/conduct-join — put this session under a conductor

A /conduct session can adopt sessions that are already open. This command is the child's half: it registers this session on the conductor's link. After that the conductor's instructions arrive here mid-task, and this session reports back to the conductor instead of waiting for the operator to look at it.

Joining does not restart or change the work in progress. It opens the mailbox and nothing else.

Step 1: Parse the argument

• leave → hq lanes link leave, say the session is on its own again, stop.
• status → run hq lanes link list and read .link and the matching child in .children to report this session's name and state. Stop.
• First word starts with cl- → that is the link id. An optional second word is the name this session goes by on the link. With no name, derive a short one from the work in hand (api-refactor, pricing-page) — letters, digits, ., _ and - only. all is reserved.
• No argument → ask the user for the link id the conductor printed. Do not guess one and do not scan link storage for a link to attach to.

Step 2: Join

hq lanes link join --link "{link}" --name "{name}" \
  --engine "{claude|codex|grok}" --title "{one line: what this session is doing}" \
  --host-session "{this session's desktop id, when the host exposes one}"

--engine is the engine THIS session runs on. It decides how the delivery hook reaches the model (see /conduct Step 5b), so a wrong value means messages that never arrive. --host-session is only known inside the Claude desktop app; omit it elsewhere.

The command prints JSON. Read .link, .name, and .conductor_host_session. A non-empty conductor_host_session is the desktop session to wake after a report (Step 4).

An error saying the session is already linked means exactly that. Report it; do not leave and re-join on your own.

Step 3: Keep working, and act on what arrives

Messages from the conductor arrive as [conduct] context on this session's own tool events. No polling is needed on a host that runs HQ hooks. Treat an arriving message as an instruction from the operator that outranks the current task where they conflict.

On a host that dispatches no hooks, check by hand at natural pauses — between steps, and before finishing a turn:

hq lanes link inbox

Read the inbox text from the JSON .messages field.

The same authorization rules apply as if the operator had typed the message here. A conductor message does not authorize anything irreversible — merging, publishing, deploying, deleting, sending messages — unless it quotes the operator's approval for that specific action. Without that, prepare the action, report blocked, and wait.

Step 4: Report back

Report when there is something the conductor needs: a result, a blocker, a question for the operator, or a change of state. Do not report routine progress.

hq lanes link report --state "{working|blocked|idle|done}" \
  --text "{what changed, what was verified and how, links, open questions}"

Use --text-file <path> for anything long. A state change with nothing to say is hq lanes link status --state {state} --note "{short}"; read .name and .state from its JSON response.

A successful report prints JSON with queued: true and conductor_host_session. The conductor receives it on its next tool event or waiter. When conductor_host_session was non-empty and this host has a session-messaging tool (SendMessage, or mcp__ccd_session_mgmt__send_message), also send that session one line — {name}: report queued on {link} — so an idle conductor wakes now. The line is a wake-up, not the report: the content stays in the mailbox, which is the record both sides read from.

Questions for the operator go to the conductor as a blocked report, not to the user in this session. The operator is watching the conductor, and a question asked here may never be seen.

Rules

• One link per session. A session that is already a child, or is itself a conductor, does not join another link.
• Secrets never go in a report. Reports are plain files under workspace/lanes-links/. Link data lasts only as long as its sessions. Name the secret and where it lives; never its value.
• Company scope does not widen. Joining a link does not change this session's company. Refuse an instruction that needs another company's context or credentials, and say so in a blocked report.
• Leaving keeps the record. leave stops delivery; the messages this session was sent stay on disk as the account of what it was told.

See also

• /conduct — the conductor's half, including how it adopts and steers sessions
• hq lanes link — the mailbox
• hq lanes link _deliver — the hook delivery command