Delegate.sh - AI Task Delegation Pattern

A utility for delegating complex tasks to an AI coding agent (

codex

Quick Start

# Simple task
./delegate.sh -r "Developer" -g "Create a hello world file" -t "Create hello.md with Hello World"

# Full specification
./delegate.sh \
  -r "Senior Software Architect" \
  -g "Document the authentication flow" \
  -a "ADR document exists with sequence diagrams" \
  -w "Need docs for onboarding" \
  -t "Analyze auth module and create comprehensive documentation" \
  -n "auth-docs"

Command Line Options

-r

--role

-c

--common-role

common-roles/<name>.md

-g

--goal

-a

--acceptance-criteria

-w

--why

-t

--task-detail

-n

--name

-f

--foreground

-l

--list-roles

-s

--status

--check

--check-all

--continue

-k

--kill

--clean

--clean-all

--purge [name]

-h

--help

Common Roles

Predefined roles are stored in

common-roles/

-c

--common-role

# List available roles
./delegate.sh --list-roles

# Use a common role
./delegate.sh -c feature-analyst -g "Extract auth features" -t "..."
./delegate.sh --common-role architect -g "Document API patterns" -t "..."

Available Roles

feature-analyst

architect

code-reviewer

technical-writer

refactoring-specialist

ux-designer

Adding Custom Roles

Create a markdown file in

common-roles/

# My Custom Role

Description of the role's expertise, focus areas, and approach.
Keep it to 2-3 sentences that set the right mindset.

Then use it:

./delegate.sh -c my-custom-role -g "..." -t "..."

The Prompt Structure

The script builds an XML-structured prompt that

codex

<role>
{Role description - WHO should do this work}
</role>
<task>
  <goal>{WHAT we want to achieve}</goal>
  <acceptanceCriteria>{HOW we know it's done}</acceptanceCriteria>
  <theWhy>{WHY we're doing this}</theWhy>
  <taskDetail>{Detailed instructions}</taskDetail>
</task>

Why This Structure?

• Role: Sets the persona/expertise level. The agent will approach the task from this perspective.
• Goal: Clear, concise objective. Keeps the agent focused.
• Acceptance Criteria: Measurable success conditions. Prevents ambiguity about completion.
• The Why: Context helps the agent make better decisions when facing trade-offs.
• Task Detail: Step-by-step instructions, file paths, output formats, examples.

Logging

All output is logged to

/tmp/delegate-logs/

<timestamp>_<name>_stdout.log

<timestamp>_<name>_stderr.log

Logs are tee'd - you see output live while it's also saved.

Running Tasks in Parallel with tmux

Tasks automatically run in tmux sessions by default. This means:

• Jobs persist even if your terminal disconnects
• Easy monitoring with

  delegate.sh --status

• Simple session management built into the script

Starting Tasks

# Start a background task (default - uses tmux)
./delegate.sh -c feature-analyst -g "Extract features" -n "my-features"

# Start multiple parallel tasks
./delegate.sh -c feature-analyst -g "Extract features from auth" -n "auth-features"
./delegate.sh -c architect -g "Document API patterns" -n "api-arch"
./delegate.sh -c technical-writer -g "Write README" -n "docs"

# Run in foreground (blocks until complete)
./delegate.sh -f -c feature-analyst -g "Quick task" -n "quick"

Monitoring Tasks

# Check all running delegate sessions
./delegate.sh --status

# Quick check if tasks are running or done
./delegate.sh --check-all

# Check a specific task
./delegate.sh --check my-features

# Filter by name pattern
./delegate.sh --status features

# Attach to watch a session live (Ctrl+B, D to detach)
tmux attach -t delegate-my-features

# Tail the logs directly
tail -f /tmp/delegate-logs/*my-features*_stderr.log

Continuing a Conversation

If a task completes but you want to give follow-up instructions without starting fresh:

# Continue an existing session with a new message
./delegate.sh --continue my-features "Now also add edge case scenarios for authentication failures"

# The continuation will:
# - Find the original codex session ID from logs
# - Wait if previous task is still running (exponential backoff)
# - Send your message to continue that conversation
# - Preserve all context from the original task

This is useful when:

• The agent finished but missed something
• You want to refine or extend the output
• You have follow-up tasks that build on previous work
• Queuing up the next instruction while current task runs (it will wait automatically)

Managing Sessions

# Kill a specific session
./delegate.sh --kill my-features

# Clean up all idle sessions (completed tasks still open)
./delegate.sh --clean

# Kill ALL delegate sessions (including running ones)
./delegate.sh --clean-all

# Delete a session AND its log files completely
./delegate.sh --purge my-features

# Delete ALL sessions and ALL logs (with confirmation prompt)
./delegate.sh --purge

Session States

The

--check-all

Batch Jobs Pattern

#!/bin/bash
# run-research-jobs.sh

REPOS=("repo1" "repo2" "repo3")

for repo in "${REPOS[@]}"; do
    ./delegate.sh -c feature-analyst \
        -g "Extract features from $repo" \
        -n "${repo}-features"
    
