/delegate

Spawn a teammate to work on a separate task independently. You keep working on your own thing and get notified when the teammate finishes.

Works for any independent task: coding, research, data analysis, information gathering, documentation, etc.

Requires Agent Teams (experimental) to be enabled.

Usage

/delegate "write unit tests for the auth module"
/delegate "research how other CLIs handle plugin systems"
/delegate "analyze Milan's last 10 matches and summarize their performance"
/delegate "summarize key findings from the 5 most cited papers on topic X"
/delegate "compare pricing models of top 5 SaaS competitors"

When to Use

Use /delegate when…	Use /with-advisor instead when…
Task is independent from your current work	You need expert feedback on YOUR work
Writing tests while you implement	Unfamiliar domain where mistakes are costly
Research or analysis in parallel	Task requires your judgment throughout
Refactoring a separate module	You want to stay in control of the implementation

How It Works

You ←→ Main (continues your current work)
             └── Delegate (works on assigned task)
                   ├── Asks Main if clarification needed
                   └── Notifies Main when done

You run /delegate "task description"
Claude spawns a teammate with the task
Teammate onboards via /catchup — learns your project automatically
You keep working on your own task
If the teammate needs a decision, they ask — you answer
When done, you get a summary of what changed

Write vs Read-Only Tasks

Claude classifies the task automatically:

Task type	Where delegate works	Examples
Write	`git worktree` on separate branch	”write tests”, “refactor module”, “add feature”, “add documentation to repo”
Read-only	Scratchpad in `/tmp`	”research how X works”, “analyze Milan’s last games”, “compare competitor pricing”, “summarize key findings from papers”

Write tasks use git worktree — the delegate works on an isolated branch, so there are no conflicts with your work. When they’re done, you review and decide whether to merge.

Read-only tasks use /tmp — no repo changes, just findings sent back to you.

Concurrent Delegates

You can run multiple delegates at the same time:

/delegate "write tests for the auth module"
/delegate "research caching strategies for our API"

Each delegate gets its own team and worktree. They work independently.

Reviewing Results

When a write delegate finishes, you get the branch name and review commands:

Delegate finished. Branch: delegate/auth-tests

To review: git diff main...delegate/auth-tests
To merge:  git merge delegate/auth-tests
To clean:  git worktree remove /tmp/delegate-auth-tests && git branch -d delegate/auth-tests

You decide what to do: merge, ask for changes, or discard.

Stopping a Delegate

Say “stop [delegate name]” at any point. The worktree stays so you can still review partial work.

Example Sessions

Write task

You: /delegate "write unit tests for the auth module"

Claude: Delegate active for: write unit tests for the auth module

  test-writer: working in git worktree on branch delegate/auth-tests

Continue your work. The delegate will notify you when done.

[You keep working on your own task]

@test-writer: Done. Added 12 test cases covering login, token refresh,
and session expiry. Branch: delegate/auth-tests

Delegate finished. Branch: delegate/auth-tests

To review: git diff main...delegate/auth-tests
To merge:  git merge delegate/auth-tests

Research task

You: /delegate "research how other CLIs handle plugin systems"

Claude: Delegate active for: research CLI plugin systems

  researcher: researching in background

[You keep working]

@researcher: Analyzed 5 CLIs (Terraform, Helm, kubectl, gh, Heroku).
Three main patterns: directory-based discovery, registry-based, and
protocol-based (like Terraform). For your use case, directory-based
is simplest and matches your existing skill loading pattern.

Out-of-context question

You: /delegate "when does AC Milan play next?"

Claude: Delegate active for: AC Milan next match

  researcher: researching in background

[You keep coding — your context stays clean]

@researcher: AC Milan vs Como, Saturday 15:00 at San Siro.

Your context window stays focused on your code. The delegate handles the tangent.

Task better suited for /with-advisor

You: /delegate "help me design the API endpoints"

Claude: This task needs your continuous input.
Use /with-advisor instead — it keeps you in the loop with expert feedback.

/with-advisor - Expert pair programming
Agent Teams - Setup guide

/with-advisor Session Workflow