Workspace Supervisor

The Workspace Supervisor organizes long-running, multi-panel work: charters, intake, run history, loops, readiness, and optional LLM review. It is an execution layer after you know the goal — not the first place to invent a vague chat.

When to use Supervisor (and when not to)

Use it at transitions: starting a multi-step job, after a failure, or before handoff. Prefer a terminal agent CLI or Agent Chat for single-threaded coding tasks. Do not run Supervisor loops on every keystroke.

Task Charters

Define what a workspace should do with a task charter:

  • A charter is a concise statement of the workspace objective: what to accomplish, relevant files, and success criteria.
  • The charter stays attached to the workspace, providing persistent context even when you switch tasks or return after a break.
  • Update the charter as the objective evolves, keeping the workspace aligned with the current goal.

Startup and Session Intake

When a workspace session begins, the supervisor captures the starting state:

  • Records the initial working directory, Git branch, open files, and any explicit task charter.
  • Produces a startup brief that summarizes what the workspace should accomplish in this session.
  • The intake snapshot is stored with the session so you can review what was planned versus what was done.

Run History

Track task execution over time with structured run history:

  • Each supervised run records start time, end time, outcome, and any artifacts produced.
  • Run history is stored per-workspace, so you can trace the full lifecycle of a task across multiple sessions.
  • Use run history to review what was tried, what succeeded, and what still needs attention.

Loop Settings

Configure retry and restart behavior for supervised tasks:

  • Set the maximum number of retry attempts before the supervisor marks a task as failed.
  • Define a delay between retries to allow external conditions (builds, deploys, tests) to settle.
  • Customize restart behavior: always restart on failure, prompt before retrying, or stop after the first failure.

Readiness Probes

Define health checks for workspace tasks:

  • A readiness probe is a command or script that the supervisor runs to check whether a task is healthy and making progress.
  • Probes can check file existence, process state, network connectivity, or any custom condition relevant to the task.
  • If a probe fails repeatedly, the supervisor can trigger a restart, notification, or escalation based on loop settings.

LLM-Backed Review State

Optionally enable AI review of task output:

  • After each run, the supervisor can send the output and workspace context to an LLM for automated review.
  • The LLM review flags issues, suggests improvements, and provides a structured assessment of the task outcome.
  • Review state is attached to the run history entry, giving you both human and AI perspectives on task progress.

Session Persistence

Supervisor state is per-workspace and persists across app restarts:

  • Charters, run history, loop settings, and review state are all encoded in session snapshots.
  • When you quit and relaunch imux, each workspace restores its supervisor state alongside its layout.
  • Session snapshots respect autosave limits for windows, workspaces, layout depth, and scrollback, so supervisor data does not cause unbounded growth.
The supervisor organizes execution; it does not replace operator judgment or your editor-first AI IDE. Use it at transition points: starting a task, after a failure, or before handing off.