Multi-AI Orchestrator Skill

This skill is the entry point for all research and multi-AI workflows. It routes to the right specialist skill or, for arbitrary tasks, runs the engine directly and consolidates generically. Follow the phases below.

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RUNTIME RULES — READ BEFORE ACTING

This skill operates in two modes depending on where it runs:

Code tab (Mac — Darwin): Use ONLY the Playwright engine (Phase 2). NEVER use Claude-in-Chrome MCP tools, computer-use tools, or any manual browser tools. They conflict with the engine and defeat parallel execution.

Cowork tab (Linux sandbox): The Playwright engine cannot run here. Use ONLY the Claude-in-Chrome MCP path (Phase 2-Cowork). The engine Python script will fail or produce empty sessions in this environment.

Phase 0a below detects the runtime. Follow its output to determine which path to take.

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Phase 0a — Runtime Detection

Run this before anything else to determine which execution path to use:

python3 - <<'EOF'
import sys, shutil, socket
runtime = "cowork"
if sys.platform != "linux":
    runtime = "code-tab"
elif shutil.which("google-chrome") or shutil.which("chromium"):
    runtime = "code-tab"
else:
    try:
        s = socket.create_connection(("localhost", 9222), timeout=1)
        s.close()
        runtime = "code-tab"
    except OSError:
        pass
print(f"RUNTIME: {runtime}")
EOF

• RUNTIME: code-tab → continue to Phase 0, then follow the Code Tab path (Phases 1–2)
• RUNTIME: cowork → continue to Phase 0, then follow the Cowork path (Phase 2-Cowork)

Tell the user which runtime was detected before proceeding.

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Phase 0 — Route Decision

Identify the user's intent and announce your routing decision before acting.

Routing decision tree:

"landscape" / "market map" / "ecosystem" / "vendor landscape" / "market overview"
"competitive landscape" / "category survey" / "industry landscape" / "Gartner-style"
  → ROUTE: landscape-researcher skill (invoke its Phase 0 onward)

Product URL + research intent
  OR specific product name + evaluate / benchmark / research / analyze
  OR "competitive intelligence" / "capabilities report"
  → ROUTE: solution-researcher skill (invoke its Phase 0 onward)

"comparison matrix" / "add platform" / "update matrix" / "combo column"
"verify ticks" / "reorder matrix"
  → ROUTE: comparator skill (invoke its Phase 0 onward)

Everything else (arbitrary prompt, general question, multi-source analysis
without a specific product or landscape intent)
  → Direct multi-AI (continue to Phase 1 below)

Follow-up detection:

• If the user's message refers to the previous research ("follow up", "also ask", "additionally ask them", "what did they say about X", "ask the same AIs"): → add --followup to the Phase 2 command (reuses open conversations)
• If the topic is clearly new/different: → omit --followup (engine will start new conversations in the same tabs)

Tell the user which route you've selected: "Routing to [skill name] — [brief reason]." Accept a user override: if they say "no, do X instead", re-route accordingly.

Before proceeding to Phase 1 / the specialist skill, display this data-sharing notice and immediately continue — do NOT wait for a response:

ℹ️ MultAI — sending to Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini. Each service may retain your prompt per its own data policy. Type cancel at any time to abort.

Invoking /multai is the user's consent. Proceed to Phase 1 immediately after displaying the notice. Only stop if the user explicitly says "cancel".

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Phase 1 — Setup (Code Tab · Direct Multi-AI Path)

Skip this phase if you've routed to a specialist skill, or if runtime is Cowork (go to Phase 2-Cowork).

Accept inputs:

• Prompt — the full prompt text, or a path to a prompt file (required)
• Mode — DEEP or REGULAR (default: REGULAR). If the prompt text begins with DEEP or REGULAR as its very first word/line (MultAI mode prefix), extract that word as the mode and strip it from the prompt text before writing to the temp file. The cleaned prompt (without the prefix) is what gets sent to platforms.
• Condensed prompt (optional) — shorter version for constrained platforms
• Topic label (optional) — used for naming the output archive

If the prompt is inline text, extract any leading mode prefix, then write the cleaned prompt to a temp file:

cat > /tmp/orchestrator-prompt.md << 'PROMPT_EOF'
[PROMPT TEXT HERE — without the leading DEEP/REGULAR prefix word]
PROMPT_EOF

Verify environment:

Check that the engine's virtual environment exists and is bootstrapped:

ls skills/orchestrator/engine/.venv/bin/python 2>/dev/null && echo "venv OK" || echo "venv MISSING"

If the output is venv MISSING, stop and tell the user:

"The MultAI engine environment is not set up yet. Please run the one-time bootstrap from the repo root:

bash setup.sh

This installs Playwright, Chromium, and openpyxl into an isolated virtual environment. Run bash setup.sh --with-fallback to also install the browser-use agent. Once complete, re-invoke this skill."

