A narrow job for a helper

Think of it when a job needs a lot of reading, but you only need the conclusion.

In everyday life

It is like a lawyer who sends a clerk to read a box of old files and come back with a one-page note. The lawyer’s desk stays clear, but the note is only as good as the clerk’s instructions.

One case

An agent adding returns to a shop must first find every place the code works out tax. It reads 60 files itself, and by the end 70% of its window is full before it writes a line of the feature. A helper agent could read the same 60 files in its own window and send back a 20-line list, which would cost the main agent 2%.

Reading 60 files used most of the main window
Two ways, cell by cell1 cell = 10 files read
Window used with a helper (%) · the better way
5555557
Window used reading itself (%)
5162738496070
Window used, reading itself
70%
Window used, with a helper
7%
With a helper, the main agent pays only for the 20-line list at the end.

Every case

Reading is often the biggest cost in an agent’s window, and most of what it reads it never needs again. A helper takes that cost in its own window and hands back the conclusion, and several helpers can work at the same time. In many tools the helper starts with only its briefThe written instructions a helper agent starts from. In many tools it is all the helper knows about the task.; some let it inherit the earlier conversation. Either way, a vague brief gets a confident wrong answer, so write each one to stand alone: the goal, the scope, how to check, what to report.

The word

Engineers call this

subagent, delegationA helper agent that the main agent starts for one narrow job, such as searching the code or checking a list of pages. The helper works in its own window and returns only a short result.

Send bulk reading and narrow jobs to helpers, each with a brief that stands alone. Check what they return before you build on it.

Where this idea leads

Skills that encode it

  • principle-guard-the-context-window pstackRoute bulk to subagents and keep summaries, not raw payloads, in the main thread.
  • swarm pstackEvery brief stands alone: the goal, the scope, the exact slice, how to verify and what to report.
  • poteto-mode pstackYou own every subagent’s work: review its diff and write your own summary instead of passing on what it said.