Delegation

The delegation tool allows PocketPaw to spawn sub-agents for parallel task execution. This is useful for complex tasks that can be broken into independent subtasks.

How It Works

When the agent uses the delegate tool:

  1. A new Claude subprocess is spawned
  2. The subtask is sent to the subprocess with its own context
  3. The subprocess executes independently
  4. Results are returned to the parent agent
  5. The parent agent synthesizes the results

Usage

User: Research three different programming languages and compare them


Agent: I'll delegate this to parallel sub-agents.
  → delegate("Research Python's strengths and ecosystem")
  → delegate("Research Rust's strengths and ecosystem")
  → delegate("Research Go's strengths and ecosystem")
  → [waits for all three]
  → Synthesizes comparison from results

Configuration

Delegation uses the same Anthropic API key as the main agent:

Terminal window
export POCKETCLAW_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

Tool Schema

{
  "name": "delegate",
  "description": "Spawn a sub-agent to handle a specific subtask",
  "input_schema": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "task": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "The task to delegate to the sub-agent"
      },
      "context": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Additional context for the sub-agent"
      }
    },
    "required": ["task"]
  }
}

Policy Group

Belongs to group:delegation.

Warning

Each delegated task spawns a new Claude API call. Be mindful of API costs when delegating multiple tasks.

Last updated: February 12, 2026
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