Differences

Part of team status — each way the file, the state and the live session disagree, and the command that repairs it.

A seat the state records waiting shows waiting for owner (<classification>) — or trust sent; recovery required — as its row, with its pane, and its one difference stands before the unnamed and launch-stopped ones. The classification is validated when the state is read, against the closed list (trust, permission, question, vendor notice, login, unknown, unsent, timeout): anything else the file holds reads unknown in the row, in the difference and in the log line the record writes, so a hand-edited or corrupted file can never print its bytes here.

Difference	Repair
`<seat> is in the file and is not running`	`team add <seat>` when something else runs, `the owner runs team up` when nothing does
`<seat>: its pane runs no CLI (the CLI ended or the session was restored)`	`the owner runs team up` (it closes the pane without input and launches the seat fresh)
`<seat>: the process in its pane is not the one team launched; nothing checks its model, account or rules`	`the owner runs team up` (it closes the pane without input and launches the seat fresh)
`<seat>: the agent in <pane> is named "x"`	`herdr --session <s> agent rename <pane> <seat>`
`<seat> runs <model> <version>; the file says <declared>` (`<declared>` is the seat's `display` spelling)	restart it (`team remove <seat> --keep`, then `team add <seat>`), or correct the file and `team approve`
`<seat> is marked stopped in the file and is running`	`team remove <seat> --keep`, or take `stopped: true` off the seat
`<seat>: waiting for owner (<classification>)`	`the owner runs team up` (it offers to open the pane, skip the seat or stop cleanly), or `team answer <seat> trust` when the classification is `trust` and the policy is `dialogs.trust: orchestrator`
`<seat>: trust sent; recovery required`	`the owner runs team up`
`<seat>: its launch stopped at "<stage>"`	`the owner runs team up (it resumes the launch)`
`<seat>: its rules were not delivered`	`team remove <seat> --keep`, then `team add <seat>`
`<seat>: its rules file is missing` / `… is a symbolic link` / `… is not a regular file` / `… has mode 0644, not 0600` / `… is not owned by this user` / `… cannot be read` / `… differs from the approved rules`	`the owner runs team up` — the seat's rules travel in a file in the project state folder, and it no longer holds the approved rules text; `status` never rewrites it
`<seat> holds text in its input box that was never sent`	`the owner clears or sends it in the pane; team does not type into a box it can't verify`
`<seat>: its launch stopped at "named", and it holds text in its input box that was never sent`	`the owner clears or sends it in the pane, then runs team up (it resumes the launch)`
`<name>: a temporary seat is recorded and is not running`	`team remove <name>`
`no watch has run for this session`	`team watch --session <s>`
`the watch's last pass was <n> minute(s) ago`	`team watch --session <s>`
`an unnamed <cli> (w1:p2) is running and is not in the file`	add the seat to the file and `team approve`, or close it
`worktree <task>: its setup failed`	`team worktree remove <task>`
`the protected checkout "." is on "x", not on "main"`	`the owner switches it back: git -C . switch main`
`the file was never approved on this machine`	the owner runs `team approve`
`approved before records were signed: run` team approve `once`, or the case a refused record names	the owner runs `team approve`
`the file differs from the approved one: <line>`	the owner runs `team approve`

The one precondition status knows and orders is the real one: the file is not the approved one. That difference is printed first, and a repair that names a command that refuses on an unapproved file — team up, team add, team worktree — is marked (after: …). Nothing else is reordered or marked: a missing or stale watch blocks no repair, and what blocks a launch is team doctor's to report. When at least one repair is the owner's, the summary line reports N difference(s), M for the owner.

A difference, and its repair

The repair is the command add starts a stopped or missing seat with:

Terminal

$ team add claude-keeper
claude-keeper: ready

Now nothing disagrees:

Terminal

$ team status ; echo "exit $?"
team status: warning, line 3: `coordinator:` is now `leads: true` on the lead's seat, and is still read
team beacon, session "beacon"
  claude-keeper  idle     Claude Opus 5.5  w2:p1
  claude-beacon  working  Claude Opus 5.5  w1:p1
budgets:
  openai  session  left 40%  used 60%  resets in 44m  -  read 2m ago  check  fresh
  openai  daily  left 70%  used 30%  resets unknown  claude-beacon  last seen 40m ago  status line (fallback)  stale
  openai  weekly  left 5%  used 95%  resets in 44m  claude-beacon  changed 2m ago  status line (fallback)  fresh, inside reserve 20%
note: approval #1 (2026-10-04), key fe21ef6293de
0 difference(s)
exit 0