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Each recipe is a working snippet plus one line of context. They compose freely. If you want a ready-to-run outcome before writing workflow code, start with Starters or run bunx smithers-orchestrator starters.

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Implement → review loop

Iterate until a reviewer signs off, with a hard cap. 
<Loop
  until={ctx.outputMaybe(outputs.review, { nodeId: "review" })?.approved === true}
  maxIterations={5}
  onMaxReached="return-last"
>
  <Sequence>
    <Task id="implement" output={outputs.impl} agent={implementer}>
      {`${ctx.input.task}\nPrior review: ${ctx.latest(outputs.review, "review")?.feedback ?? "none"}`}
    </Task>
    <Task id="review" output={outputs.review} agent={reviewer}>
      {`Review the latest implementation. Return { approved, feedback }.`}
    </Task>
  </Sequence>
</Loop>
Stop conditions must be measurable (boolean, count, array length). Avoid “looks good” prompts — agents are literal.

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Parallel multi-agent review

Two models catch different bugs. Cost = the slower model’s latency. 
<Parallel>
  <Task id={`${ticket.id}:review-claude`} output={outputs.review} agent={claude} continueOnFail>
    <ReviewPrompt reviewer="claude" />
  </Task>
  <Task id={`${ticket.id}:review-codex`} output={outputs.review} agent={codex} continueOnFail>
    <ReviewPrompt reviewer="codex" />
  </Task>
</Parallel>
continueOnFail keeps one model’s timeout from blocking the other.

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Approval gate with branching

Decision data drives the next branch. 
<Approval
  id="ship-decision"
  output={outputs.shipDecision}
  request={{ title: `Ship v${ctx.input.version}?`, summary: testReport }}
  onDeny="continue"
/>

{ctx.outputMaybe(outputs.shipDecision, { nodeId: "ship-decision" })?.approved
  ? <Task id="release" .../>
  : <Task id="rollback" .../>}
onDeny: "fail" aborts, "continue" proceeds without the gated branch, "skip" skips the gated tasks.

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Retry policy & timeouts

<Task
  id="api-call"
  agent={agent}
  retries={3}
  retryPolicy={{ backoff: "exponential", initialDelayMs: 1000 }}
  timeoutMs={30_000}
>
  Call external API.
</Task>
Defaults to fit the work: simple tasks 30–60s + 1–2 retries, tool-heavy 2–5m + 1–2, large generations 5–10m + 0–1. Exponential backoff for rate-limited APIs.

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Optional, non-blocking step

<Task id="lint" output={outputs.lint} agent={linter} continueOnFail>
  Run lint checks. Pipeline continues if this fails.
</Task>
Use for nice-to-have telemetry, lint, optional analysis.

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Conditional branch on output

const analysis = ctx.outputMaybe(outputs.analysis, { nodeId: "analyze" });

{analysis?.risk === "high" ? (
  <Task id="escalate" output={outputs.escalation} agent={escalator}>
    {`Critical: ${analysis.summary}`}
  </Task>
) : null}
ctx.outputMaybe for control flow.

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Dynamic ticket discovery

Discover work, run each ticket, re-render to catch the next batch. Scales to large projects. 
export default smithers((ctx) => {
  const discover = ctx.latest(outputs.discover, "discover");
  const unfinished = (discover?.tickets ?? []).filter(
    (t) => !ctx.latest(outputs.report, `${t.id}:report`)
  );

  return (
    <Workflow name="big-project">
      <Sequence>
        <Branch if={unfinished.length === 0} then={<Discover />} />
        {unfinished.map((t) => (
          <TicketPipeline key={t.id} ticket={t} />
        ))}
      </Sequence>
    </Workflow>
  );
});
Use stable IDs (t.id, not array index) so resume matches.

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Coherent task with tools

One context boundary per logical operation, not per step. Splitting too finely loses cross-step reasoning. 
<Task id="fix-config-bugs" output={outputs.result} agent={agentWithTools}>
  {`Analyze config files in ${ctx.input.dir}, find bugs, fix them, write results.
   Use read, edit, bash. Return { summary, filesChanged }.`}
</Task>

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Per-agent least-privilege tools

import { AnthropicAgent } from "smithers-orchestrator";

const analyst     = new AnthropicAgent({ model, system: "Return JSON" });               // no tools
const reviewer    = new AnthropicAgent({ model, system: "...", tools: { read, grep } }); // read-only
const implementer = new AnthropicAgent({ model, system: "...", tools: { read, write, edit, bash } });
Match the tool surface to the role.

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Side-effect tools with idempotency

External mutations must mark themselves and use the runtime idempotency key. 
import { defineTool } from "smithers-orchestrator/tools";

const createTicket = defineTool({
  name: "jira.create",
  schema: z.object({ title: z.string() }),
  sideEffect: true,
  idempotent: false,
  async execute(args, ctx) {
    return jira.createIssue({ ...args, idempotencyKey: ctx.idempotencyKey });
  },
});
Retries reuse the same idempotency key, so a successful side effect from attempt 1 isn’t doubled by attempt 2.

