team next

Claims one record from the file the team file names, and holds it with a lease in this clone. The answer is the context line, the record's block, and one closing summary line. A seat cannot pull until team up has recorded its pane; the owner is refused, and so is a name that is not a seat. The source is a file the owner committed, or a tracker the owner's broker reads — with no broker running, next refuses and claims nothing.

Synopsis

team next [--mine | --release] [--wait] [--json]

Flags

Flag	Value	Effect
`--mine`	—	a new take keeps only records whose `assignee` is the caller's seat name; a renewal is not filtered
`--release`	—	unlink the caller's lease and print `team next: released <id>`; records no progress
`--wait`	—	re-reads the source every `tasks.cadence` while a pass finds nothing takeable, until a record is taken, the wait is stopped, or a read breaks; without `tasks.cadence` it refuses; off unless set
`--json`	—	one `team.next` document on stdout instead of the context line and block; off unless set
`--help`, `-h`	—	the usage, and exit 0

--mine and --release together are refused, and no file is written. --wait and --release together are refused the same way, and so is --wait without tasks.cadence in the team file: the pace is always the team's own declared one. --wait and --json together are refused too — a wait prints its events as they happen, which is not one document — and that refusal is plain stderr with the usage, never a document.

Who may run it

Caller	May
a declared seat of this team, on the pane the state records for that seat	pull; any declared seat, not only the orchestrator
the owner, or a name that is not a seat	nothing: `team next: only a seat of this team pulls a task; this call is <caller>`

A team that has never been started has no recorded pane, so a seat cannot pull until team up has recorded one.

Output and exit codes

Outcome	What is printed	Exit
a record was claimed, or the caller's live lease was renewed	the context line, the record's block (the `team issues` block, one record), and `team next: claimed <id>`	0
a lease was released, or there was nothing to take or to release	the context line and `team next: released <id>`, or `team next: nothing is takeable` / `team next: nothing is assigned to you` / `team next: nothing is held`	0
the wait ended on a stop signal, or a clock that did not advance	`team next: stopped waiting`	0
refused: not a seat on its recorded pane, the team file can't be read or its policy is refused, the task file is missing or not a list, nothing was taken and a record is not a task, or the broker path refused	`team next: <reason>`; under `--json`, a `team.error` document on stdout with `id` the contract row and `repair` the way out	1
the invocation can't be read, or this folder is not a git checkout	`team next: <problem>`, with the usage for the invocation; under `--json`, a `team.error` document	2

Under --json the command prints one team.next document: its schema tag first, then format, dry_run (false), status (the outcome word), action (claim, release, or none), action_summary (the same closing line the plain run prints), project, session, and task — the claimed record's id and title, or null. A claimed record prints its block only in the plain run; the document carries its id and title.

Example

.agents/team.yaml

format: 1
project: beacon
coordinator: claude-keeper
operator: claude-keeper

trust:
  - ~/.config/team/lobby
  - ~/Code/beacon

workspace:
  mode: shared

tasks:
  source: file
  path: .agents/tasks.yaml

seats:
  - role: coordinator
    name: claude-keeper
    label: coordinator
    cli: claude-code
    vendor: anthropic
    model: Claude Opus
    version: "5.5"
    launch: claude --model claude-opus-5-5

.agents/tasks.yaml

- id: m1
  title: the task title

Terminal

$ team next ; echo "exit $?"
team beacon, session "beacon"
m1  the task title
team next: claimed m1
exit 0