octocode-subagent

Octocode Subagent

Host-agnostic delegation: cloud/host workers or local Ollama offload.
Flows: GATE → DECOMPOSE → ROUTE → PACKET → SPAWN → COORDINATE → SYNTHESIZE → CLEANUP (tool-using) · GATE → ROUTE → RUN → VERIFY → REPORT (Ollama — references/local-ollama.md).

Lobby rules

Spawn only when delegation changes speed, expertise, isolation, or context quality; otherwise keep work in the parent. Default is solo; earn spawn cost first.
One bounded objective per worker; no nested spawning unless the host explicitly allows it.
Workers inherit no parent chat: every packet carries goal, scope, context, authority, constraints, evidence needs, and return shape.
Treat worker output as claims; re-check load-bearing anchors (Ollama: always VERIFY).
Barrier before synthesize — wait/list every live worker (or stop+remove); merge conflicts first; then answer.
Parent owns the user, synthesis, and mutations unless a packet explicitly transfers write ownership.
Pick the smallest capable configured model; declare file ownership before parallel writes.
Challenge techniques use fresh context; agreement is not proof.
Local Ollama is tool-less one-shot/map-reduce only — never a tool-using agent loop. Stop when solo work finishes, two High options need a winner, three angles add nothing, a user/auth gate is pending, or no live workers remain.

Smart routes — load only what the current step needs

When deciding solo, batch, specialist, or clean worker, load references/spawn-gate.md — delegation must earn its coordination cost.
When splitting work, load references/decompose.md; when choosing supervisor, pipeline, handoff, or swarm load references/patterns.md — create a dependency-aware topology.
Before spawning, load references/packets.md; when delegating technical research load references/octocode.md — make worker context and tool routing self-contained.
When selecting host model/thinking effort, load references/model-routing.md — smallest capable configured model.
When waiting, steering, messaging, or stopping workers, load references/coordinate.md; for independent remote peers load references/a2a.md.
When parallel writers share mutable state, load references/workspace.md.
When workers stall, fail, or conflict, load references/recovery.md; before final output load references/synthesize.md and references/output.md; at CLEANUP stop and remove every worker and release shared state per references/coordinate.md.
When grounding orchestration guidance in sources, load references/references.md.
When improving this skill, prefer octocode-graph-eval; otherwise load references/improve-loop.md.

Challenge routes — fresh context per critic; agreement is not proof

When quality risk needs a second mind, load references/techniques.md first — it names which technique below earns the spawn.
When a plan needs cheap assumption surfacing without new research, load references/rubber-duck.md; when another agent’s claims need claim-by-claim falsification, load references/interview.md.
When a worker must follow a borrowed playbook without borrowed chat, load references/mimic-flow.md; when a design looks too clean to ship, load references/red-team.md.
When a critic must judge the artifact and not the author’s story, load references/blind-review.md; when one solve stays ambiguous and independent retries can cut noise, load references/consensus.md.

Local Ollama routes — tool-less one-shot / map-reduce offload only

When saving tokens with local Ollama (summarize/extract/…), load references/local-ollama.md — not a Task/A2A spawn path.
When running that offload loop end to end, load references/workflow.md — health GATE, ROUTE, RUN shards, VERIFY, REPORT what was offloaded.
When unsure whether offload beats solo, load references/decision-matrix.md; when the surface is unclear (research, article, code, translate, images), load references/usage-matrix.md.
When selecting Ollama tags, load references/model-selection.md; when an installed family needs special flags or two families tie, load references/family-playbooks.md.
When writing the sealed packet, load references/packet-contract.md; for the example JSON schemas it references, load references/packet-schemas.md.
When inventorying models or debugging CLI behavior, load references/ollama-cli.md; for ollama run flags, non-interactive patterns, and HTTP equivalents load references/ollama-cli-run.md; for script invoke and serving knobs load references/ollama-invoke.md.
Before integrating any worker output, load references/verify-gate.md — pass, one tighter packet, one cascade, or solo; never silent-accept.
When the question is RAM kits, catalog, or MCP/tools capability rather than routing, load references/ollama-local-models.md — pull commands per RAM in references/ollama-local-models-kits.md, capability rows in references/ollama-local-models-matrix.md, cloud/heavy tags plus a sample inventory in references/ollama-local-models-heavy.md, evidence and links in references/ollama-local-models-sources.md.

Related routes

Use octocode-research for worker evidence; octocode-graph-eval to judge worker quality (subagent measurement cookbooks live there).
Use octocode-rfc-generator before changing a multi-agent architecture; octocode-prompt-optimizer for packet contracts; octocode-skills when changing this folder.

Scripts

Run scripts/ollama-health.sh at GATE, then again with --model "$OLLAMA_WORKER_MODEL" after ROUTE — daemon or tag missing means stay solo.
Run scripts/ollama-worker.sh once per sealed packet or shard at RUN — --job, --input, --schema, --out, --keepalive.