orchestrating-subagents

Orchestrating Subagents

Dispatch, coordinate, and synthesize results from subagents using the harness's delegation mechanism (see the active harness profile).

The Portable Primitive

Every subagent dispatch should carry the same bounded brief, expressed through the active harness's delegation mechanism:

Specialist: systematic-implementer
Objective: Implement the auth module
Scope: Make only the changes needed for the auth module.
Workspace: /absolute/path/to/expected-repository-or-worktree
Return: List the changed files and summarize the implementation.

Required brief elements:

• Specialist — the registered agent or persona best suited to the work (for example, an implementer or researcher)
• Objective — a concise statement of the outcome
• Scope — full instructions, boundaries, dependencies, and files in scope
• Workspace — for any write-capable dispatch, the explicit expected repository or worktree root
• Return — the result format expected from the specialist

Optional brief elements:

• Session reference — resume a prior specialist session instead of creating a new one, where the harness supports session reuse
• Trigger context — the command or workflow that initiated the dispatch

A foreground dispatch blocks until the specialist returns its result. Use the active harness profile to determine whether foreground, background, or other dispatch modes are available. Run independent dispatches concurrently where the harness supports it; otherwise dispatch sequentially in dependency order.

Background Dispatch (When Available)

Background dispatch may be gated by a runtime capability or feature flag. Check the active harness profile and rely on whether the mechanism accepts background work.

When background dispatch is available, it runs asynchronously and the harness reports the result to the parent session when the specialist completes. Do not poll or sleep.

When background dispatch is unavailable, fall back to foreground dispatch—serially or in small foreground batches.