octocode-subagent

name	octocode-subagent
description	Use when spawning workers, parallel agents, Task/subagents, specialist handoffs, or A2A peers: gate spawn vs solo, decompose into bounded objectives, pick topology and model tier, write sealed packets, coordinate shared state, recover failures, and synthesize trustworthy results.

Octocode Subagent

Host-agnostic delegation for local workers or independent remote agents. Flow: GATE → DECOMPOSE → ROUTE → PACKET → SPAWN → COORDINATE → SYNTHESIZE → CLEANUP.

Lobby rules

1. Spawn only when delegation changes speed, expertise, isolation, or context quality; otherwise keep work in the parent.
2. One bounded objective per worker; no nested spawning unless the host explicitly allows it.
3. Workers inherit no parent chat: every packet carries goal, scope, context, authority, constraints, evidence needs, and return shape.
4. Treat worker output as claims; re-check load-bearing anchors.
5. Barrier before synthesize — wait/list every live worker (or stop+remove); merge conflicts first; then answer.
6. Parent owns the user, synthesis, and mutations unless a packet explicitly transfers write ownership.
7. Pick the smallest capable configured model; declare file ownership before parallel writes. Stop when solo work finishes, two High options need a winner, three angles add nothing, a user/auth gate is pending, or no live workers remain.

Smart routes — load only what the current step needs

• When deciding solo, batch, specialist, or clean worker, load references/spawn-gate.md — delegation must earn its coordination cost.
• When splitting work, load references/decompose.md; when choosing supervisor, pipeline, handoff, or swarm load references/patterns.md — create a dependency-aware topology.
• Before spawning, load references/packets.md; when delegating technical research load references/octocode.md — make worker context and tool routing self-contained.
• When selecting model/thinking effort, load references/model-routing.md — match capability and cost to objective difficulty.
• When waiting, steering, messaging, or stopping workers, load references/coordinate.md; for independent remote peers load references/a2a.md — use the correct lifecycle contract.
• When parallel writers share mutable state, load references/workspace.md — assign ownership and prevent collisions.
• When workers stall, fail, or conflict, load references/recovery.md; before final output load references/synthesize.md — reconcile claims, gaps, and live workers.
• When grounding orchestration guidance in sources, load references/references.md — preserve provenance.
• When improving this skill, prefer octocode-eval; otherwise load references/improve-loop.md — require measurable acceptance.

Related routes

• Use octocode-research for worker evidence; octocode-awareness for shared-repo coordination; octocode-eval to judge worker quality.
• Local Ollama one-shots / save-tokens → octocode-orchestrator-local-worker (not this skill).
• Use octocode-rfc-generator before changing a multi-agent architecture; octocode-prompt-optimizer for packet contracts; octocode-skills when changing this folder.