delegate

name	delegate
description	Delegate a self-contained task to a verified cheaper/faster child-Pi model in a fresh ephemeral context.
distribution	public

Delegate

Use the delegate tool for self-contained work that does not need the conversation history. The child runs with a verified executable model, a bounded tool profile, and no persistent Pi session.

Good delegation candidates

• File, note, or code summaries
• Formatting, translation, extraction, and factual questions
• Mechanical code generation or refactoring
• Focused repository exploration and debugging
• A second-opinion review using judge

Do not delegate when the task depends on conversation history, needs user interaction, requires frontier capability, or is simpler than describing a complete standalone prompt.

Call shape

delegate({
  prompt: "Read src/client.ts. Summarize its public API in five bullets and identify compatibility risks.",
  files: ["src/client.ts"],
  task_category: "summarize",
  tools: "read_only"
})

Categories

Category	Target	Use for
quick	Tier 2	Formatting, extraction, translation, factual Q&A
summarize	Tier 2	File, note, and code summaries
code	Tier 3	Code generation and refactoring
analyze	Tier 3	Review, architecture, and debugging
reason	Tier 3	Complex planning and multi-step logic
judge	Tier 3	Critical review from another family when available

Automatic selection is capped at the verified tier of the current model. If the current model is unknown to Delegate policy, automatic selection fails closed.

Explicit overrides

Use model: "provider/model" only when an exact executable child-CLI model is required. Overrides bypass automatic tier and configured provider/model exclusions, but they do not bypass executability or image-capability checks. A model visible only to Piclaw runtime is not enough.

Tool profiles

Profile	Child tools
read_only	read,grep,find,ls,mcp
standard (default)	read,grep,find,ls,bash,mcp
full	read,grep,find,ls,bash,edit,write,mcp

A custom comma-separated list of Pi child built-ins is accepted. Do not assume Piclaw add-on tools are present: the child loads only the discovered MCP adapter in addition to core tools.

Files

• Text files are inlined up to 100 KiB each.
• Only content-sniffed JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, and BMP files are attached natively.
• PDF, SVG, TIFF/ICO, archives, audio, video, and unknown binary data are rejected.
• Extract document text or convert unsupported images before delegation.
• Canonical file paths must stay under /workspace; symlink escapes and non-regular files are rejected.

Judge mode

When the user asks to double-check, verify, review, or obtain a second opinion:

delegate({
  prompt: "Review the response below for correctness, omissions, and unsupported claims. Be critical.\n\n<response>\n...\n</response>",
  task_category: "judge",
  tools: "read_only"
})

Judge selection crosses families only when a valid tier-safe executable alternative exists.

Prompt discipline

The child has no conversation history. Include all necessary facts, paths, constraints, and the desired output shape.

• Bad: "Fix the bug we discussed."
• Good: "Read src/cache.ts and tests/cache.test.ts. Diagnose why stale entries survive invalidate(), propose the smallest fix, and return a patch outline."

Use the final result normally. While it runs, Delegate may emit bounded structured status/tool progress. It retries automatically only for provider setup, authentication, or unavailable-model failures; ordinary execution, protocol, timeout, cancellation, and rate-limit failures are returned without retry.