Show engineer capacity in director list output #979

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opened 2026-07-10 09:05:30 +00:00 by coilyco-ops · 2 comments

coilyco-ops commented

2026-07-10 09:05:30 +00:00

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During the 2026-07-10 director usability sweep, dispatch failures reported a global engineer limit:

global engineer limit is reached: 13 running (limit 12)

But the director-side running-engineer surface does not expose that capacity:

warded list prints ward agent: running engineer containers (11) and the rows, but not limit 12, remaining slots, or whether dispatch is currently safe.
warded list --json emits schema_version, generated_at, and engineers, but no count, limit, remaining, or at_capacity fields.

When a director is doing backlog burndown, that forces trial-and-error dispatches to discover capacity. It also makes it harder for an agent to decide whether to stop adding work before hitting the limit.

Requested behavior:

Human output should include capacity when known, e.g. running engineer containers (11/12, 1 slot free).
JSON output should include stable machine-readable capacity fields, at least count, limit when known, and remaining / at_capacity when derivable.
If the limit source is unavailable through the broker, say that explicitly rather than omitting it silently.

This complements ward#977's queue classification view. It is the capacity-specific part of making the director surface self-explanatory.

During the 2026-07-10 director usability sweep, dispatch failures reported a global engineer limit: `global engineer limit is reached: 13 running (limit 12)` But the director-side running-engineer surface does not expose that capacity: * `warded list` prints `ward agent: running engineer containers (11)` and the rows, but not `limit 12`, remaining slots, or whether dispatch is currently safe. * `warded list --json` emits `schema_version`, `generated_at`, and `engineers`, but no `count`, `limit`, `remaining`, or `at_capacity` fields. When a director is doing backlog burndown, that forces trial-and-error dispatches to discover capacity. It also makes it harder for an agent to decide whether to stop adding work before hitting the limit. Requested behavior: * Human output should include capacity when known, e.g. `running engineer containers (11/12, 1 slot free)`. * JSON output should include stable machine-readable capacity fields, at least `count`, `limit` when known, and `remaining` / `at_capacity` when derivable. * If the limit source is unavailable through the broker, say that explicitly rather than omitting it silently. This complements `ward#977`'s queue classification view. It is the capacity-specific part of making the director surface self-explanatory.

coilyco-ops commented

2026-07-10 09:05:35 +00:00

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WARD-RESERVATION: held 🔒

reservation details

Holder: container engineer-codex-ward-979 on host kais-macbook-pro-2.local.

Reserved by ward agent --harness codex (reserved 2026-07-10T09:05:34Z). Concurrent ward agent runs are blocked until it finishes or the reservation goes stale (1h TTL). --force overrides.

Do not comment on or edit this issue to steer the run while it is reserved. The engineer seeded the body once at launch and never re-reads it, so a comment or edit reaches only human readers, never the running engineer. A correction goes to a new issue, dispatched fresh. That is the only channel that reaches a run in flight. Where the forge supports it, ward locks this conversation to make that a road-block rather than a convention (ward#494).

run seed context — what this run is carrying (ward#609)

Resolved: coilyco-flight-deck/ward#979 · branch issue-979 · harness codex · workflow pull-requests-and-merge
Run: engineer-codex-ward-979 · ward v0.569.0 · dispatched 2026-07-10T09:05:34Z
Comment thread: 0 included in the pre-flight read, 0 stripped (ward's own automated comments).

Static container doctrine and seed boilerplate are identical every run and omitted here (they ride ward v0.569.0).

— Codex, via ward agent

WARD-RESERVATION: held 🔒 <details><summary>reservation details</summary> Holder: container `engineer-codex-ward-979` on host `kais-macbook-pro-2.local`. Reserved by `ward agent --harness codex` (reserved 2026-07-10T09:05:34Z). Concurrent `ward agent` runs are blocked until it finishes or the reservation goes stale (1h TTL). `--force` overrides. **Do not comment on or edit this issue to steer the run while it is reserved.** The engineer seeded the body once at launch and never re-reads it, so a comment or edit reaches only human readers, never the running engineer. A correction goes to a **new issue, dispatched fresh**. That is the only channel that reaches a run in flight. Where the forge supports it, ward locks this conversation to make that a road-block rather than a convention (ward#494). <details><summary>run seed context — what this run is carrying (ward#609)</summary> - **Resolved:** `coilyco-flight-deck/ward#979` · branch `issue-979` · harness `codex` · workflow `pull-requests-and-merge` - **Run:** `engineer-codex-ward-979` · ward `v0.569.0` · dispatched `2026-07-10T09:05:34Z` - **Comment thread:** 0 included in the pre-flight read, 0 stripped (ward's own automated comments). Static container doctrine and seed boilerplate are identical every run and omitted here (they ride ward v0.569.0). </details> </details>  — Codex, via `ward agent`

coilyco-ops added the

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2026-07-10 09:15:36 +00:00

coilyco-ops referenced this issue from a pull request that will close it,

2026-07-10 09:16:34 +00:00

Show engineer capacity in director list output #983

coilyco-ops commented

2026-07-10 09:17:34 +00:00

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WARD-OUTCOME: merge-ready

details

workflow: pull-requests-and-merge; review summary: skipped (review gate skipped by ~/.ward/config.yaml default)
retrospective: the surface change stayed small, but the shared capacity helper had to cover both local and brokered rendering cleanly.
confidence: high
surprises: the repo test verb needed WARD_TARGET_* cleared to exercise the baked-default config tests.
follow-ups: none

WARD-OUTCOME: merge-ready <details><summary>details</summary> workflow: pull-requests-and-merge; review summary: skipped (review gate skipped by ~/.ward/config.yaml default) retrospective: the surface change stayed small, but the shared capacity helper had to cover both local and brokered rendering cleanly. confidence: high surprises: the repo test verb needed WARD_TARGET_* cleared to exercise the baked-default config tests. follow-ups: none </details>