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How to Launch a Mission (Inbox → Monday.com Epic)

When to use this

When a task is complex enough that a single agent's context window is a liability — and you need to decompose it into independent workers with validators. Use this playbook when you're classifying incoming work and need to elevate it from a standard Task Brief to a full Mission execution pattern.

This playbook covers the Orchestrator's launch sequence only — what happens before any worker is dispatched. For the worker and validator steps, see the source document at /Claude/system/org/missions-execution-pattern-v1.0.md.

Prerequisites

  • You have a request or initiative in hand (from inbox, exec dispatch, or CEO direction)
  • You have access to Monday.com via mcp__claude_ai_monday_com__* MCP tools
  • You are the designated Orchestrator (project.manager for cross-functional Missions; sponsoring exec for single-department Missions)
  • The Mission has CEO or sponsoring executive buy-in (don't create a Mission Epic for a solo agent's task)

Step 1 — Apply the trigger criteria

A task becomes a Mission if it meets any two of these five criteria:

# Criterion Examples
1 Scope More than 3 worker-sessions, or spans more than 5 business days
2 Cross-functional Touches 2+ departments (CMO + CDO, CRO + COO, etc.)
3 Risk HIGH/CRITICAL risk, production systems, customer data, revenue workflows, external commitments
4 Validation complexity Can't be judged by one QA pass; needs multi-pass or user simulation
5 Context hazard Work can't be held in one agent context without accumulating noise (refactors, multi-feature launches, investor synthesis)

If fewer than two criteria are met → use the standard Section 6 Task Brief flow, not a Mission.

Log your classification decision on the Monday.com Epic (Step 3).

Step 2 — Assign a Mission ID

Format: M-YYYY-MMDD-{slug}

  • YYYY-MMDD = the date work is formally classified as a Mission
  • {slug} = a short, lowercase, hyphenated description of the initiative

Examples: 

M-2026-0421-signal-discovery-expansion
M-2026-0414-content-engine-recovery
M-2026-0421-local-llm-extraction-assessment

The Mission ID is the join key across the Monday.com Epic, the folder workspace, and all worker/validator handoffs.

Step 3 — Create the Monday.com Epic

Use mcp__claude_ai_monday_com__create_item on the Epics board. Populate all 6 governance fields:

Field Value
Mission ID M-YYYY-MMDD-{slug}
Mission Phase Decompose (starting state)
Sponsoring Exec The exec who owns this (CDO, CMO, CRO, COO, or CEO)
Orchestrator Your agent ID (project.manager or sponsoring exec)
Mission Risk LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH / CRITICAL per your trigger criteria assessment
Target Close Best estimate — can be updated

Also populate: - epic_description — this is where the Validation Contract lives once written (Step 5). Leave a placeholder for now: [Validation Contract — pending Step 5]

Step 4 — Create the Mission folder workspace

/Claude/missions/{mission-id}/
  task-brief.md          ← you write this in Step 5
  knowledge-base.md      ← start with a stub
  features/              ← empty for now; worker feature specs go here
  status/                ← empty; worker Status Reports go here
  handoffs/              ← empty; handoff docs go here
  qa/                    ← empty; QA Reports go here

Create the folder and stub files before dispatching any workers. Workers need the task-brief.md to exist before they can start.

knowledge-base.md stub: 

# Mission Knowledge Base — {Mission ID}

## Context
{One paragraph: why this Mission exists, what triggered it}

## Key decisions
{Running log of decisions made during execution — add as they happen}

## Open questions
{Questions blocking workers — clear these before dispatching}

Step 5 — Write the Task Brief and Validation Contract

The Task Brief lives at /Claude/missions/{mission-id}/task-brief.md. For Missions, the Done Criteria field expands into a Validation Contract — numbered behavioral assertions (A1, A2, A3…).

Task Brief template for Missions:

TASK BRIEF — MISSION
──────────────────────────────
Mission ID:       M-YYYY-MMDD-{slug}
Objective:        [One sentence — what this Mission produces]
Orchestrator:     [agent_id]
Sponsoring Exec:  [exec agent_id]
Workers (planned):[list of agent_ids]
Dependencies:     [upstream blockers]
Constraints:      [hard limits — timeline, scope, budget]

VALIDATION CONTRACT (Done Criteria):

A1: [Behavioral assertion — observable, testable, specific]
A2: [Behavioral assertion]
A3: [Behavioral assertion]
...

