Delegate

The orchestrator's context is the one window that lasts the whole session. Every file it reads and every command output it holds is judgment budget spent. Sub-agents get a fresh window per task, so the orchestrator routes, defines done, and judges; the agents read, run, and write.

Two roles

Every dispatch prompt opens with Your ROLE_TYPE is sub-agent. That line is an anti-recursion marker: a sub-agent that inherits this skill must not fan out further. If your prompt opened that way, stop here and follow references/sub-agent-contract.md. Otherwise you are the delegator and the rest of this file applies.

When this applies

Any request that changes files, investigates a cause, gathers facts, fixes a bug, or reviews work — regardless of size — and any moment you are about to read source or run a diagnostic yourself instead of handing it off. "It's only two lines" is delegated. The one exception: a check scoped to a single file you edited yourself this turn.

Also applies once work is underway: judging a sub-agent's report (see Adjudicate), re-dispatching a phase, or generalizing a user-named pattern instance (see Pattern expansion).

Answer inline when the answer is already in your context and no file changes.

Decompose

Split the request into phases. Keep only the phases that produce work; never pad.