delegating

name	delegating
description	Delegate a task to a subagent so you can focus on coordination

Spawn yourself as a sub-agent via bash to perform a task: $@

Delegating to a subagent

When to use this skill

• Instructed to delegate
• Task has clear boundaries (e.g. "read these 3 files")
• Task needs isolation (e.g. "summarise this file")
• You can pass all required context explicitly
• You have a constrained, specific objective

How to delegate

1. Identify a tiny task that can be completed quickly
2. Write prompt with Goal, Files, Scope
3. Run pi --print with appropriate arguments:

• If the user specifies a model, use --provider and --model accordingly
• Add a large, pessimistic timeout since the subagent might take a long time (e.g. 5 minutes or longer)

4. Check response for errors
5. On failure: retry once with simpler scope, or stop and give up

Critical: Zero context

Subagents see nothing from your session. You must pass:

• Prior findings
• File paths to examine
• Explicit goals

Anti-patterns

• ❌ Don't delegate a task too large for a single agent to quickly complete - Break it into smaller tasks
• ❌ Don't pass file contents in prompt — Use @file references instead
• ❌ Don't ask for a batch of work - Iterate over tasks individually
• ❌ Don't delegate the delegation — Coordinate yourself instead

Size limits

Keep prompts under ~1KB:

• 1 specific task, not "process all items"
• File paths, not file contents

Examples

Find something

pi --print <<-'EOF'
Find all calls to fooBar() in the codebase.
Return a list grouped by file.
EOF

Write something

pi --print <<-'EOF'
Write an email validator function:
- Check format ([e-mail])
- Return true/false
EOF

Investigate with context

pi --print <<-'EOF'
You are debugging the auth module.

**Goal:** Find why login fails for users with 2FA.

**Prior:** User reports "works without 2FA, fails with it".

**Files:**
- auth/login.js: main login logic
- auth/totp.js: 2FA handling

**Scope:** Focus on 2FA code path only.

**Output:** List of potential causes ranked by likelihood.
EOF