Workers cite assertion IDs in their Status Reports.
Validators reference assertion IDs in QA Reports.

Deadline:         [Date]
Escalation Owner: [chief.staff or sponsoring exec]

Rules for Validation Contract assertions: - Each Aₙ must be observable and testable — a validator can confirm it without knowing the implementation - Assertions should not describe HOW to build something, only WHAT the result must do - Write the contract BEFORE dispatching any workers — this is the most common failure mode

Once written, paste the Validation Contract into the Monday.com Epic's epic_description field.

Step 6 — Decompose into features

Break the Mission into discrete features. Each feature is: - A unit of work completable by one worker in one session - Associated with one or more validation contract assertions (Aₙ) - Filed as a Task on the Monday.com Tasks board, linked to the Mission Epic via epic_tasks

Feature spec template (save as /Claude/missions/{mission-id}/features/{feature-id}.md):

# Feature {F-N}: {Feature Name}

Mission: {Mission ID}
Worker: {agent_id}
Assertions covered: A1, A3  ← which Validation Contract assertions this fulfills
Status: Dispatched

## Objective
[What the worker must produce]

## Inputs available
[Files, data, tools the worker can use]

## Done criteria (for this feature)
[Feature-level done criteria — a subset of the Mission's Validation Contract]

## Handoff target
[Who receives the output: orchestrator, validator, or next worker]

Create Monday.com Tasks for each feature using mcp__claude_ai_monday_com__create_item on the Tasks board and link to the parent Epic.

Step 7 — Assign validators before dispatching workers

Validators must be assigned BEFORE workers start — not after the fact. The independence rule is strict: a validator cannot be the same agent that implemented the feature.

Validator type Who Model tier When triggered
Scrutiny Validator qa.testing, chief.staff, or peer-department agent Opus At milestone boundaries
User-Testing Validator qa.visuals, qa.dataquality, qa.applications Sonnet/Haiku Black-box exercise against Validation Contract

Log validator assignments in the Task Brief and on each validation Task in Monday.com.

Step 8 — Dispatch workers

Workers are dispatched with fresh context — they do NOT inherit the Orchestrator's conversation. Each worker dispatch includes:

  1. The feature spec from /Claude/missions/{mission-id}/features/{feature-id}.md
  2. The Validation Contract (assertions the feature covers)
  3. The list of files/tools available to them
  4. The expected output path and handoff target

Workers file a Status Report (Section 6B) on completion and a Handoff Report (Section 6C) when passing output to the next agent.

Verification

After launch, confirm: - [ ] Mission ID assigned and consistent across Monday.com, folder, and task-brief.md - [ ] Monday.com Epic created with all 6 governance fields populated - [ ] Validation Contract written and pasted into Epic description - [ ] Mission folder created with task-brief.md and knowledge-base.md stubs - [ ] Features decomposed with Monday.com Tasks linked to Epic - [ ] Validators assigned (independent of their feature's worker) - [ ] Sponsoring executive carrying Mission in their daily check-in

Troubleshooting

Problem Fix
Task doesn't meet 2-criterion threshold Don't elevate to Mission. Use standard Task Brief flow.
Orchestrator is also the worker Reassign — the Orchestrator must not implement features they're validating
Validation Contract written after feature dispatch Stop. Write contract first, re-brief workers with the assertions they're fulfilling
Feature too large for one worker session Split it. A feature should be completable in one fresh context.
Worker can't find the Validation Contract Check that task-brief.md exists and was included in the worker dispatch
  • [[missions-execution-pattern-v1.0]] — full governance text (/Claude/system/org/missions-execution-pattern-v1.0.md)
  • [[monday-com]] — Monday.com tool reference
  • [[project.manager]] — default Orchestrator for cross-functional Missions
  • CLAUDE.md Section 10A — summary + pointer

Last verified

2026-04-21 — documentation.engineering. Source: missions-execution-pattern-v1.0.md (MEP-v1.0, status: Active).