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Caching for iterative authoring

<Workflow name="report" cache>
  <Task
    id="analyze"
    output={outputs.analysis}
    agent={analyst}
    cache={{ by: (ctx) => ({ repo: ctx.input.repo }), version: "v2" }}
  >
    {`Analyze ${ctx.input.repo}`}
  </Task>
  <Task id="report" output={outputs.report} agent={reporter} deps={{ analyze: outputs.analysis }}>
    {(deps) => `Report on ${deps.analyze.summary}`}
  </Task>
</Workflow>
Tweak the downstream Task without re-running the expensive upstream one. Don’t cache side effects.

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Schemas in their own file

// schemas.ts
export const schemas = {
  analysis: z.object({ summary: z.string(), issues: z.array(z.string()) }),
  review:   z.object({ approved: z.boolean(), feedback: z.string() }),
  report:   z.object({ title: z.string(), body: z.string() }),
};

// workflow.tsx
import { schemas } from "./schemas";
const { Workflow, smithers, outputs } = createSmithers(schemas);
All data shapes in one place; new contributors read schemas.ts first.

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MDX prompt with auto-injected schema

{/* Review.mdx */}
Review this code:

**Files**: {props.files.join(", ")}
**Tests**: {props.testsPassed}/{props.testsRun} passing

Return JSON matching schema:
{props.schema}
props.schema is the JSON-schema description of the Task’s outputSchema, auto-injected. Keeps the prompt and the validator in sync.

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Custom hooks over ctx

function useReviewState(ticketId: string) {
  const ctx = useCtx();
  const claude = ctx.latest("review", `${ticketId}:review-claude`);
  const codex  = ctx.latest("review", `${ticketId}:review-codex`);
  return { claude, codex, allApproved: !!(claude?.approved && codex?.approved) };
}
Workflow logic factors out into hooks the same way React UI logic does.

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VCS revert & per-attempt snapshots

Smithers records a jj change ID (or git SHA) per attempt. Revert any attempt to its exact workspace state: 
bunx smithers-orchestrator revert workflow.tsx --run-id <id> --node-id implement --attempt 1
Useful when an experiment leaves the worktree in a bad state.

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Time travel: fork, replay, diff

bunx smithers-orchestrator timeline <run-id> --tree
bunx smithers-orchestrator diff <run-id> <node-id>
bunx smithers-orchestrator fork workflow.tsx --run-id <id> --frame 5 --reset-node analyze --label exp1
bunx smithers-orchestrator replay workflow.tsx --run-id <id> --frame 5 --restore-vcs
Fork makes a child run without starting it (add --run to start immediately); replay also makes a child run but immediately resumes it. --restore-vcs checks out the original revision so re-execution sees the same source.

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Scoring tasks

import { schemaAdherenceScorer, latencyScorer, llmJudge } from "smithers-orchestrator/scorers";

<Task
  id="analyze"
  output={outputs.analysis}
  agent={analyst}
  scorers={{
    schema:  { scorer: schemaAdherenceScorer() },
    latency: { scorer: latencyScorer({ targetMs: 5000 }) },
    quality: {
      scorer: llmJudge({ model: claude, prompt: "Rate the analysis quality 0-1" }),
      sampling: { kind: "ratio", ratio: 0.1 },
    },
  }}
>
  Analyze...
</Task>
Scorers run after the task and never block. Sample expensive scorers with ratio.

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Eval suites for regressions

{"id":"happy-path","input":{"prompt":"Draft release notes"},"expected":{"status":"finished"}}
{"id":"quality-gate","input":{"prompt":"Find risky changes"},"expected":{"status":"finished","outputContains":{"analysis":[{"riskLevel":"low"}]}}}

bunx smithers-orchestrator eval workflow.tsx --cases evals/smoke.jsonl --suite smoke --force
Use eval suites when you need repeatable workflow-level checks. Assertions support status, output (exact match), and outputContains (partial match). Reports land in .smithers/evals/<suite>.json; the command exits non-zero on failures.

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Continue-as-new for very long runs

A run with too much accumulated state hands off to a fresh run with carried state. 
<ContinueAsNew when={iterationCount > 100} carry={{ summary: rolledUpState }} />
Avoids unbounded SQLite growth in long-lived loops.

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Hot reload while authoring

bunx smithers-orchestrator up workflow.tsx --hot
Edits to the workflow source apply on the next render frame without losing in-flight task state. Schema changes still require a fresh run.

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Fork agent session context

Every agent task produces a reusable session snapshot. fork starts a new task from a copy of another task’s final context — without mutating the source. 
<Task id="investigate" agent={claude} output={outputs.investigation}>
  Understand the bug and identify possible fixes.
</Task>

<Parallel>
  <Task id="minimal-fix" agent={claude} fork="investigate" output={outputs.patch}>
    Try the minimal fix.
  </Task>
  <Task id="refactor-fix" agent={claude} fork="investigate" output={outputs.patch}>
    Try the refactor fix.
  </Task>
</Parallel>
fork adds the source as a dependency (the forked task waits for it), copies its conversation into a fresh session, then submits the new prompt. Both branches above start from the same investigation and never affect each other. Chain it for follow-ups (plan → implement → verify); inside a <Loop> it forks the latest completed snapshot for that id. See <Task> fork.