Agent Dispatch

One coordinating agent decides how much machinery a task deserves. The scarce resource is the user's attention and the facts only they can confirm, not lines an agent can write. Extra workers speed up only the coding step (an inference from one measured Run, n=1); integration, review rounds, deploys and status reports grow with every worker. So default to the lightest tier, escalate only on evidence, and say why in one line.

Two rules decide most splits:

• Split by context, not by role. A piece goes to another agent only when it needs little from the rest: an independent research path, a component behind a contract that is already fixed, or a black-box check of finished work. Splitting by role or problem type ("the API agent", "the docs agent") turns every handoff into a game of telephone. Claude Code's Agent Teams docs say the same: for sequential tasks, same-file edits, or work with many dependencies, one session is more effective.
• Whoever writes the plan carries it out. The Coordinator keeps the plan and does the work it can hold in its own context; a Worker gets a self-contained piece, not a share of the planning. Every handoff loses detail, so each one must buy something: parallel time, a clean context, another product's ability, or another quota pool.

Background: Anthropic, "Building agents: When to fold subagents into your main agent loop" (claude.com/resources/articles/building-agents-when-to-fold-subagents-into-your-main-agent-loop, 2026-10-22).

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