[Karnaukhov-kh]

Why

An orchestrator that launches a step agent in the background, such as with a workflow tool that returns before the agent ends, has to copy the message from next into the launch. In a probe on October 22, 2026, the orchestrator sent the launch in the same batch as next on both dispatches, so it launched with a message it guessed before next returned. In a real loop, Fixes: carries guard errors that only Iterward holds, and a guessed message drops them.

With this change, the orchestrator passes the agent only Run: <RUN>, and the agent reads its own message from Iterward.

What changes

• mcp/tools/dispatch/dispatch.tool.ts: a dispatch tool with one argument, run. It runs the CLI's dispatch command and returns { id, step, agent, attempt, document, openedAt, message }, with message byte for byte as next returned it. It carries readOnlyHint: true, takes no lock, and refuses with dispatch refused: other: - no open dispatch when no dispatch is open.

• mcp/tools.ts: registers the tool after show, in the CLI's usage-line order.

• mcp/server.ts: the initialize instructions tell an agent that got only a run path to call dispatch.

• Specs: dispatch.tool.spec.ts covers an open dispatch (message matches next, run file unchanged), no open dispatch (a refusal), and a malformed call. server.spec.ts lists 12 tools, now one per CLI command but mcp, and adds dispatch to the read-only tools. conformance.spec.ts doesn't list or count the tools, so it's unchanged.

• docs/mcp.md: the tool count and table, dispatch in the autoApprove list and the readOnlyHint list, a description of the tool in place of the sentence that said the server has no dispatch tool, and a section on launching an agent in the background.

• README.md and docs/mcp.md: the .mcp.json examples run @push-based/iterward@latest instead of @VERSION. docs/mcp.md says that @latest refuses a run of an earlier minor version, and how to pin the version that started the run.

docs/cli.md, docs/protocol.md, and both READMEs don't name the MCP tool list or count, so they're unchanged.

Compatibility

The run format doesn't change, so a run that 0.4.x started continues. The feat: commit bumps 0.4.1 to 0.4.2, because nx adjusts semver bumps for a 0.x version by default.

Checks

In packages/iterward/, npm test (87 pass), npm run lint, and npm run typecheck pass.