> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tryvoss.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Board

> The board state machine: columns, WIP limits, and artifact-gated transitions. Orchestration as a visible board, not an invisible prompt loop.

Orchestration is represented as a board, not a hidden prompt loop. Every card is backed by a session-tree node, and it advances only through gated transitions.

Render it read-only from persisted nodes:

```bash theme={"theme":"github-dark"}
voss board                 # most recently modified run
voss board <root_id>       # a specific run
voss board --cwd .
```

## Columns

```text theme={"theme":"github-dark"}
Backlog -> Planned -> InProgress -> InReview -> Done
                              \-> Blocked
```

| Column       | Meaning                                         |
| ------------ | ----------------------------------------------- |
| `Backlog`    | Raw ideas, not yet scoped                       |
| `Planned`    | EM has authored acceptance criteria + role      |
| `InProgress` | Scope and budget allocated; worker running      |
| `InReview`   | Artifact exists; awaiting independent review    |
| `Blocked`    | Timeout, budget, scope error, or reviewer block |
| `Done`       | Tests/evals pass and independent review passed  |

`Done` and `Blocked` are terminal.

## WIP limits

Work-in-progress is capped per column to keep parallelism bounded:

| Column       | WIP cap   |
| ------------ | --------- |
| `InProgress` | 3         |
| `InReview`   | 2         |
| others       | unlimited |

Exceeding a cap raises a board WIP error and the move is refused.

## Transition gates

Each transition must clear a set of predicate gates before a card advances:

| Transition               | Gate                                                                                                   |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `Backlog -> Planned`     | scope contained in ceiling                                                                             |
| `Planned -> InProgress`  | budget available + scope contained                                                                     |
| `InProgress -> InReview` | budget + scope + confidence meets the risk-tier threshold                                              |
| `InReview -> Done`       | scope clean + Reviewer-A passes + Reviewer-B passes + tests pass (or eval meets threshold for AI work) |
| `Any -> Blocked`         | timeout, budget, retry ceiling, or reviewer block                                                      |

Confidence thresholds default to `low: 0.60`, `med: 0.80`, `high: 0.95` and can be overridden per team.

## Agents cannot self-approve

A move to `Done` requires an injected independent reviewer. Without one, the board refuses the transition with a gate error whose failing clause is `no-reviewer`:

```text theme={"theme":"github-dark"}
BoardGateError: Done requires an independent reviewer  (no-reviewer)
```

A card forced terminal by deadline, budget, or retry ceiling moves to `Blocked` with the reason recorded — so every blocked card carries a why.

<Note>
  The board is rendered deterministically from persisted session-tree nodes, so a run replays without reading the chat transcript. See the [session tree](/orchestration/session-tree).
</Note>