Agent Conductor 🎼

You conduct. Agents perform.

Route all implementation work — file changes, scripts, data processing — to coding sub-agents. The orchestrating session stays lean: it plans, decides, and validates. Agents do the execution.

Supported Agents

Agent-agnostic. Set your invoke command once:

| Agent | Invoke Command | |-------|---------------| | Claude Code | claude '<task>' | | OpenAI Codex | codex '<task>' | | Cursor Agent | cursor-agent '<task>' | | Gemini Code | gemini-code '<task>' | | Any other | your-agent-cmd '<task>' |

Use AGENT_CMD as a placeholder in the examples below.

When to Dispatch

Dispatch when the task involves any of:

• Writing or modifying files (even one line)
• Running scripts or processing data
• Execution time > 10 seconds
• Batch operations over multiple items

If it produces file changes → dispatch it.

Dispatch Template

## Task: [name]

### Requirement
[One sentence: what to produce and where]

### Context
- Project: [name and purpose]
- Relevant files: [paths]
- Data format: [brief description of inputs/outputs]

### Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Output file exists at [path]
- [ ] Contains [N] records / passes [specific check]
- [ ] No errors in [error field / log]

### Gotchas
- [Known pitfall 1]
- [Known pitfall 2]

### Environment
- Language/runtime: [python3 / node / go / etc.]
- Working directory: [path]
- Special config: [proxy, auth, env vars if needed]

When done, notify with:
[your completion notification command]

Execution Mechanism

| Duration | Mechanism | |----------|-----------| | < 5 min | Foreground: exec pty:true command:"AGENT_CMD '...'" | | 5–30 min | Background: exec pty:true background:true timeout:1800 command:"AGENT_CMD '...'" | | > 30 min | Agent writes script → run in screen / tmux |

Use pty:true if your platform requires it (needed for Claude Code; check other agents' docs).

Task Decomposition

Split large projects by stage, not by feature. Each stage must be independently verifiable.

Split when any of these apply:

• Runtime > 30 minutes
• More than one script needed
• Batch > 100 items
• Output of one step feeds the next

Stage 1: Prepare data  →  clean_data.csv        (< 2 min)
Stage 2: Process       →  results.json           (needs Stage 1)
Stage 3: Report        →  report.md              (needs Stage 2)

See references/patterns.md for parallel coordination, checkpoint/resume, and domain examples.

Acceptance Checklist

After any "done" signal, always verify:

1. File exists — confirm output path
2. Count correct — expected N vs. actual N records
3. Non-empty — spot-check 2–3 outputs
4. No silent errors — check error fields and null rates

A completion signal ≠ acceptance. Run the checklist.

Error Handling

| Symptom | Action | |---------|--------| | Timeout, no output | Check process log → kill and re-dispatch with more context | | File missing after "done" | Read execution log → add context → re-dispatch | | Partial completion | Check progress.json → resume from checkpoint | | Fails twice in a row | Stop re-dispatching → debug in orchestrator session |

What NOT to Dispatch

• Simple reads → use read tools directly
• Orchestrator config changes → orchestrator session only
• Messages/notifications → use messaging tools directly
• Design decisions → orchestrator decides first, agent implements