Cue Overview - Maestro

Maestro Cue is an event-driven automation engine that watches for things happening in your projects and automatically sends prompts to your agents in response. Instead of manually kicking off tasks, you define subscriptions - trigger-prompt pairings - in a YAML file, and Cue handles the rest.

Maestro Cue is an Encore Feature - it’s disabled by default. Enable it in Settings > Encore Features to access the shortcut, modal, and automation engine.

What Can Cue Do?

A few examples of what you can automate with Cue:

Run linting whenever TypeScript files change - watch src/**/*.ts and prompt an agent to lint on every save
Generate a morning standup - schedule at 9:00 AM on weekdays to scan recent git activity and draft a report
Chain agents together - when your build agent finishes, automatically trigger a test agent, then a deploy agent
Triage new GitHub PRs - poll for new pull requests and prompt an agent to review the diff
Track TODO progress - scan markdown files for unchecked tasks and prompt an agent to work on the next one
Fan out deployments - when a build completes, trigger multiple deploy agents simultaneously
Trigger from the CLI - run maestro-cli cue trigger to fire a subscription on demand from scripts, CI/CD, or other agents

Enabling Cue

Open Settings (Cmd+, / Ctrl+,)
Navigate to the Encore Features tab
Toggle Maestro Cue on

Once enabled, Maestro automatically scans all your active agents for .maestro/cue.yaml files in their project roots. The Cue engine starts immediately - no restart required.

Quick Start

Create a file called .maestro/cue.yaml in your project (inside the .maestro/ directory at the project root):

subscriptions:
  - name: lint-on-save
    event: file.changed
    watch: 'src/**/*.ts'
    prompt: |
      The file {{CUE_FILE_PATH}} was just modified.
      Please run the linter and fix any issues.

That’s it. Whenever a .ts file in src/ changes, Cue sends that prompt to the agent with the file path filled in automatically. Open the Cue modal to monitor and manage all automation activity. Keyboard shortcut:

macOS: Option+Q
Windows/Linux: Alt+Q

From Quick Actions:

Press Cmd+K / Ctrl+K and search for “Maestro Cue”

The modal has three tabs - Dashboard, Pipeline Editor, and Activity Log - plus a Help button and an Enabled master toggle in the header that starts and stops the engine globally.

Dashboard

The Dashboard tab summarizes engine state at the top (Pipelines, Total Executions, Active Runs, Agents) and lists every agent that has a Cue configuration:

Column	Description
Session	Agent name
Agent	Provider type (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, etc.)
Pipelines	Color-coded dots for each pipeline configured on this agent
Status	Green = active, yellow = paused, “No Config” = no YAML found
Last Triggered	How long ago the most recent event fired
Subs	Number of subscriptions in the YAML
Queue	Events waiting to be processed

Each row has three action buttons:

Run Now - Manually trigger a subscription on demand, bypassing its normal event conditions. Useful for testing new subscriptions or re-running a failed automation without waiting for the next event.
Edit YAML - Open the inline YAML editor for that agent.
View in Pipeline - Jump to the Pipeline Editor filtered to that agent.

Below the sessions table, the Active Runs section lists subscriptions that are currently executing, with a Stop button for each.

Pipeline Editor

The Pipeline Editor tab visualizes your Cue subscriptions as a node graph - triggers on the left, agents on the right, with edges showing how events flow through your automation.

Each pipeline is color-coded and labeled. Trigger nodes show the event type and configuration (glob patterns, schedule times, etc.), while agent nodes show the provider type. Pipelines from all agents are displayed together so you can see cross-agent relationships at a glance. A pipeline can contain multiple trigger lines - for example, a daily scan and a weekly review grouped under a single “Monitoring” pipeline. Use the # Pipeline: comment and -chain-N naming convention in your YAML to group subscriptions. See Pipelines in the Configuration Reference for details.

Inspecting a Pipeline

Pick a pipeline from the All Pipelines dropdown in the top bar, or click any node, to drill into a single pipeline. The Triggers drawer (left) and Agents drawer (right) toggle from the toolbar and show full configuration details. Selecting a node reveals its details inline at the bottom - including the prompt text for an agent node.

The Triggers drawer lists all event types with their configurations (filter patterns, poll intervals, etc.). The Agents drawer shows all available agents grouped by project with status indicators. Use the Switch to Agent link to jump directly to that agent’s workspace. Two layout buttons in the top-right corner clean up a messy canvas. Both snap nodes onto left-to-right columns by data-flow depth:

Tidy keeps each column’s current top-to-bottom order, so it only aligns what you already have and leaves any crossing edges as-is.
Arrange additionally reorders nodes within each column to untangle crossing edges. Reach for it after importing a pipeline or whenever the wiring looks tangled.

In the All Pipelines view there are no edges between pipeline cards to cross, so only Arrange appears there and it packs the cards into a balanced grid. Either button previews as a confirmation first, and the result can be undone with Discard before you save.

Activity Log

The Activity Log tab is a chronological record of every completed, failed, timed-out, or stopped run. The header offers a search box and an Expand all / Collapse all toggle.

Each entry shows:

Timestamp (just the time for today’s runs, full date for older)
Pipeline color dot and subscription name
Trigger type (e.g. (file.changed), (github.pull_request))
Status (completed in N seconds, failed, timeout, stopped) with a duration

Click any row - or use Expand all - to reveal the full event data: payload fields, run ID, exit code, and any captured stdout/stderr. The search box matches against subscription name, pipeline, file paths, PR titles, and the body of run output.