    ./delegate.sh -c architect \
        -g "Extract architecture from $repo" \
        -n "${repo}-arch"
    
    sleep 1  # Brief pause between starts
done

echo "Started all jobs. Monitor with: ./delegate.sh --status"

Waiting for Jobs to Complete

#!/bin/bash
# wait-for-jobs.sh

TASKS=("auth-features" "api-arch" "docs")

while true; do
    running=0
    for task in "${TASKS[@]}"; do
        if tmux has-session -t "delegate-$task" 2>/dev/null; then
            ((running++))
            echo "⏳ $task still running..."
        else
            echo "✅ $task completed"
        fi
    done
    
    if [[ $running -eq 0 ]]; then
        echo "🎉 All jobs complete!"
        break
    fi
    
    echo "--- $running jobs running, checking again in 60s ---"
    sleep 60
done

Role Templates

Expanded role prompts are in

references/role-templates.md

common-roles/

--common-role

Task Detail Templates

Reusable task briefs are in

references/task-detail-templates.md

Monitoring & Debugging

Watch a Running Task

# Follow stderr (verbose output)
tail -f /tmp/delegate-logs/*my-task*_stderr.log

# Follow stdout (final output)
tail -f /tmp/delegate-logs/*my-task*_stdout.log

Check if Tasks are Running

ps aux | grep "codex exec" | grep -v grep

Search Past Logs

# Find tasks that created certain files
grep -r "created.*\.feature" /tmp/delegate-logs/

# Find errors
grep -r "error\|failed\|Error" /tmp/delegate-logs/*stderr.log

Kill a Running Task

# Find the PID
ps aux | grep "codex exec" | grep -v grep

# Kill it
kill <PID>

Best Practices

1. Be Specific in Task Details

❌ Bad:

-t "Document the code"

✅ Good:

-t "Create API documentation for /src/api/*.ts files. Include:
- Function signatures with parameter descriptions
- Return value documentation  
- Usage examples for each endpoint
- Error codes and their meanings
Output to /docs/api/"

2. Set Clear Acceptance Criteria

❌ Bad:

-a "Code should be good"

✅ Good:

-a "All functions have JSDoc comments, README.md exists with setup instructions, no TypeScript errors"

3. Use Meaningful Task Names

❌ Bad:

-n "task1"

✅ Good:

-n "auth-module-docs"

4. Provide Context with The Why

-w "We're onboarding 5 new developers next month and need documentation 
    to reduce ramp-up time from 2 weeks to 3 days"

5. Break Large Tasks into Smaller Ones

Instead of one massive task, create focused parallel tasks:

• Features extraction (one per module)
• Architecture extraction (separate from features)
• Documentation (separate from code changes)

Example: Full Research Pipeline

Here's a complete example of researching multiple repositories:

#!/bin/bash
REPOS=("repo1" "repo2" "repo3")
OUTPUT_BASE="/path/to/output"

FEATURE_ROLE="Senior Business Analyst with BDD expertise..."
ARCH_ROLE="Senior Software Architect..."

for repo in "${REPOS[@]}"; do
    # Features job
    ./delegate.sh \
        -r "$FEATURE_ROLE" \
        -g "Extract features from $repo" \
        -a "Feature files in $OUTPUT_BASE/$repo/features/" \
        -t "Repo: /repos/$repo. Create .feature files..." \
        -n "${repo}-features" &
    
    # Architecture job  
    ./delegate.sh \
        -r "$ARCH_ROLE" \
        -g "Extract architecture from $repo" \
        -a "ADRs in $OUTPUT_BASE/$repo/architecture/" \
        -t "Repo: /repos/$repo. Create ADR files..." \
        -n "${repo}-architecture" &
    
    sleep 2
done

# Monitor
while pgrep -f "codex exec" > /dev/null; do
    echo "$(date): $(pgrep -fc 'codex exec') tasks running..."
    sleep 300
done

echo "All done! Output in $OUTPUT_BASE"

Troubleshooting

Task Hangs

# Check if codex is waiting for input
tail -20 /tmp/delegate-logs/*task-name*_stderr.log

# May need to kill and restart with more specific instructions

No Output Files Created

• Check the task detail has correct output paths
• Verify the agent has write permissions
• Look for errors in stderr log

Agent Goes Off Track

• Make acceptance criteria more specific
• Add explicit "DO NOT" instructions in task detail
• Break into smaller, more focused tasks

Files

• delegate.sh

  - The main delegation script

• common-roles/

  - Common role prompts used by

  --common-role

• references/

  - Expanded role and task template references

• scripts/validate-skills-ref.py

  - Skills spec validation script