---
name: multi-agent-mux-reset
description: "Purge the control root's running resident agents and recreate each with the same name, agent, role, herdr server and workspace label, one at a time, with onboarding. Persists .mam/reset-spec.json before the first purge so an interrupted or skipped run resumes where it left off."
version: 4.14.0
author: godopu
license: MIT
platforms: [linux, macos]
environments: [terminal, herdr]
metadata:
  hermes:
    tags: [reset, purge, recreate, lifecycle, onboarding]
    related_skills: [multi-agent-mux-stop, multi-agent-mux-create, multi-agent-mux-status]
---

# Multi-Agent Reset

```bash
bash .agents/skills/multi-agent-mux-reset/scripts/reset.sh --yes [--dry-run]
```

| Item | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Targets | Every registry row with `status: running` and `realpath(pane.cwd) == realpath(WS)`. Rows with any other status, worktree rows, and `orchestrator_uuids` are skipped and listed with their reason. |
| Confirmation | Without `-y`/`--yes` it warns that the conversations are deleted for good and asks `[y/N]`; without a terminal it cannot ask, so `-y`/`--yes` is required (exits `3` otherwise). `--dry-run` inspects without `--yes` and changes nothing. An agent has no terminal here: show the user the `--dry-run` targets, say the deletion cannot be undone, and pass `--yes` only after they confirm. |
| Prechecks | Refuses before any change when an open job exists (prints the `registry.py ... close --request cancelled` command), when `.mam/loop-guard-active` or `.mam/update-in-progress` is held, when a target row lacks a valid agent or role, when a running `claude`/`grok` target has no recorded conversation id (the monitor had not pinned one; record it, or stop/purge it by hand first), when `.mam/reset-spec.json` is invalid, or when the caller itself is one of the targets. |
| Lock & concurrency | Takes the update admission lock exclusively, acquires `.mam/loop-guard-active` and publishes `.mam/reset-in-progress`, then releases the admission lock and runs the prechecks. `run_loop.sh`, `update.sh` and another reset refuse on the loop marker. The reset then writes `.reset-in-progress` into every job registry its open-job check reads (`.mam/jobs`, `MAM_JOBS_DIR`, and a row's other `control_plane.mam_jobs_dir`; created when absent, skipped when it cannot be created, since nothing can be registered there), each under that registry's lock, before the check, and on exit removes the directories it created if they are still empty. It refuses, changing nothing, when a registry shared with another workspace is already fenced by that workspace's live reset; it never replaces or removes another reset's marker. A registration (`multi-agent-mux-delegate-job submit`, `registry.py register`, the registry API) into a fenced registry - by any path to that directory - refuses; in another control plane's registry only for this workspace's sessions. The onboarding jobs of the reset's own `create_session.sh` are let through. |
| Spec file & rerun | Writes `.mam/reset-spec.json` atomically before the first stop/purge and removes it only when all targets reach `done`. Rerunning resumes from the spec file without re-purging already recreated agents (`created` or `done`). |
| Sequence per target | Sequential (never parallel): ⓪ re-checks that its row still has the spec's agent and herdr server and that no job addressed to it is open, ① normal `stop_session.sh --reason reset` (a post-discovered agent's id is captured onto the row while herdr is live; `status: stopped`), ② checks that the row's id is the one recorded before the stop and, for a post-discovered agent, that it still verifies as a conversation of the row's folder, ③ `stop_session.sh --reason reset --purge-conversation --yes` (using the row's recorded ID, never a CLI UUID), then `create_session.sh` with the original name, agent, role, `--herdr-session`, and `--herdr-workspace` (onboarding enabled by default). |
| When skipped (exit 4) | The target is skipped and the reset continues to the next agent when step ⓪ finds a changed row (`row changed`) or an open job (`job open`) - nothing was changed for it -, or when step ② finds no id (`no conversation id recorded`) or an id other than the recorded one or one that does not verify for the row's folder (`id not verified`), or step ③ exits `4` (`purge refused`, in-use gate) - it is stopped but resumable (its row keeps its id) and its conversation files are untouched. Rerun once the cause is gone, or resume it. |

| Exit | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | All targeted agents reached `done` and `.mam/reset-spec.json` was removed; or nothing to reset, cancelled at prompt, or `--dry-run` with no blockers |
| 1 | Refused by precheck (nothing changed), corrupt/mismatched `.mam/reset-spec.json`, or a `stop`/`create` step failed (`.mam/reset-spec.json` is kept so rerunning resumes) |
| 2 | Invalid arguments |
| 3 | Not a terminal and `-y`/`--yes` was not passed; nothing was changed |
| 4 | Completed the pass, but one or more agents were skipped (see *When skipped*); `.mam/reset-spec.json` is kept for rerun |
| 5 | No agent was skipped or failed, but one or more newly created post-discovered agents do not have their new conversation ID recorded yet; `.mam/reset-spec.json` is kept so rerunning re-checks without re-purging |
| other | 130 / 143 / 129 when interrupted by SIGINT / SIGTERM / SIGHUP (the in-flight stop/create ends first, nothing further runs, `.mam/reset-spec.json` is kept); otherwise, under `set -e`, an unexpected internal step failure passes its nonzero exit code through |

## Safety Notes

- **Irreversible**: purged conversations cannot be recovered. Confirm with `--dry-run` first.
- **No external process termination**: processes holding conversation files open (reported via `lsof` in `in_use_hints`) are never signalled by MAM; end them yourself when safe, then rerun.
- **Shared stores preserved**: Grok's shared `memory-v2.db` is left intact during purge; only session rows and per-session files are removed.
- **Orchestrator hook during reset**: while `.mam/loop-guard-active` is held by the reset, the AGY orchestrator's direct file-edit hook (`loop_delegation_guard.sh`) blocks direct edits until the reset finishes.
- **Job submissions during a reset**: `multi-agent-mux-delegate-job submit` and `registry.py register` refuse with `a reset of <WS> is in progress` until the reset ends (a marker left by a killed reset is stale and ignored); submit again afterwards. A record written into `.mam/jobs` by hand for a target after the precheck makes that target `job open` (skipped, not cancelled) if it is there before that target's stop.
- **Same-type post-discovered ordering**: when resetting multiple post-discovered agents of the same type, the second `create_session.sh` waits up to `MAM_ID_ORDER_WAIT_S` for the first agent's ID to be recorded; if it times out, rerun the reset once the ID is recorded.