molecule-core/docs/agent-runtime/team-expansion.md

Team Expansion (Recursive Workspaces)

When a workspace is expanded into a team, it gains sub-workspaces while its own agent remains as the team lead (coordinator). This is recursive — sub-workspaces can themselves be expanded into teams, infinitely deep.

How It Works

When Developer PM is expanded into a team:

Business Core
   |
   +-- Developer PM (agent stays, becomes coordinator)
          |
          +-- Frontend Agent (sub-workspace, private scope)
          +-- Backend Agent  (sub-workspace, private scope)
          +-- QA Agent       (sub-workspace, private scope)

• Developer PM's agent still exists and acts as coordinator
• Developer PM receives incoming A2A messages from Business Core
• Developer PM's agent decides how to delegate to sub-workspaces
• Sub-workspaces talk to Developer PM and to each other (same level)
• Sub-workspaces cannot talk to Business Core or any workspace outside the team

Communication Rules

Direction	Allowed?	Example
Parent level -> team lead	Yes	Business Core -> Developer PM
Team lead -> sub-workspaces	Yes	Developer PM -> Frontend Agent
Sub-workspace -> team lead	Yes	Frontend Agent -> Developer PM
Sub-workspace <-> sibling	Yes	Frontend Agent <-> Backend Agent
Outside -> sub-workspace directly	No (403)	Business Core -> Frontend Agent
Sub-workspace -> outside directly	No	Frontend Agent -> Business Core

The team lead (Developer PM) is the only bridge between the team's internal world and the outside.

Scoped Registry

Sub-workspaces register in the platform registry but with a private scope. The registry knows about them but enforces access control.

Registry:
  Business Core      :8001   scope: public
  Developer PM       :8002   scope: public
  Frontend Agent     :8010   scope: private, parent=Developer PM
  Backend Agent      :8011   scope: private, parent=Developer PM
  QA Agent           :8012   scope: private, parent=Developer PM

• The platform can always discover any workspace (for provisioning, monitoring)
• The parent workspace can discover its sub-workspaces
• Sub-workspaces can discover their siblings (same parent)
• Outside workspaces get a 403 Forbidden if they try to discover a private sub-workspace

How to Expand

Expansion is triggered via POST /workspaces/:id/expand. The platform reads the sub_workspaces list from the workspace's config and provisions each one. On the canvas, users right-click a workspace node and select "Expand into team."

Collapsing is the inverse: POST /workspaces/:id/collapse. Sub-workspaces are stopped and removed.

What Happens on Expansion

When Developer PM is expanded into a team, the hierarchy changes but the outside view doesn't. Business Core's parent/child relationship to Developer PM is unaffected — Developer PM still responds to the same A2A endpoint.

The events fired:

• WORKSPACE_EXPANDED with the new sub_workspace_ids in the payload
• WORKSPACE_PROVISIONING for each new sub-workspace
• WORKSPACE_ONLINE for each sub-workspace as they come up

Communication rules are automatically derived from the new hierarchy — no manual wiring needed.

Canvas Behavior

• Children render as embedded mini-cards (TeamMemberChip) inside the parent node, not as separate canvas nodes
• Each mini-card shows full status: gradient bar, name, tier badge, skills pills, active tasks, descendant count
• Recursive rendering up to 3 levels deep (MAX_NESTING_DEPTH = 3) — sub-cards can contain their own "Team" sections
• Parent node dynamically resizes: 210-280px (no children), 320-450px (children), 400-560px (grandchildren)
• Eject button (sky-blue arrow icon) on hover extracts a child from the team
• "Extract from Team" also available in the right-click context menu
• Double-click a team node to zoom/fit to the parent area
• The parent workspace node shows a badge with total descendant count

Collapsing a Team

The inverse of expansion, triggered via POST /workspaces/:id/collapse:

1. Each sub-workspace agent wraps up current work and writes a handoff document to memory
2. Sub-workspaces are stopped and removed
3. The team lead's agent goes back to handling everything directly
4. A WORKSPACE_COLLAPSED event fires

Sub-workspace memory is cleaned up based on backend (see Memory — Cleanup).

Deleting a Team Workspace

When a team workspace is deleted:

1. Platform shows a warning listing all sub-workspaces that will be deleted
2. User can drag sub-workspaces out of the team before confirming (promotes them to the parent level)
3. On confirmation, cascade delete removes the parent and all remaining sub-workspaces
4. WORKSPACE_REMOVED events fire for each deleted workspace

Related Docs

• Communication Rules — Full access control model
• Core Concepts — Workspace fundamentals
• System Prompt Structure — How peer capabilities are injected
• Provisioner — How sub-workspaces are deployed
• Registry & Heartbeat — How registration works
• Event Log — Events fired during expansion
• Canvas UI — Visual behavior of teams