subordinate-management

Agent Building

Supervisor tools for subordinate Anima: disable/enable, model changes, restart, delegation, state reads, and audits. Use when: pausing a subordinate, changing main or background models, restarting processes, delegating tasks, or org dashboards.

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Skill: Subordinate Management (Supervisor Tools)

Supervisor tools automatically enabled for Anima that have subordinates. Most tools work on all descendants (children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.). delegate_task is restricted to direct subordinates only.

Available Tools

All Descendants (Children, Grandchildren, and Beyond)

Tool	Purpose
`disable_subordinate`	Pause descendant (status.json `enabled: false` → process stop + prevent auto-resume)
`enable_subordinate`	Resume paused descendant
`set_subordinate_model`	Change descendant's main LLM model (updates status.json; requires `restart_subordinate` to take effect)
`set_subordinate_background_model`	Change descendant's background model (for heartbeat/cron; updates status.json; requires `restart_subordinate` to take effect; empty string to clear)
`restart_subordinate`	Restart descendant process (status.json `restart_requested` flag; Reconciliation restarts within ~30 seconds)
`delegate_task`	Delegate task to direct subordinate only (queue add + DM send + tracking entry on your side)
`org_dashboard`	Tree view of process status, last activity, current task, and task count for all descendants
`ping_subordinate`	Liveness check for descendants (`name` omitted = all at once, specified = single)
`read_subordinate_state`	Read descendant's `current_state.md`
`audit_subordinate`	Comprehensive audit of descendant's recent activity (summary, tasks, errors, tool usage, communication)

Delegated Task Tracking

Tool	Purpose
`task_tracker`	Track progress of tasks delegated via `delegate_task` from the subordinate's queue (`status`: all / active / completed; default: active)

Auto-sync (sync_delegated): After each heartbeat completes, the framework may scan subordinates' task queues and automatically update the supervisor's tracking entries to done/failed when delegated work completes or fails (archived tasks are included in the search). You do not have to call task_tracker for every sync; status tends to align around the next heartbeat cycle.

Important: disable_subordinate vs send_message

disable_subordinate: Sets status.json to enabled: false. Reconciliation does not auto-resume. Use this one
Sending "take a break" via send_message alone does not stop the process. Reconciliation will restart even after messaging

Usage

Pause and Resume

When pausing multiple subordinates, call disable_subordinate for each one:

disable_subordinate(name="aoi", reason="Temporary pause due to reduced workload")
disable_subordinate(name="taro", reason="Temporary pause due to reduced workload")
enable_subordinate(name="aoi")

Model Change and Restart

Model changes are saved to status.json, but restart_subordinate is required to apply them to the running process:

set_subordinate_model(name="aoi", model="claude-sonnet-4-6", reason="Load balancing")
restart_subordinate(name="aoi", reason="Apply model change")

To change the background model (for heartbeat/cron):

set_subordinate_background_model(name="aoi", model="claude-sonnet-4-6", reason="Reduce heartbeat load")
restart_subordinate(name="aoi", reason="Apply background model change")

To clear the background model and revert to the main model:

set_subordinate_background_model(name="aoi", model="", reason="Unify to main model")
restart_subordinate(name="aoi")

Status Confirmation and Audit

org_dashboard()                         # Dashboard for all subordinates
ping_subordinate()                      # Liveness check for all subordinates
ping_subordinate(name="aoi")            # Liveness check for single subordinate
read_subordinate_state(name="aoi")      # Current task and pending task content
audit_subordinate(name="aoi")           # Comprehensive audit of last 1 day
audit_subordinate(name="aoi", days=7)   # Audit last 7 days (days: 1–30)
audit_subordinate(since="09:00")        # All subordinates since 9:00 today
audit_subordinate(name="aoi", since="13:00")  # aoi since 13:00 today

Also available via CLI (useful for S/C/D/G-mode via Bash):

animaworks anima audit aoi              # Audit last 1 day
animaworks anima audit aoi --days 7     # Audit last 7 days
animaworks anima audit --all --since 09:00  # All animas since 9:00 today

Task Delegation

delegate_task(name="aoi", instruction="Summarize weekly report", deadline="1d", summary="Weekly report creation")
# name, instruction, deadline are required. summary is optional (defaults to first 100 chars of instruction)
# Specify workspace to have the delegate work in that workspace (see workspace-manager skill)
task_tracker(status="active")      # Check progress of delegated tasks (status: all / active / completed)

For assigning workspaces to subordinates (primary working directory), see the workspace-manager skill.

Permissions

All descendants (recursive): Status, management, and audit tools work on any descendant
Direct subordinates only: delegate_task (task delegation)
You cannot operate on yourself