Coordinator agent (squad.agent.md) ignores .squad/config.json teamRoot — satellite/linked repos trigger Init Mode every session #1127

Summary

The Squad CLI supports satellite/remote-team mode via squad init --mode remote <path>, squad link <path>, and squad externalize — all of which write a .squad/config.json with a teamRoot field pointing to an external team root (e.g., a personal squad at %APPDATA%\squad).

However, the coordinator agent (squad.agent.md) has zero awareness of this mechanism. It only inspects .squad/team.md to decide whether to enter Init Mode, and never reads config.json.teamRoot to discover that the authoritative roster lives elsewhere. As a result, a correctly-linked satellite repo triggers full Init Mode (proposes a brand-new cast, asks "what are you building?", offers to scaffold a local team) every session — even though the repo is properly set up.

squad status has the same blind spot: for a satellite repo it reports Active squad: repo / Reason: Found .squad/ in repository tree, ignoring the teamRoot redirect in config.json.

Reproduction

mkdir foo && cd foo && git init
npx @bradygaster/squad-cli init --mode remote <path-to-personal-squad>
# .squad/config.json is created with { "teamRoot": "<personal-squad-path>" }
# .squad/team.md is created as a stub (empty ## Members table)

copilot --agent squad
> team roster

Expected: Coordinator reads .squad/config.json, sees teamRoot, loads the personal squad's team.md, and reports the existing roster.

Actual: Coordinator sees empty ## Members table in the local stub, enters Init Mode Phase 1, asks "What are you building?", and proposes to cast a brand-new local team — silently ignoring the satellite configuration the CLI just created.

Concrete example

In my setup:

• Personal squad lives at C:\Users\jbenami\AppData\Roaming\squad\.squad (LOTR universe — Gandalf/Elrond/Frodo/etc.)
• TIA repo was correctly linked via squad init --mode remote. Its .squad/config.json contains:

  {
    "version": 1,
    "teamRoot": "..\\..\\..\\Users\\jbenami\\AppData\\Roaming\\squad",
    "projectKey": null
  }

• pa-squad (the home repo) uses the identical pattern.

Opening copilot --agent squad in TIA, asking "team roster":

• Coordinator never reads config.json
• Coordinator sees empty ## Members in local .squad/team.md
• Coordinator enters Init Mode, proposes to cast a new team

I had to explicitly tell it "this team is already connected to a global squad" before it would look elsewhere.

Root cause

I grepped the entire 83KB squad.agent.md shipped with v0.9.4-insider.1 for teamRoot, --mode remote, squad link, Satellite, and satellite — zero hits. The only config.json references are about model preferences (Layer 0 of model selection). The same gap exists in the personal squad's template squad.agent.md, so this isn't a stale local file — it's upstream.

The init-mode check at the top of the coordinator instructions:

Check: Does `.squad/team.md` exist?
- No → Init Mode
- Yes, but `## Members` has zero roster entries → Init Mode (treat as unconfigured)
- Yes, with roster entries → Team Mode

…has no branch for "yes, with a config.json redirecting to another team root." It treats the satellite stub as a half-finished setup that needs casting.

Suggested fix

Before the existing init check, add a config-resolution step:

1. If .squad/config.json exists and contains a teamRoot field, resolve it (relative or absolute path) and treat that path's .squad/ as the authoritative team root for this session — Team Mode, not Init Mode.
2. Pass the resolved external teamRoot to every spawn prompt (replacing the local repo path).
3. State management (decisions, history, orchestration logs, casting, identity) all write to the external team root, not the local repo.
4. The local .squad/team.md stub becomes informational only (or can be deleted).
5. Update squad status to surface the redirect: Active squad: remote / Reason: .squad/config.json points to <teamRoot>.

A documented "Satellite Mode" section in squad.agent.md would also let the coordinator give users an honest status message instead of silently proposing a new team.

Workaround (current)

Tell the coordinator explicitly at the start of each session that the repo is governed by a personal/remote squad, so it knows to look at %APPDATA%\squad\.squad\team.md. This is brittle — relies on the user remembering, and resets every session.

Environment

• Squad CLI: @bradygaster/squad-cli v0.9.4-insider.1
• squad.agent.md version: 0.9.4-insider.1 (stamped header)
• Platform: Windows 11, PowerShell 7, copilot --agent squad
• Personal squad: %APPDATA%\squad\.squad
• Affected repo: properly linked satellite with config.json.teamRoot set