Delegation Planner Skill

Purpose: Route every task to the correct agent layer before execution begins. Wrong routing wastes context budget and produces inferior output.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• An incoming task needs to be assigned to an agent
• A complex task needs to be decomposed across multiple agents
• A senior agent is being asked to do sub-agent work (or vice versa)
• Before dispatching any specialist agent

Agent Layer Routing Rules

Layer 1: Senior PM Agent

Route here when:

• User speaks in outcome language ("finished", "ready", "ship it")
• A Definition of Done needs to be established
• Proof artifacts need to be defined
• Milestone planning is needed
• Stakeholder communication is required

Do NOT route here:

• Implementation tasks (code, tests, deployments)
• Technical debugging
• Research tasks

---

Layer 2: Senior Orchestrator Agent

Route here when:

• Task spans multiple specialist domains
• Phase dependencies need to be enforced
• Evidence needs to be collected from multiple agents
• A completion claim needs to be blocked or approved
• Context budget management across agents is needed

Do NOT route here:

• Single-domain implementation
• Research-only tasks
• Simple file edits

---

Layer 3: Senior Specialist Agents

Route to Senior Engineering Agent when:

• Backend API, FastAPI routes, SQLAlchemy models, LangGraph agents
• Database migrations, schema changes
• Authentication, JWT, middleware
• Performance optimisation, infrastructure

Route to Senior UI/UX Agent when:

• React components, Next.js pages, Tailwind CSS
• Design system compliance, animations
• Responsive layout, accessibility
• Visual quality review

Route to Senior QA / Production Agent when:

• Test coverage (vitest, pytest, Playwright)
• CI/CD pipeline setup or fixes
• Deployment verification
• Monitoring and alerting setup

Route to Senior Research Agent when:

• Technology comparison or evaluation
• External documentation gathering
• Competitor analysis
• Best practice investigation

Route to Senior LMS Content Agent when:

• Educational content creation
• Learning module structure
• Content pipeline setup

Route to Senior Growth / Marketing Agent when:

• SEO optimisation
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
• Analytics setup
• Conversion optimisation

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Layer 4: Sub-Agents

Route here when:

• Single file edit or creation
• Targeted grep/glob search
• Proof artifact collection (curl, test run)
• Data transformation on a specific file
• Any task completable in < 5 minutes with a single tool

Do NOT route here:

• Multi-file architectural changes
• Tasks requiring decision-making
• Tasks requiring context from multiple parts of the codebase

Procedure

Step 1: Classify the task

Ask: What kind of work is this?

• Outcome language / stakeholder → Layer 1
• Multi-agent coordination → Layer 2
• Domain-specific implementation → Layer 3 (which specialist?)
• Isolated, bounded task → Layer 4

Step 2: Check for decomposition

If the task touches multiple domains (e.g., "add a feature with API + UI + tests"):

1. Decompose into sub-tasks per domain
2. Identify dependencies (API must exist before UI can call it)
3. Plan execution order

Step 3: Generate delegation plan

Produce the delegation plan table.

Output Format

DELEGATION PLAN
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
Task: [original task description]
Decomposed: [yes / no]

ROUTING
─────────────────
| # | Sub-task | Agent | Layer | Evidence Required | Gate |
|---|---------|-------|-------|------------------|------|
| 1 | [task]  | [agent] | [1-4] | [what to return] | [gate condition] |
| 2 | [task]  | [agent] | [1-4] | [what to return] | [gate condition — depends on #1] |
...

DEPENDENCY ORDER
─────────────────
[If tasks have dependencies: show order and gate conditions]
Step 1: Task #[N] must complete before Task #[N+1] begins
Gate:   [exact condition that unlocks next step]

CONTEXT BUDGET
─────────────────
Orchestrator:      [estimated tokens for coordination]
Each specialist:   [estimated tokens per agent]
Total estimate:    [rough total]
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════

Validation Gates

Before finalising delegation plan:

• No Layer 1 agent assigned implementation work
• No Layer 4 sub-agent assigned architectural decisions
• Dependencies are correctly ordered (no circular deps)
• Evidence required is specific (not "show your work")
• Gate conditions are binary (pass/fail, not subjective)

Failure Modes

Failure	Recovery
Task is too vague to route	Ask: "What does success look like?" — activate outcome-translator
Task spans all 4 layers	Decompose into phases, route each phase separately
Wrong agent assigned (discovered mid-task)	Re-route immediately, don't continue in wrong layer
Sub-agent scope creeps to architectural decision	Pause sub-agent, escalate to orchestrator

Eval Examples

Good Example

Task: "Add a protected dashboard page with user stats"

Delegation Plan:

#	Sub-task	Agent	Layer	Evidence Required
1	API endpoint: GET /api/user/stats	Senior Engineering	3A	curl output + type-check
2	Dashboard page component	Senior UI/UX	3B	Screenshot + 0 TS errors
3	Auth middleware check	Senior Engineering	3A	curl 401 without JWT
4	E2E test for dashboard	Senior QA	3C	Playwright test output

Dependency order: 1 → 3 → 2 → 4

Bad Example (rejected)

Task: "Add dashboard" Response: "Sure, I'll add the dashboard." — No routing, no decomposition, no evidence plan.