Do not proceed to Phase 2 until the venv exists.

Optional — enable browser-use fallback:

If ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (or GOOGLE_API_KEY) is set in the environment or .env file, two additional safety nets activate automatically:

• Per-step fallback: when a Playwright selector fails at any individual step (configure, inject, send, extract), a browser-use agent takes over that step
• Platform-level fallback: if a platform returns STATUS_FAILED after all Playwright steps failed, a full browser-use agent session retries the entire interaction from navigation to extraction

Neither fallback is required — the engine runs without an API key.

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Phase 2 — Run the Engine (Code Tab)

cd <workspace-root>

python3 skills/orchestrator/engine/orchestrator.py \
    --prompt-file <PROMPT_FILE_PATH> \
    --mode [DEEP|REGULAR] \
    --task-name "<Short Task Name>"

Output goes to reports/<Short Task Name>/. The engine auto-collates all responses into reports/<task-name>/<task-name> - Raw AI Responses.md.

CLI options:

Flag	Required	Description
--prompt-file	Yes*	Path to prompt file
--prompt	Yes*	Literal prompt text (mutually exclusive with --prompt-file)
--task-name	Recommended	Short run label — output saved to reports/{task-name}/
--condensed-prompt	No	Condensed prompt text for constrained platforms
--condensed-prompt-file	No	Path to condensed prompt file (alternative to --condensed-prompt)
--mode	No	DEEP or REGULAR (default: REGULAR)
--output-dir	No	Override output directory (ignored if --task-name is set)
--platforms	No	Comma-separated platform names, or all (default: all)
--chrome-profile	No	Chrome profile name (default: Default)
--headless	No	Run headlessly (not recommended)
--fresh	No	Force launch new Chrome instance
--tier	No	Subscription tier: free or paid (default: free)
--skip-rate-check	No	Bypass rate limit pre-flight checks
--budget	No	Show rate limit budget summary and exit
--stagger-delay	No	Seconds between platform launches (default: 5)
--followup	No	Reuse existing conversations (same topic follow-up). Omit for new topics.

Timeouts:

• REGULAR mode: 15-minute global ceiling → set Bash timeout to 20 min
• DEEP mode: 50-minute global ceiling → set Bash timeout to 60 min

Rate Limiting

The engine tracks usage per platform and enforces conservative rate limits.

1. Pre-flight check: platforms over budget are skipped with rate_limited status
2. Staggered launch: platforms launch 5 seconds apart (configurable)
3. Cooldown enforcement: minimum time between consecutive runs per platform
4. Usage persistence: state saved to ~/.chrome-playwright/rate-limit-state.json
5. Runtime detection: all 7 platforms check for rate-limit banners

Check budget before running:

python3 skills/orchestrator/engine/orchestrator.py --prompt "test" --budget --tier free

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Phase 2-Cowork — Cowork Path (Claude-in-Chrome)

Only follow this phase if Phase 0a detected RUNTIME: cowork. Skip if Code tab.

The Playwright engine cannot run in the Cowork sandbox. Use the Claude-in-Chrome MCP path instead: Claude controls the user's real Mac Chrome directly, where sessions are already authenticated.

Step 1 — Check Claude-in-Chrome connection

mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__tabs_context_mcp(createIfEmpty=False)

If the result contains "not connected" or similar failure:

MultAI requires Claude-in-Chrome to run in Cowork.

To continue:

• Option A (Cowork): Open Chrome → ensure the Claude-in-Chrome extension is installed and signed in → retry this skill
• Option B (Code tab): Switch to the Code tab where MultAI runs natively with full parallel execution across all 7 platforms simultaneously

The Code tab is recommended for best performance.

Stop here. Do not attempt the Playwright engine.

