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Add delegation-threshold and model-inheritance rules to subagent-orchestration - #3
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…estration Don't spawn a subagent for what a grep or one command answers; delegate only for a reason you can name. Set the model explicitly on every spawn, since an unset model inherits the parent's down the whole spawn tree. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A spawn that names no tool list inherits every tool the parent has, MCP servers included — so the ~100K baseline is the default outcome, not a rare mistake. Name the few tools a task needs on every spawn. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Copilot review overview
🟢 Approval recommended
No unresolved review issues were identified.
Review effort: Lite
Findings: None
What changed in this PR
Adds cost-control guidance for subagent delegation, model selection, and tool inheritance.
Changes:
- Discourages delegating tasks answerable by simple commands.
- Requires explicit model selection for every spawn.
- Requires explicitly restricting each subagent’s tools.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
plugin/templates/skills/subagent-orchestration/SKILL.md |
Adds delegation, model-inheritance, and tool-inheritance guidance. |
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Why
In a long session with a large agent fleet, most of the spend came from three things the skill either didn't address or stated too softly. Subagents were spawned to verify claims against a handful of PRs and issues — lookups a grep answers. 13 of 23 subagents in one stretch were spawned by other subagents, all inheriting the orchestrator's top-tier model because none set one; the existing "state the reason for a larger model" rule never triggered, since nobody chose the model. And every subagent started at ~100K tokens because a spawn that names no tool list inherits every tool the parent has, MCP servers included — the skill described the cost but not that inheriting everything is the default.
What changed
In
plugin/templates/skills/subagent-orchestration/SKILL.md:No version bump here: #2 already bumps
0.3.0 → 0.4.0, and both land before any project runs/preflight:update.🤖 Generated with Claude Code