Delegation
How orchestrators spawn other agents — task, call_omo_agent, and the background tools that go with them.
Delegation is how Sisyphus and Atlas fan work out. Four tools handle the lifecycle.
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
task | Category-based delegation — Sisyphus-Junior runs with the category's default model. Built-in categories: visual-engineering, ultrabrain, deep, artistry, quick, unspecified-low, unspecified-high, writing. |
call_omo_agent | Spawn explore or librarian specifically. Supports run_in_background: true. |
background_output | Retrieve results from a background task by task_id. |
background_cancel | Cancel a running background task. |
Background pattern
task(subagent_type="explore", load_skills=[], prompt="Find auth implementations", run_in_background=true)
# ... continue working ...
# System notifies on completion.
background_output(task_id="bg_abc123")While one agent runs in the background, the orchestrator keeps working on something else. Five concurrent background agents is common in an ultrawork session.
When to use what
task— you know what kind of work this is but not which agent should do it.call_omo_agent— you specifically need Explore or Librarian; they're retrieval-only and Sisyphus-Junior isn't right.background_*— when the work is long enough that blocking on it wastes the orchestrator's time.
Tool restrictions
Several agents have no delegation surface at all — oracle, librarian, explore, multimodal-looker, momus, atlas. task and call_omo_agent are blocked for them. See Agents for the per-agent table.
Source Notes
Aligned with upstream docs/reference/features.md#delegation-tools.