| name | specialist-routing |
| description | Use when a task clearly belongs to a specialist agent. Route first, reason second — don't let the general agent muddle through a domain it has a specialist for. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| author | kbot |
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"kbot":{"tags":["agents","routing","specialists","delegation"],"related_skills":["matrix-agent-spawn","cross-agent-blackboard","agent-handoff"]}} |
Specialist Routing
kbot ships with 25+ specialists (run kbot agents list for the current roster). The default kernel agent is a generalist — competent everywhere, excellent nowhere. The feeling of "kbot is sharp" comes from routing into the right specialist before work starts.
Iron Law
IF A SPECIALIST EXISTS FOR THIS DOMAIN, THE GENERALIST DOES NOT TOUCH IT.
The Roster
| Signal | Specialist | Why |
|---|
| "review my code", "refactor", "fix this test" | coder | strongest code-patching track record |
| "research X", "find me", "what does the literature say" | researcher | web + arxiv + citation graph |
| "design this", "make it look right", a11y | aesthete | design tokens + spacing + typography |
| "is this safe", secrets, auth, permissions | guardian | OWASP checks, dep audit, redact |
| CI, deploys, env vars, launchd, docker | infrastructure | full infra toolkit |
| a statistical question, backtesting, distributions | quant | stats + finance + probability |
| a 30+ minute deep dive, multi-source | investigator | multi-step research workflow |
| "write" anything long-form | writer | content creation + editing |
| strategy, tradeoffs, business framing | strategist | structured decision support |
| how it's going, "predict X" | oracle | forecasting + anticipation |
Trigger
The moment the user's first message can be classified into the table above. The learned router handles this automatically when confidence ≥ 0.7; below that, you route explicitly: kbot --agent <id> "...".
Procedure
- Classify the task against the table. If two match, pick the one closer to the verb (review → coder; design review → aesthete).
- If none match, stay on
kernel and invoke the skill that fits instead.
- When in doubt, use
--architect (plan with one specialist, implement with another) or --plan (read-only scoping first).
- If the specialist gets stuck, use
agent_handoff to pass to another specialist with context — don't fall back to the generalist silently.
Anti-Pattern
- Running everything on the default agent "for consistency." You lose every specialist advantage.
- Choosing a specialist by topic instead of verb. "Music" isn't a specialist;
aesthete handles creative direction and coder handles the OSC scripting.
- Routing between specialists mid-task without writing to the blackboard — the next specialist loses context.
What Emerges
Users develop muscle memory for kbot --agent <id>. Over weeks, the learned router picks up which specialist wins which task for this user (not average) and routes preemptively. The experience becomes: "I type the prompt, the right expert answers." That's the routing skill paying compound interest.