If connected: proceed to Step 2 and inform the user:

Running in Cowork mode — using Claude-in-Chrome path. Platforms will be queried sequentially (one at a time) rather than in parallel. Make sure you are signed into the AI platforms in Chrome.

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Step 2 — Sequential platform execution

Query each platform in order: Gemini → Claude.ai → ChatGPT → Copilot → Perplexity → Grok → DeepSeek

For each platform, use this pattern (adapt selectors from the table below):

a. Open or reuse a tab:

mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__tabs_create_mcp()        # get tabId
mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__navigate(url=PLATFORM_URL, tabId=tabId)

Wait ~3s for page load.

b. Check if signed in:

mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__get_page_text(tabId=tabId)

If the page text contains a login signal (see table below), skip this platform and note needs_login.

c. Inject the prompt:

For contenteditable inputs:

mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__javascript_tool(action="javascript_exec", tabId=tabId, text="""
    const el = document.querySelector('INPUT_SEL');
    el.focus();
    document.execCommand('selectAll');
    document.execCommand('insertText', false, PROMPT_TEXT);
    el.dispatchEvent(new Event('input', {bubbles: true}));
""")

For textarea inputs:

mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__javascript_tool(action="javascript_exec", tabId=tabId, text="""
    const el = document.querySelector('INPUT_SEL');
    const nativeInput = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(window.HTMLTextAreaElement.prototype, 'value').set;
    nativeInput.call(el, PROMPT_TEXT);
    el.dispatchEvent(new Event('input', {bubbles: true}));
""")

d. Submit:

mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__javascript_tool(action="javascript_exec", tabId=tabId, text="""
    document.querySelector('SUBMIT_SEL').click();
""")

Or use mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__find + mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__form_input as fallbacks.

e. Wait and extract: Poll every 15s up to 10 minutes (REGULAR) / 20 minutes (DEEP):

mcp__Claude_in_Chrome__get_page_text(tabId=tabId)

Declare complete when the page text has not grown for 2 consecutive polls.

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Platform selectors reference

Platform	URL	Input selector	Input type	Submit selector	Login signals
Google Gemini	https://gemini.google.com	rich-textarea .ql-editor, div[contenteditable='true'][role='textbox']	contenteditable	button[aria-label='Send message']	"Sign in", "Log in"
Claude.ai	https://claude.ai/new	div[contenteditable='true']	contenteditable	button[aria-label*='Send']	"Sign in", "Continue with Google"
ChatGPT	https://chat.openai.com	#prompt-textarea	contenteditable	button[data-testid='send-button']	"Log in", "Sign up"
Copilot	https://copilot.microsoft.com	textarea[placeholder*='Message']	textarea	button[aria-label*='Submit']	"Sign in", "Microsoft account"
Perplexity	https://www.perplexity.ai	textarea[placeholder*='Ask'], div[contenteditable='true']	contenteditable	button[type='submit']	"Log in", "Sign up"
Grok	https://grok.com	div[contenteditable='true'].ProseMirror, div[contenteditable='true']	contenteditable	button[aria-label*='Send']	"Log in", "Sign in"
DeepSeek	https://chat.deepseek.com	textarea#chat-input, textarea	textarea	button[aria-label*='Send']	"Log in", "Sign in"

Canonical selectors are also maintained in skills/orchestrator/engine/platforms/chrome_selectors.py.

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Step 3 — Collect results

After all platforms complete (or are skipped), write each response to: reports/<task-name>/<Platform>-raw-response.md

Then run collation manually:

python3 skills/orchestrator/engine/collate_responses.py reports/<task-name>/ "<Task Name>"

Proceed to Phase 5 (Invoke Consolidator) using the collated archive.

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Phase 3 — Read Results

After the engine completes, outputs are in reports/<task-name>/:

File	Description
status.json	Per-platform terminal status and metadata
{Platform}-raw-response.md	Individual raw response per platform
{task-name} - Raw AI Responses.md	Auto-generated archive — all responses collated

Platform statuses: complete / partial / failed / timeout / rate_limited / needs_login

Login-needed platforms (needs_login): the engine automatically waits 90 seconds after the parallel run completes, printing a sign-in prompt for each affected platform. After the countdown, those platforms are retried. Inform the user of this if any platform shows needs_login in the output — they should watch the terminal and sign in during the countdown.

Genuinely failed platforms (failed): if ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set, the engine will attempt a full browser-use agent run for each failed platform after the main run.

