/penguin-orchestration

name: penguin-orchestration
description: Drive PenguinHarness itself from a shell — list and create agents and sessions, send and steer messages mid-flight, and query costs and scheduled tasks via the penguin CLI over the local server.
version: 2026.10.15.1

Penguin Orchestration

The `penguin` CLI is a thin client of the PenguinHarness server. Inside a harness agent session it reaches the same server that is running you, so you can orchestrate the platform yourself: list and create agents, start conversations with them, steer those conversations while they run, and query costs and scheduled tasks.

Before you start

If the user's message only invokes this skill (e.g. "use penguin-orchestration skill") without a concrete request, ask the user what they want to orchestrate. Read-only commands (`project ls`, `agent ls`, `session ls`, `session log`, `cost`, `schedule ls`) are always safe; do not create agents, start sessions or send messages until the goal is clear.

How the connection works

• **Inside a harness agent session** (you, now): every command subprocess has `PENGUIN_API_URL`, `PENGUIN_API_TOKEN`, `PENGUIN_PROJECT_ID`, `PENGUIN_AGENT_ID` and `PENGUIN_SESSION_ID` injected, so `penguin` commands automatically reach your own server with your project and agent as the defaults — no login step.
• **Outside an agent** (a human shell): the CLI attaches to the running local server via its lock file, or auto-starts one; the local `<data-root>/api-token` file (0600) authenticates it.
• You are operating the same server that runs you: sessions and agents you create appear live in the web UI, where the user sees and owns everything you spawn.
• The injected token is admin-equivalent. Act accordingly: stick to what the task requires, and prefer read-only commands until a mutation is clearly needed.

Orient first

Before mutating anything, see what exists:

penguin project ls          # projects on this server
penguin agent ls            # agents in the current project
penguin session ls --json   # the project's sessions, with running state

`--json` on any listing gives machine-parseable output.

Command surface

penguin run -m <msg> [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>] [--workspace <path>]
            [--model-id <id> --provider <p>] [--approve <mode>] [--thinking <level>]
            [--session <session_id>] [--title <title>] [--background]
            [--timeout <duration>] [--goal [budget]] [--json]
penguin session ls [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>] [--days <n>] [-a|--all] [--json]
penguin session input [session_id] [-m <text>] [--timeout <duration>]
                      [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>] [--json] [--server <url>]
penguin session log [session_id] [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>] [--tail <n>]
                    [-f|--follow] [--timeout <duration>] [--json]
penguin session rename [session_id] -t <title> [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>] [--json]
penguin agent ls [--project-id <id>] [--json]
penguin agent create --agent-id <id> [--name <s>] [--description <s>] [--skills <a,b>]
                     [--project-id <id>] [--json]
penguin project ls [--json]
penguin cost [--days <n>] [--from <d> --to <d>] [--by date|agent|model|session]
             [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>] [--json]
penguin schedule ls [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>] [--json]
penguin schedule add <name> --prompt <s> --start-at <ISO|now> [--period <duration>]
                    [--end-at <ISO>] [--session-id <id> | --workspace <path>
                    [--model-id <id> --provider <p>]] [--disabled]
                    [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>]
penguin schedule update <name> [<same field flags>] [--enable|--disable]
                    [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>]
penguin schedule rm <name> [--project-id <id>] [--agent-id <id>]

• `run` starts a task and waits, rendering the conversation, unless `--background` — then it prints the new session id and exits while the server keeps running the task. `--session <session_id>` runs the task in an existing session instead of creating one; the model reference is the `--provider` + `--model-id` pair (both or neither); `--goal [budget]` runs in goal mode — the session loops until the agent declares the goal complete, with an optional spend budget.
• **Caller-context defaults.** Inside a harness agent, a session-creating `run` fills every field you leave unspecified from your own live session, per field independently: `--workspace`, the `--model-id`/`--provider` pair, `--approve` and `--thinking` inherit the caller's values — the same convention as `run_subagent` parent inheritance. Precedence: explicit flag > caller value > plain fallback (cwd, the Project default model, `allow-all`, none — used wholesale if the caller lookup fails, with a dim stderr note). So inside an agent, `penguin run -m "..."` alone typically does the right thing; pass flags only to diverge.
• `--timeout <duration>` (`30s`, `5m`, `2h`, or bare seconds) bounds the wait of a foreground `run`, a `session input`, or a `session log -f`. Expiry is a soft yield, not an error: the command exits 0 while the task keeps running server-side, printing a still-running note that names the follow-up commands (`--json` prints `{sessionId, status: "running", text}` with the text so far). `--timeout 0` (also `0s`) returns immediately after delivery — the same note without collected text (`--json`: `{sessionId, status: "running"}`); on a bare poll it snapshots a running session instantly. `run --background` stays the idiomatic fire-and-forget for new tasks and rejects `--timeout`; `session log --timeout` requires `-f`.
• `session input` with `-m` steers a **running** session mid-turn (the agent absorbs it as a course correction within the current task) or starts a new turn on an idle one; it waits for the reply unless a `--timeout` bounds the wait (`--timeout 0` = deliver and return at once). Bare `session input [session