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Author SHA1 Message Date
Jesse Vincent 7c560e048b fix(sdd): reviewers never dispatch subagents either
The first fix-cycle battery moved the depth-2 leak from implementers
(9/9 baseline -> 0/6) to a final reviewer that spawned two
sub-reviewers; the contract now reaches every dispatched role.
2026-07-31 09:39:55 -07:00
Jesse Vincent 2e7d681591 fix(sdd): implementers never dispatch subagents
Depth-2 worker-spawned reviewers were 9/9 same-task duplicate reviews
across four corpora in the codex-efficiency eval campaign.
2026-07-31 09:39:55 -07:00
5 changed files with 46 additions and 0 deletions
@@ -34,6 +34,15 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
Your review is read-only on this checkout. Do not mutate the working tree, the index, HEAD, or branch state in any way. Use tools like `git show`, `git diff`, and `git log` to inspect history. If you need a working copy of a different revision, check it out into a separate temporary directory (e.g. `git worktree add /tmp/review-[SHA] [SHA]`) — never move HEAD on this checkout.
## You Do Not Dispatch Subagents
Do all of this review yourself. Never spawn a subagent to review part
of the diff, and never spawn another reviewer for a second opinion.
This process already provides every review seat the work gets; a
reviewer you spawn duplicates one of them at full cost, and its
verdict counts for nothing. If the diff feels too large for one
pass, review it in passes yourself and say so in your report.
## What to Check
**Plan alignment:**
@@ -223,6 +223,12 @@ and fix-round diffs need it.
later dispatches — a real session's dispatch hit 42k chars of which 99%
was pasted history. A fresh subagent needs its task, the interfaces it
touches, and the global constraints. Nothing else.
- The dispatch carries the no-subagents contract (it is in the
implementer template): the implementer never dispatches subagents —
not helpers, and never a reviewer. Review arrives from you, after the
report. In real sessions, every reviewer a worker spawned duplicated
the task review the controller dispatched anyway — a full extra
review seat per task.
- If an earlier task parked a finding in the area this task touches, carry
a pointer to that ledger entry in the dispatch.
- Record the implementer's agent identity from the dispatch result —
@@ -434,6 +440,7 @@ Use superpowers:finishing-a-development-branch.
| "The fix was small, skip the re-review" | Unreviewed fixes are how regressions land. Every round ends with a scoped re-review. |
| "Reviews slow the loop down" | The loop without reviews is just unverified churn. Reviews are the loop's brakes and steering. |
| "Ledger bookkeeping is overhead" | The ledger is what survives compaction. Controllers without one have re-dispatched entire completed task sequences. |
| "The implementer spawned its own reviewer — free extra assurance" | It's a duplicate seat reviewing the same diff; the task review is the gate. A worker-spawned reviewer is a defect to flag, not rigor. |
## Example Workflow
@@ -47,6 +47,18 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
While iterating, run the focused test for what you're changing; run the
full suite once before committing, not after every edit.
## You Do Not Dispatch Subagents
Do all of this task's work yourself. Never spawn a subagent to
implement part of the task, and above all never spawn a reviewer to
check your work. Self-review (below) means reading your own diff.
Review is the controller's job: after you report, it dispatches a
fresh reviewer against your diff. A reviewer you spawn duplicates
that review at full cost, and its approval counts for nothing in
the process. If you catch yourself thinking "an independent review
would strengthen my report" — that review is already scheduled.
Report instead.
## Code Organization
You reason best about code you can hold in context at once, and your edits are more
@@ -43,6 +43,15 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
Your review is read-only on this checkout. Do not mutate the working
tree, the index, HEAD, or branch state in any way.
## You Do Not Dispatch Subagents
Do all of this review yourself. Never spawn a subagent to review part
of the diff, and never spawn another reviewer for a second opinion.
This process already provides every review seat the work gets; a
reviewer you spawn duplicates one of them at full cost, and its
verdict counts for nothing. If the diff feels too large for one
pass, review it in passes yourself and say so in your report.
## Scope
Your scope is the findings list and the fix diff. Verdict every finding.
@@ -52,6 +52,15 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
Your review is read-only on this checkout. Do not mutate the working
tree, the index, HEAD, or branch state in any way.
## You Do Not Dispatch Subagents
Do all of this review yourself. Never spawn a subagent to review part
of the diff, and never spawn another reviewer for a second opinion.
This process already provides every review seat the work gets; a
reviewer you spawn duplicates one of them at full cost, and its
verdict counts for nothing. If the diff feels too large for one
pass, review it in passes yourself and say so in your report.
## Do Not Trust the Report
Treat the implementer's report as unverified claims about the code. It