecule.js | Formula -> Protomolecule -> Molecule execution | 6 |
| Merge Queue | gastown-merge-queue.js | Refinery conflict resolution and integration | 5 |
Skills Catalog
| Skill | Directory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| convoy-management | skills/convoy-management/ | Convoy lifecycle: create, track, land |
| work-decomposition | skills/work-decomposition/ | MEOW decomposition into beads and wisps |
| agent-coordination | skills/agent-coordination/ | Crew/Polecat assignment and hook management |
| merge-queue | skills/merge-queue/ | Refinery conflict resolution and merge |
| patrol-monitoring | skills/patrol-monitoring/ | Deacon/Witness health and recovery |
| formula-authoring | skills/formula-authoring/ | TOML Formula -> Protomolecule -> Molecule |
| issue-tracking | skills/issue-tracking/ | Bead lifecycle and attribution tracking |
| session-management | skills/session-management/ | Agent session init, handoff, seance |
Agents Catalog
| Agent | Directory | Role |
|---|---|---|
| mayor | agents/mayor/ | Global Coordinator |
| deacon | agents/deacon/ | System Supervisor |
| witness | agents/witness/ | Rig Lifecycle Manager |
| refinery | agents/refinery/ | Merge Queue Processor |
| polecat | agents/polecat/ | Task Worker (transient) |
| crew-lead | agents/crew-lead/ | Persistent Collaborator |
Workflow Lifecycle
Mayor analyzes goal -> MEOW decomposition -> Convoy creation -> Agent assignment -> Execution (GUPP) -> Patrol monitoring -> Refinery merge -> LandingCross-cutting concerns applied throughout:
patrol-monitoring- Continuous health checks via Deaconmerge-queue- Refinery processes all agent workissue-tracking- All beads carry persistent attributionsession-management- Agent lifecycle across sessions
Work Unit Hierarchy
Goal -> MEOWs -> Convoy (work order) -> Beads (git-backed tasks) + Wisps (ephemeral)
|
+-> Formula -> Protomolecule -> Molecule (durable workflow)Philosophy
- **GUPP enforcement** - Work on hooks must be executed, no exceptions
- **Persistent attribution** - All work tracked for agent evaluation and A/B testing
- **Durable workflows** - Molecules survive restarts via checkpointing
- **NDI resilience** - Useful outcomes despite unreliable individual processes
- **Three-tier hooks** - Base -> Role -> Rig+Role hierarchy for configuration