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Phase 4 — Auto-Collation

The engine automatically runs collate_responses.py at end of each run. To re-run collation manually on an existing output dir:

python3 skills/orchestrator/engine/collate_responses.py reports/<task-name>/ "<Task Name>"

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Phase 5 — Invoke Consolidator (Direct Multi-AI Path)

Skip this phase if you've routed to a specialist skill — they invoke the consolidator themselves.

Invoke the consolidator skill with:

• Raw responses archive: reports/{task-name}/{task-name} - Raw AI Responses.md
• No consolidation guide (generic synthesis — the consolidator applies its default structure)
• No domain knowledge file (unless the user specified a domain)

The consolidator will produce a generic synthesis covering: summary, consensus areas, disagreements, unique insights, gaps, and source reliability.

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Phase 6 — Self-Improve

After each successful direct multi-AI run, append a run log entry and note any observations about the engine, rate limiting, or routing logic.

Scope boundary: Only update files inside skills/orchestrator/. Never modify other skills' files or the domain files.

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Run Log

<!-- Append new entries at the top of this section after each run -->

2026-03-18 — Platform Resilience Code Review + Improvements (2 rounds)

• Trigger: Post 3-run test round gap resolution, quality review, and pre-existing weakness resolution
• Files changed: platforms/chatgpt.py, platforms/claude_ai.py, platforms/copilot.py, platforms/grok.py, platforms/gemini.py, platforms/perplexity.py, platforms/deepseek.py, platforms/base.py (8 files)
• Round 1 fixes (9 bugs): ChatGPT DR quota detection (check_rate_limit + extract_response guard); blob interceptor robustness (bind+duck-typing+try-catch); Claude.ai stable-state fallback (12-poll); Copilot/Grok/Perplexity/DeepSeek prompt-echo import added; Grok premature-completion guard; expanded rate-limit patterns in Gemini (8 new), Perplexity (6 new), DeepSeek (5 new)
• Round 2 fixes (2 bugs): ChatGPT quota guard threshold removed (was < 1000, masked by UI chrome); DeepSeek marker scan echo-guard added (replaced blind rfind with full-scan + is_prompt_echo)
• Pre-existing fixes (3 items): Copilot check_rate_limit false-positive patterns tightened ("too many"→"too many requests", "try again"→"try again later"); _inject_exec_command deprecation-proofed (return-value check + _inject_clipboard_paste auto-fallback); ChatGPT DR coordinate extraction rewritten with proportional iframe offsets + text-selector verification for Copy menu
• Docs updated: Architecture-and-Design.md v4.2, Test-Strategy-and-Plan.md v4.3
• Test result: make check 93/93 PASS after all rounds

2026-03-18 — E2E Platform Regression (REGULAR + DEEP modes)

• Platforms tested: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude.ai, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Perplexity (all 7)
• Modes: REGULAR (all 7) + DEEP (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, Perplexity)
• E2E-01 ChatGPT REGULAR: PASS — response extracted, correct routing
• E2E-02 Gemini REGULAR: PASS — Thinking model selected, response extracted
• E2E-03 Claude.ai REGULAR: PASS — tool-use limit noted mid-long response (acceptable)
• E2E-04 Copilot REGULAR: PASS — 21,627 chars extracted
• E2E-05 Solution-researcher pipeline: PASS — full Northflank CIR produced via 4/6 platforms
• E2E-06 Grok DEEP: PASS — 12,208 chars extracted
• E2E-07 ChatGPT DEEP: BLOCKED — DR quota exhausted; "lighter version" message returned (~381 chars); quota resets 2026-03-28
• E2E-08 DeepSeek REGULAR: PASS — 22,111 chars extracted (DOM chrome noted in content)
• E2E-09 Agent fallback: PASS — fallback path verified via code inspection
• E2E-10 Perplexity REGULAR: PASS — 1 request incremented (state: 3/50 budget)
• E2E-11 Rate-limit detection: PASS — mock HTML tests verified ChatGPT + Gemini check_rate_limit() detection
• E2E-12 Rate-limit state persistence: PASS — rate_limit_state.json persists across runs; Perplexity 2→3 confirmed
• Engine observations: CDP reuse stable; staggered_run scheduling working; post_send Gemini "Start research" click path stable
• Known issue: E2E-07 ChatGPT DR extraction cannot be verified until 2026-03-28 quota reset