context-budget-orchestration

Context Budget Orchestration

Overview

Keep the parent Hermes session effective when a task can expand through tool output, long files, research trails, implementation loops, or multi-agent reasoning.

The method has three layers:

1. Contain: keep bulky deterministic material out of the parent context.
2. Orchestrate: delegate bounded, independent reasoning with explicit contracts.
3. Reserve: stop expanding early enough to verify artifacts and deliver a grounded result.

This skill defines methodology, not permission. It does not authorize paid providers, external side effects, persistent changes, or broader delegation than the user and runtime permit.

When to use

Use when one or more conditions hold:

• the task has three or more meaningful phases;
• many files, long logs, PDFs, webpages, or past sessions may be involved;
• research, implementation, review, and verification must be coordinated;
• independent subproblems can run in parallel;
• raw tool output would crowd out synthesis;
• the work may continue across sessions;
• the user explicitly requests delegation or subagents.

Use lightly or skip for a quick lookup, a small local edit, one short file, or a deterministic operation whose orchestration overhead exceeds the work. Respect an explicit request not to delegate.

Context-budget preflight

Before heavy work, state a compact budget:

## Context budget
- Task size: small | medium | large | huge
- Parent role: execute | orchestrate | synthesize | verify
- Bulk-output strategy: direct tools | deterministic reduction | subagent summaries | external ledger
- Delegation: none | one bounded child | parallel children | map-reduce
- Verification reserve: what must remain possible before finalization

Size heuristic

Size	Typical shape	Default response
Small	no more than two sources/files and a few calls	direct work
Medium	several files/sources or commands	batch reads; consider one bounded child
Large	broad research, test/build loops, many files	delegate independent reasoning early
Huge	repository-wide, multi-phase, or multi-session	external ledger plus map-reduce