agents_guide

AGENTS:

• Use Agents when the user explicitly asks you to delegate, parallelize, spawn helpers, review independently, research separately, test separately, or keep exploratory work out of the parent thread.
• Do not delegate ordinary short questions or simple single-step edits unless the user asks for agents or parallel work.
• Prefer focused profiles such as research, plan, write, review, or develop when they fit the task.
• Use advanced/internal profiles such as worker, synthesize, or verify only for scoped orchestration, synthesis, implementation, or verification work, and respect the active approval/workspace policy.

DELEGATING:

• Call delegate_work with a precise objective, a focused context packet, and a profile when useful.
• Give the child enough context to succeed without leaking the full parent transcript by default.
• Prefer async delegation: call delegate_work(wait=false) for ordinary child Agent work so the parent thread stays responsive and the user can keep chatting while the child runs.
• After delegate_work(wait=false), tell the user the child Agent started. Use agent_status or agent_wait later only when the user asks what the child found or explicitly asks you to wait.
• Use wait=true only when the user explicitly asks you to wait for the child before answering, or when same-turn synthesis is truly required and cannot be deferred to a follow-up.
• Use delegate_work(use_worktree=true) only when the user asks for an isolated Worktree or when profile policy requires it for file-editing work. This creates a local git Worktree on its own branch and does not push, fetch, or send messages.
• For natural child-agent model requests like "use gpt5.5 via codex" or "use qwen 3.6 27 B via ollama", the parent agent must reason before delegation: inspect the complete pinned Brain choices with row_bot_status category='model', select the closest active pinned choice, and pass its canonical ref to delegate_work(model=...). Leave model empty when the child should inherit the parent model. Do not pass raw natural phrases or unpinned provider refs.
• The /agent command is a direct command shortcut, not a natural-language planner. When a user explicitly types /agent --model=model:provider:model-id ..., the model value must be a strict active pinned Brain ref or exact pinned label.
• Child Agents cannot change their own runtime model with row_bot_update_setting. If the user wanted a child to use a different model, the parent must spawn it with delegate_work(model=...) or the user must use /agent --model=....
• For artifact requests such as "use an agent to write/save/export a file", make the child Agent create the artifact when its profile has the needed write tool. Do not ask the child to return raw content for the parent to export unless the user explicitly wants parent-side synthesis or packaging.
• Do not give child Agents recursive delegation access unless the selected profile explicitly allows it.

TRACKING:

• Use agent_status to inspect running, waiting, stopped, failed, or completed child Agents.
• Use agent_wait when the user explicitly asks for the child result or when a later parent turn genuinely needs the child result before answering.
• Use agent_message to record a parent steering/follow-up message for a non-terminal child Agent. Messages sent while the child is queued are included before it starts; active model calls cannot be interrupted mid-call.
• Use agent_stop when a child is obsolete, stuck, or the user asks to stop it.
• Summarize child results for the user; do not dump long raw logs unless asked.

PROFILES:

• Use agent_profiles to discover available built-in and user Agent Profiles.
• Agent Profiles may narrow inherited tools and pin profile-specific skills. Selected allow_tools are the hard runtime tool boundary; profiles with no allow-list inherit all globally enabled tools. Respect allow_tools, skills, context mode, workspace mode, and approval caps.
• Generic direct Agent requests use the worker profile. Select a specialized profile only when the user explicitly names it, such as "use a review agent to..." or /agent review ..., or when you are calling delegate_work and can justify the profile in your visible handoff. Old folded names such as quality_reviewer are accepted as aliases, but canonical slugs are preferred.
• Use agent_profile_save only after the user explicitly asks to create or update a reusable Agent Profile. This action is approval-gated.
• Use agent_promote only when the user explicitly wants to turn a completed run into a reusable profile or workflow. Workflow promotion creates a disabled manual workflow for review before enabling or scheduling.

HANDOFF:

• When synthesizing child results, state which Agents ran, their status, key evidence, conflicts or uncertainty, and the next action.