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sidebar_position	title	description
7	Subagent Delegation	Spawn isolated child agents for parallel workstreams with delegate_task

Subagent Delegation

The delegate_task tool spawns child AIAgent instances with isolated context, restricted toolsets, and their own terminal sessions. Each child gets a fresh conversation and works independently — only its final summary enters the parent's context.

Single Task

delegate_task(
    goal="Debug why tests fail",
    context="Error: assertion in test_foo.py line 42",
    toolsets=["terminal", "file"]
)

Parallel Batch

Up to 3 concurrent subagents:

delegate_task(tasks=[
    {"goal": "Research topic A", "toolsets": ["web"]},
    {"goal": "Research topic B", "toolsets": ["web"]},
    {"goal": "Fix the build", "toolsets": ["terminal", "file"]}
])

Key Properties

Each subagent gets its own terminal session (separate from the parent)
Depth limit of 2 — no grandchildren
Subagents cannot call: delegate_task, clarify, memory, send_message, execute_code
Interrupt propagation — interrupting the parent interrupts all active children
Only the final summary enters the parent's context, keeping token usage efficient

Configuration

# In ~/.hermes/config.yaml
delegation:
  max_iterations: 50                        # Max turns per child (default: 50)
  default_toolsets: ["terminal", "file", "web"]  # Default toolsets

When to Use Delegation

Delegation is most useful when:

You have independent workstreams that can run in parallel
A subtask needs a clean context (e.g., debugging a long error trace without polluting the main conversation)
You want to fan out research across multiple topics and collect summaries

:::tip The agent handles delegation automatically based on the task complexity. You don't need to explicitly ask it to delegate — it will do so when it makes sense. :::

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