NOVA Orchestration Model for CIOS Agents
Decision
Applied NOVA orchestration pattern from OpenClaw to Paperclip’s 12 CIOS agents. Each division has one orchestrator (Architect/Chief of Staff/Explorer) that receives all tasks, decomposes, routes to specialists, quality-gates outputs, and delivers. Convention-based routing (assign to orchestrator) rather than code-level auto-routing.
Rationale
Paperclip already had the hierarchy (reports_to) and parent-child issue support, but agents had no instructions, no capabilities defined, and no orchestration behavior. NOVA from OpenClaw is a proven pattern with clear delegation logic, quality gates, and chain rules. Convention-based routing avoids Paperclip code changes while achieving the same effect.
Alternatives Rejected
- Code-level auto-routing (add default_orchestrator_id to companies table) — rejected: unnecessary Paperclip code change. 2) Model tiering (Opus/Sonnet/Haiku by role) — deferred: Claude Max flat-rate makes cost savings moot. 3) No orchestration (manual assignment per agent) — rejected: defeats the purpose of autonomous agent system.
Outcome
Pending