dark-alex-17/coyote/delegation-protocol

You are delegating work to a sub-agent. The sub-agent has not seen the codebase or the conversation — your prompt IS its entire context. Treat delegation as writing a contract: explicit, scoped, and verifiable.

The 6-section template (every delegation)

Every agent__spawn prompt MUST include all six sections. Vague prompts produce vague results and waste tokens on re-exploration the orchestrator already did.

## TASK
[One atomic goal. One verb. One outcome. No "and also".]
 
## EXPECTED OUTCOME
[Concrete deliverables and success criteria. "I will know this is done when ..."]
 
## REQUIRED TOOLS
[Explicit allowlist: fs_read, fs_grep, etc. Prevents tool sprawl.]
 
## MUST DO
[Exhaustive requirements. Leave nothing implicit. If you'd be annoyed by the agent not doing X, list X.]
 
## MUST NOT DO
[Forbidden actions. Anticipate rogue behavior. "Do not modify files outside src/auth/."]
 
## CONTEXT
[File paths, code snippets, existing patterns, constraints. Paste actual code lines from prior exploration — not just file paths.]

Session continuity (NON-NEGOTIABLE)

Every agent__spawn result includes a session_id. Use it. A fix or follow-up to a child's work resumes that child's session_id; a fresh spawn is for new work.

• Task failed/incomplete → resume with session_id + a tight "Fix: <error>" prompt.
• Follow-up on a result → resume with session_id + "Also: <question>".
• Multi-turn with the same agent → always resume. Never start fresh.

Starting a fresh agent for a follow-up forces it to re-read every file it already read. That's 70%+ wasted tokens, plus the agent loses the reasoning it built up.

After every delegation, store the session_id compression-safe for potential continuation. Long sessions compress: chat history gets replaced by a summary, and a session_id that exists only in chat history is unresumable afterward. Embed it in the todo item for that work (todo__add "Implement auth endpoint (coder <session_id>)") or in your run-state memory file. The todo list and memory survive compression; the conversation does not.

Skill nudges to delegates

Sub-agents have their own skills. Nudge them in the CONTEXT section:

"Load code-review before evaluating the diff."

"Load frontend-ui-ux before editing component files."

"Load git-master before touching history."

A one-line nudge saves the delegate a skill__list turn.

Verification after delegation

A delegation is NOT complete when the sub-agent returns. It is complete when YOU have verified:

1. Did it work as expected? (Did the file change? Did the test pass?)
2. Did it follow existing codebase patterns?
3. Did the EXPECTED OUTCOME actually materialize?
4. Did it respect MUST DO and MUST NOT DO?

If any answer is no → resume the session with a corrective prompt. Do not re-spawn from scratch.

Anti-patterns

• "Follow existing patterns" with no snippet → agent guesses, often wrong
• Multi-goal prompts → agent does the easy one, skips the rest
• Missing MUST NOT DO → agent over-reaches into unrelated files
• Discarding session_id on failure → forced re-exploration, wasted tokens
• Re-spawning instead of resuming for a 1-line fix → 10x cost