Subagent Delegation

The delegate_task tool spawns child AIAgent instances with isolated context, restricted toolsets, and their own terminal sessions. Each child gets a fresh conversation and works independently — only its final summary enters the parent's context.

Single Task

delegate_task(
    goal="Debug why tests fail",
    context="Error: assertion in test_foo.py line 42",
    toolsets=["terminal", "file"]
)

Parallel Batch

Up to 3 concurrent subagents:

delegate_task(tasks=[
    {"goal": "Research topic A", "toolsets": ["web"]},
    {"goal": "Research topic B", "toolsets": ["web"]},
    {"goal": "Fix the build", "toolsets": ["terminal", "file"]}
])

How Subagent Context Works

Critical: Subagents Know Nothing

Subagents start with a completely fresh conversation. They have zero knowledge of the parent's conversation history, prior tool calls, or anything discussed before delegation. The subagent's only context comes from the goal and context fields you provide.

This means you must pass everything the subagent needs:

# BAD - subagent has no idea what "the error" is
delegate_task(goal="Fix the error")

# GOOD - subagent has all context it needs
delegate_task(
    goal="Fix the TypeError in api/handlers.py",
    context="""The file api/handlers.py has a TypeError on line 47:
    'NoneType' object has no attribute 'get'.
    The function process_request() receives a dict from parse_body(),
    but parse_body() returns None when Content-Type is missing.
    The project is at /home/user/myproject and uses Python 3.11."""
)

The subagent receives a focused system prompt built from your goal and context, instructing it to complete the task and provide a structured summary of what it did, what it found, any files modified, and any issues encountered.

Practical Examples

Parallel Research

Research multiple topics simultaneously and collect summaries:

delegate_task(tasks=[
    {
        "goal": "Research the current state of WebAssembly in 2025",
        "context": "Focus on: browser support, non-browser runtimes, language support",
        "toolsets": ["web"]
    },
    {
        "goal": "Research the current state of RISC-V adoption in 2025",
        "context": "Focus on: server chips, embedded systems, software ecosystem",
        "toolsets": ["web"]
    },
    {
        "goal": "Research quantum computing progress in 2025",
        "context": "Focus on: error correction breakthroughs, practical applications, key players",
        "toolsets": ["web"]
    }
])

Code Review + Fix

Delegate a review-and-fix workflow to a fresh context:

delegate_task(
    goal="Review the authentication module for security issues and fix any found",
    context="""Project at /home/user/webapp.
    Auth module files: src/auth/login.py, src/auth/jwt.py, src/auth/middleware.py.
    The project uses Flask, PyJWT, and bcrypt.
    Focus on: SQL injection, JWT validation, password handling, session management.
    Fix any issues found and run the test suite (pytest tests/auth/).""",
    toolsets=["terminal", "file"]
)

Multi-File Refactoring

Delegate a large refactoring task that would flood the parent's context:

delegate_task(
    goal="Refactor all Python files in src/ to replace print() with proper logging",
    context="""Project at /home/user/myproject.
    Use the 'logging' module with logger = logging.getLogger(__name__).
    Replace print() calls with appropriate log levels:
    - print(f"Error: ...") -> logger.error(...)
    - print(f"Warning: ...") -> logger.warning(...)
    - print(f"Debug: ...") -> logger.debug(...)
    - Other prints -> logger.info(...)
    Don't change print() in test files or CLI output.
    Run pytest after to verify nothing broke.""",
    toolsets=["terminal", "file"]
)

Batch Mode Details

When you provide a tasks array, subagents run in parallel using a thread pool:

• Maximum concurrency: 3 tasks (the tasks array is truncated to 3 if longer)
• Thread pool: Uses ThreadPoolExecutor with MAX_CONCURRENT_CHILDREN = 3 workers
• Progress display: In CLI mode, a tree-view shows tool calls from each subagent in real-time with per-task completion lines. In gateway mode, progress is batched and relayed to the parent's progress callback
• Result ordering: Results are sorted by task index to match input order regardless of completion order
• Interrupt propagation: Interrupting the parent (e.g., sending a new message) interrupts all active children

Single-task delegation runs directly without thread pool overhead.

Model Override

You can use a different model for subagents — useful for delegating simple tasks to cheaper/faster models:

delegate_task(
    goal="Summarize this README file",
    context="File at /project/README.md",
    toolsets=["file"],
    model="google/gemini-flash-2.0"  # Cheaper model for simple tasks
)

If omitted, subagents use the same model as the parent.

Toolset Selection Tips

The toolsets parameter controls what tools the subagent has access to. Choose based on the task:

Toolset Pattern	Use Case
["terminal", "file"]	Code work, debugging, file editing, builds
["web"]	Research, fact-checking, documentation lookup
["terminal", "file", "web"]	Full-stack tasks (default)
["file"]	Read-only analysis, code review without execution
["terminal"]	System administration, process management

Certain toolsets are always blocked for subagents regardless of what you specify:

• delegation — no recursive delegation (prevents infinite spawning)
• clarify — subagents cannot interact with the user
• memory — no writes to shared persistent memory
• code_execution — children should reason step-by-step
• send_message — no cross-platform side effects (e.g., sending Telegram messages)

Max Iterations

Each subagent has an iteration limit (default: 50) that controls how many tool-calling turns it can take:

delegate_task(
    goal="Quick file check",
    context="Check if /etc/nginx/nginx.conf exists and print its first 10 lines",
    max_iterations=10  # Simple task, don't need many turns
)

Depth Limit

Delegation has a depth limit of 2 — a parent (depth 0) can spawn children (depth 1), but children cannot delegate further. This prevents runaway recursive delegation chains.

Key Properties

• Each subagent gets its own terminal session (separate from the parent)
• No nested delegation — children cannot delegate further (no grandchildren)
• Subagents cannot call: delegate_task, clarify, memory, send_message, execute_code
• Interrupt propagation — interrupting the parent interrupts all active children
• Only the final summary enters the parent's context, keeping token usage efficient
• Subagents inherit the parent's API key and provider configuration

Delegation vs execute_code

Factor	delegate_task	execute_code
Reasoning	Full LLM reasoning loop	Just Python code execution
Context	Fresh isolated conversation	No conversation, just script
Tool access	All non-blocked tools with reasoning	7 tools via RPC, no reasoning
Parallelism	Up to 3 concurrent subagents	Single script
Best for	Complex tasks needing judgment	Mechanical multi-step pipelines
Token cost	Higher (full LLM loop)	Lower (only stdout returned)
User interaction	None (subagents can't clarify)	None

Rule of thumb: Use delegate_task when the subtask requires reasoning, judgment, or multi-step problem solving. Use execute_code when you need mechanical data processing or scripted workflows.

Configuration

# In ~/.hermes/config.yaml
delegation:
  max_iterations: 50                        # Max turns per child (default: 50)
  default_toolsets: ["terminal", "file", "web"]  # Default toolsets

tip

The agent handles delegation automatically based on the task complexity. You don't need to explicitly ask it to delegate — it will do so when it makes sense.