meridian-spawn

name	meridian-spawn
type	reference
description	Use whenever you need to delegate work to another agent, run tasks in parallel, check on spawn progress, coordinate multiple agents, or inspect spawn outputs. Also use when routing work to a specific model or provider.
model-invocable	false

meridian-spawn

Prompt Passing

Write spawn prompts to files. Use --prompt-file for delegation.

Shell quoting mutates prompts before meridian receives them, backticks become command substitutions, $variables expand, quotes nest wrong, and multiline formatting collapses. Prompt files preserve exact text and make handoffs inspectable.

-p is okay for short, single-line, no-special-characters cases.

Core Loop

Spawns block by default. Use --bg to return immediately with a spawn ID, then wait to block until completion:

meridian spawn -a coder --prompt-file step-a.md --bg  # -> p101
meridian spawn -a coder --prompt-file step-b.md --bg  # -> p102
meridian spawn wait                                    # blocks until both complete

Output Discipline

Parse spawn_id and status from JSON responses in agent mode. Some commands return JSON for complex data, others return text — check per-command. Run meridian <command> -h for format details.

Spawn Lifecycle

Spawns transition queued -> running -> finalizing -> succeeded | failed | cancelled. finalizing is transient — treat it as active when polling. spawn wait blocks through finalizing and returns only on a terminal state.

Crash-Only Design

Writes are atomic (tmp+rename), reads tolerate truncation. Recovery is startup behavior. If a spawn dies mid-flight, meridian doctor or read-path reconciliation detects and reports it.

Spawning

-a (agent profile) — use when a profile exists for the role:

meridian spawn -a reviewer --prompt-file review-task.md --bg

-m (direct model) — use for one-off tasks where no profile fits:

meridian spawn -m MODEL --prompt-file task.md --bg

Pass reference files or directories with -f so the spawned agent starts with context. Scope tightly: 2-4 files is typical, six is heavy, ten means the handoff needs rethinking.

meridian spawn -a coder --prompt-file implement-auth.md --bg \
  -f src/middleware/ -f src/middleware/base.py -f design/phase-2.md

Pass prior conversation history with --from when the spawn needs reasoning that isn't materialized to files. --from <spawn-id> pulls a specific prior spawn's transcript. --from $MERIDIAN_CHAT_ID pulls the top-level primary session — available at any depth because $MERIDIAN_CHAT_ID is inherited by every descendant.

Run meridian mars models list for available models. Run meridian mars list for agent profiles and skills. Model preferences belong in agent profiles or meridian config, not hardcoded in spawn commands.

Completion Goals

--goal injects a completion contract into the spawned agent's context. The agent evaluates it as a stopping condition — work until met, report blockers if stuck.

meridian spawn -a coder --prompt-file impl.md --bg \
  --goal "All auth middleware tests pass and no type errors"

The prompt describes the work. The goal defines the exit condition. Write goals as verifiable states: "Auth module uses the adapter pattern, existing tests pass" — something the agent can check. "Refactor the auth module" belongs in the prompt.

Goals are persisted as spawn metadata and visible in meridian spawn show.

Work Items

Attach spawns to a work item with --work so they're grouped and traceable. For work item lifecycle, see the /meridian-work-coordination skill.

Parallel Spawns

Use --bg to launch without blocking, then wait to collect all results in one notification:

meridian spawn -a coder --prompt-file auth.md --bg \
  --goal "Auth middleware passes all tests"
meridian spawn -a coder --prompt-file cache.md --bg \
  --goal "Cache layer passes all tests"
meridian spawn wait   # one notification when ALL complete

Every --bg spawn must be drained with meridian spawn wait before you respond to the user, start dependent work, or end your turn. Background spawns that aren't waited on are invisible — their results are lost and their failures go unnoticed.

When meridian spawn wait runs through a harness shell tool, poll sparsely. Wait yield timing is harness-aware — meridian detects the parent harness via MERIDIAN_HARNESS env and yields before the parent's prompt cache expires. Use --yield-after-secs to override. Check meridian config show for current per-harness values.

Checking Status

Use the work dashboard for situational awareness:

meridian work

Reattach to spawns from a previous session with meridian spawn wait or meridian spawn wait <spawn_id>. Use meridian spawn children <id> to see what a spawn spawned.

Steering a Running Spawn

Inject before you cancel. Course-correct a running spawn instead of killing and restarting — cancel destroys built-up context.

meridian spawn inject p107 --message "Use the existing adapter pattern in src/adapters/"

When a Spawn Fails

Read the report via meridian spawn show SPAWN_ID. For deeper investigation, run meridian doctor or check meridian spawn show for log paths.

Reading Transcripts

Use meridian session log to read a session's conversation transcript — spawns, prior sessions, or the current primary session:

meridian session log p107                  # last 5 messages of a spawn
meridian session log p107 --last 20        # more context
meridian session log p107 -n 0             # entire segment
meridian session log p107 -c 1             # earlier compaction segment
meridian session log $MERIDIAN_CHAT_ID     # primary session transcript

meridian spawn show gives the structured report; meridian session log gives the full reasoning. Reach for session log when the report doesn't explain a failure, when you need to understand decisions made in a prior session, or when resuming work across sessions.

Search for specific content without reading the full transcript:

meridian session search "auth middleware" p107

Shared Filesystem

Spawns share filesystem directories for exchanging data. Context directories ($MERIDIAN_CONTEXT_*_DIR) are injected into every agent's system prompt at launch.

See the /meridian-work-coordination skill for when to use which.

Committing Spawn Changes

Use meridian spawn files to stage exactly what a spawn changed:

meridian spawn files p107 | xargs git add
meridian spawn files p107 -0 | xargs -0 git add   # paths with spaces

Template Variables

Use {{KEY}} placeholders in prompts, replaced at launch time with --prompt-var:

meridian spawn -a coder --prompt-file task.md --bg \
  --prompt-var TASK=auth-refactor \
  --prompt-var CONSTRAINT="no direct DB access"

Where task.md contains {{TASK}} and {{CONSTRAINT}} placeholders — they're replaced at launch time.

Beyond the Basics

For continue/fork, cancel, stats, permission tiers, reports, and dry-run, see resources/advanced-commands.md. For troubleshooting, run meridian doctor --help and meridian spawn show SPAWN_ID. For project defaults, run meridian config show or meridian config --help.

If you launched any --bg spawns, run meridian spawn wait before responding to the user.