team tempo

Sets the team's tempo. relaxed doubles the watch's idle and nudge waits, urgent halves them, and normal leaves them as written. The five waits stay as the file wrote them; the word is what scales them, and relaxed or urgent takes effect when the watch reads the live file. The idle window is scaled after the liveness chain checks its word — the tempo is the owner's dial on the timing, not a team loosening a threshold — so relaxed lengthens the window the chain resolved and urgent shortens it, neither reading as a refusal. The owner runs it from a terminal outside herdr; every other caller is refused, whoever it is.

Synopsis

team tempo <word> [--json]

<word> is relaxed, normal or urgent. --json prints the action envelope below instead of the plain lines.

What it reads and writes

Reads the team file in the current folder. Writes one line, tempo: <word>, after format: when the key is missing, or on the line that already names it. The rest of the file is left as it is. A line that already says that word is not rewritten.

Who may run it

Caller	May
the owner, from a terminal outside herdr	set the word
a run with no terminal	nothing: `team tempo: only the owner runs this, from a terminal outside herdr`
a seat, or an agent-run CLI	nothing: `team tempo: only the owner runs tempo, from a terminal outside herdr; this call is <caller>`

Output and exit codes

Outcome	What is printed	Exit
the word was written, or it was already that word	`team <project>, session "<session>"`, then `tempo: <word>`	0
refused: not the owner	`team tempo: only the owner runs tempo, from a terminal outside herdr; this call is <caller>`	1
it can't run: a bad word, a missing word, or the team file can't be read	`team tempo: <problem>`, with the usage for a bad word	2

Under --json, the word line is the envelope's action_summary, status is set or same, and a refusal writes the team.error document with its contract/exit-codes.json id (tempo.invocation, tempo.word, tempo.detached, tempo.not-owner, tempo.file, tempo.not-a-repo) to stdout, leaving stderr empty.

Example

.agents/team.yaml

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

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

workspace:
  mode: shared

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

The owner sets it:

Terminal

$ team tempo urgent ; echo "exit $?"
team beacon, session "beacon"
tempo: urgent
exit 0

The same word again leaves the line:

Terminal

$ team tempo urgent ; echo "exit $?"
team beacon, session "beacon"
tempo: urgent
exit 0

The same run under --json:

Terminal

$ team tempo urgent --json ; echo "exit $?"
{
  "schema": {
    "name": "team.tempo",
    "version": 1
  },
  "format": 1,
  "dry_run": false,
  "status": "same",
  "action_summary": "tempo: urgent",
  "project": "beacon",
  "session": "beacon",
  "value": "urgent"
}
exit 0

A word the file does not know is the usage:

Terminal

$ team tempo faster ; echo "exit $?"
team tempo: "faster" must be relaxed, normal or urgent
Usage: team tempo <word> [--json]

Exits 0 when the tempo is set or already matches, 1 when the caller is not the owner, 2 when the invocation, tempo word, or team file can't be read.
exit 2

A seat can't run it:

Terminal

$ team tempo urgent ; echo "exit $?"
team tempo: only the owner runs tempo, from a terminal outside herdr; this call is unplaced (it is run by an agent (claude) outside herdr)
exit 1