For file.changed events the payload includes the path, filename, directory, extension, and change type. For GitHub triggers it includes the PR/issue number, title, author, URL, and body.

YAML Editor

Click Edit YAML on any Dashboard row to open the inline editor. The left column offers pattern templates (Startup, Heartbeat, Scheduled, Reactive, Sequential Chain, PR Review, Issue Triage, Task Queue, and more) - click one to insert a pre-configured subscription block. An AI Assist panel below lets you describe what you want in plain English and have the agent edit the config for you.

The right side shows your YAML with real-time validation - a green Valid YAML indicator appears at the bottom when the config parses correctly. Click Save to write the file; the engine hot-reloads automatically.

AI Assist

Type a plain-English description of the subscription you want to add or change, and the agent edits the YAML for you. Useful for quickly scaffolding a new trigger without remembering field names.

Help

The header ? button opens a built-in quick-reference guide covering Cue’s purpose, getting started, the full event type list, template variables, and advanced patterns. Use it as an in-app cheat sheet; for the full schema and examples, see Configuration Reference, Event Types, and Advanced Patterns.

Configuration File

Cue is configured via a .maestro/cue.yaml file placed inside the .maestro/ directory at your project root. Each agent has its own cue.yaml under its own project root - the engine reads only that file (no parent-directory walk, no shared workspace file). For pipelines that span agents at different roots, see Multi-root pipelines in the Configuration Reference. See the Configuration Reference for the complete YAML schema.

Event Types

Cue supports nine event types that trigger subscriptions:

Event Type	Trigger	Key Fields
`app.startup`	Maestro launches	-
`time.heartbeat`	Periodic timer (“every N minutes”)	`interval_minutes`
`time.scheduled`	Specific times and days of the week	`schedule_times`, `schedule_days`
`file.changed`	File created, modified, or deleted	`watch` (glob pattern)
`agent.completed`	Another agent finishes a task	`source_session`
`task.pending`	Unchecked markdown tasks found	`watch` (glob pattern)
`github.pull_request`	New PR opened on GitHub	`repo` (optional)
`github.issue`	New issue opened on GitHub	`repo` (optional)
`cli.trigger`	Manual trigger via `maestro-cli`	-

See Event Types for detailed documentation and examples for each type.

Template Variables

Prompts support {{VARIABLE}} syntax for injecting event data. When Cue fires a subscription, it replaces template variables with the actual event payload before sending the prompt to the agent.

prompt: |
  A new PR was opened: {{CUE_GH_TITLE}} (#{{CUE_GH_NUMBER}})
  Author: {{CUE_GH_AUTHOR}}
  Branch: {{CUE_GH_BRANCH}} -> {{CUE_GH_BASE_BRANCH}}
  URL: {{CUE_GH_URL}}

  Please review this PR and provide feedback.

See Advanced Patterns for the complete template variable reference.

Advanced Features

Cue supports sophisticated automation patterns beyond simple trigger-prompt pairings:

Fan-out - One trigger fires against multiple target agents simultaneously
Fan-in - Wait for multiple agents to complete before triggering
Payload filtering - Conditionally trigger based on event data (glob matching, comparisons, negation)
Agent chaining - Build multi-step pipelines where each agent’s output feeds the next
Concurrency control - Limit simultaneous runs and queue overflow events

See Advanced Patterns for full documentation.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Option+Q` / `Alt+Q`	Open Cue Modal
`Esc`	Close modal

History Integration

Cue-triggered runs appear in the History panel with a teal CUE badge. Each entry records:

The subscription name that triggered it
The event type
The source session (for agent completion chains)

Filter by CUE entries in the History panel or in Director’s Notes (when both Encore Features are enabled) to isolate automated activity from manual work.

Requirements

GitHub CLI (gh) - Required only for github.pull_request and github.issue events. Must be installed and authenticated (gh auth login).
File watching - file.changed and task.pending events use filesystem watchers. No additional dependencies required.
CLI triggers - cli.trigger events require maestro-cli to be installed. See the CLI documentation for setup.

Tips

Start simple - Begin with a single file.changed or time.heartbeat subscription before building complex chains
Use the YAML editor - The inline editor validates your config in real-time, catching errors before they reach the engine
Check the Activity Log - If a subscription isn’t firing, the activity log shows failures with error details
Prompt files vs inline - For complex prompts, point the prompt field at a .md file instead of inlining YAML
Hot reload - The engine watches .maestro/cue.yaml for changes and reloads automatically - no need to restart Maestro
Template variables - Use {{CUE_TRIGGER_NAME}} in prompts so the agent knows which automation triggered it

​What Can Cue Do?

​Enabling Cue

​Quick Start

​The Cue Modal

​Dashboard

​Pipeline Editor

​Inspecting a Pipeline

​Activity Log

​YAML Editor

​AI Assist

​Help

​Configuration File

​Event Types

​Template Variables

​Advanced Features

​Keyboard Shortcuts

​History Integration

​Requirements

​Tips

What Can Cue Do?

Enabling Cue

Quick Start

The Cue Modal

Dashboard

Pipeline Editor

Inspecting a Pipeline

Activity Log

YAML Editor

AI Assist

Help

Configuration File

Event Types

Template Variables

Advanced Features

Keyboard Shortcuts

History Integration

Requirements

Tips