session-flow/workflow: context-driven continuation router evolution (aihero lane 2)

[kyle-sexton]

Context

The pocock-course-lanes build deliverable (Q9, locked and audit-confirmed in docs/topics/pocock-course-lanes/PLAN.md), design settled in aihero-course lane 2 (#2900, decisions Q20-Q22, 2026-08-17). Evolve session-flow:workflow's continue router in place; no new skill. Lanes decide but never implement; this item carries the change.

Proposed work

• Input consumption via existing informants (Q21): presence-gated pointers to orient's read patterns (durable plus off-thread state), reconcile's liveness answer, the workflow checklist, and the work-item tracker seam, exactly as the zone seam consumes context-guard's reader contract today. No duplicated reads inside the router body; zone consumption stays word-only with no inlined band values. Any new context-gathering inherits the pre-compute $-expansion ban (fix(skills): pre-compute Class 2 remainder — genuine shell expansion mixed into pre-compute in 5 plugins (canonical tracker; scope in comments, body list superseded) #1687/fix(session-flow): remove $-expansion from pre-compute so isolated agents can load these skills #1688).
• AFK-criterion question edge (Q20, adopt-modified from the course tree's question 4): a new router question asking whether the remaining work is scoped to run without human steering; a yes points to session-flow:orchestrate (if installed) for the spawn-brief decision. Delegation stays a NON-terminal: orchestrate keeps spawn ownership, and continue-in-background's explicit-intent launch gate is untouched because the router suggests, never launches. Slot the edge so the first-yes-wins ordering purposes stay stated per edge.
• Suggest-by-default output (Q9): the router emits a recommendation plus the evidence that drove it (zone word, informant findings), addressed to the human.
• Per-invocation autonomy opt-in, top tier (Q22): an explicit argument (continue auto) or explicit user words lets the router execute its routed mechanism instead of suggesting. Never a standing config; mirrors continue-in-background's explicit-words precedent.
• Autonomous tier for delegated work (Q22): codify the orchestrator relay in the handoff-relay convention section: a worker emits its own handoff at a fork point and returns the path; the orchestrator, standing in for the human, retires the worker and seeds a fresh agent with the resume prompt. Spawn-brief discipline remains orchestrate's.
• I23 reconciliation (record in the skill body where the design is stated): the mechanism menu lives only in the user-invoked skill body (the continuation-router exemption names this verbatim); nothing model-injected carries a menu; operator-channel pointers stay operator-side per context-guard's 0.5.0 audience split; autonomy initiative comes from the user's opt-in or the orchestrator, never from injected context or a self-estimated budget.

Acceptance criteria

• Router consumes plan, work-item state, and history via presence-gated informant pointers; no duplicated reads
• AFK edge present, pointing to orchestrate; delegation remains non-terminal; sibling hard gates untouched
• Suggest-by-default output shape stated; auto opt-in is per-invocation only
• Orchestrator relay codified as the autonomous tier for delegated work
• I23 reconciliation stated; no model-injected path carries the menu
• Ordering purposes stated per edge for every new or moved edge

References

• session-flow/workflow: aihero course lane 2: phase-boundaries tree re-audit and context-driven continuation router #2900 (lane decision record) and docs/upstream/aihero-course.md lane 2 rows
• plugins/session-flow/skills/workflow/context/continuation.md (the router)
• plugins/claude-config/skills/audit-instructions/reference/criteria.md (I23)
• plugins/context-guard/reference/reader-contract.md (zone consumption rules)
• Eval coverage sibling item (filed with this one)

Metadata

Field	Value
Category	unspecified
Area	session-flow
Ecosystem	unspecified