qoder-delegate – Coding skill for AI agents

Bundled upstream support

Supporting files are included at skill-relative paths. See [UPSTREAM-NOTICE.md](UPSTREAM-NOTICE.md) for their pinned sources, licenses, hashes, and import changes.

Qoder Delegate

When to Use

• You want to delegate a bounded coding task to a separate qoder implementer (Qoder) and then review its diff yourself.
• The user explicitly asked for delegation to this implementer.

You are the orchestrator. Delegate one bounded coding task to a separate implementer - Qoder CLI -

then review what it produced and land it yourself. You write the brief and own the judgment; Qoder

edits the working tree in its session; you verify and commit.

The loop needs only shell and file access, so any comparable orchestrator can drive it.

When NOT to use this

• The task is small enough to do inline; delegation overhead is not worth it.
• qodercli is not installed or authenticated.
• You want to write the code yourself or need only an interactive Qoder session.

Prerequisites (check once)

command -v qodercli
qodercli --version
qodercli --list-models

If the binary is missing, install it from Qoder's

[official Quick Start](https://docs.qoder.com/en/cli/quick-start). Authenticate with qodercli login,

or set QODER_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN for automation. A successful --list-models confirms the current

account can return its live model catalog.

Choose model and context window

Qoder's available models can change. If the human requests a model, use its exact current value from

qodercli --list-models; never invent or pin a catalog entry. Otherwise omit --model and let Qoder

use its current default.

--context-window <n> is optional. Pass a positive integer only when the human requests a size or the

task needs an explicit budget. Qoder applies it only to supported models; surface an unsupported

model/size error instead of silently choosing another value.

The loop

Run these five steps per task. Steps 1, 4, and 5 require judgment; 2 and 3 are mechanical.

1. Write the brief

Qoder sees the brief plus what it can inspect in the workspace, not this chat. Include the goal,

current state, what to change, what to leave untouched, the project's actual gates, and a closing

report contract. Tell Qoder not to commit. Keep one task per brief. See

[references/writing-the-brief.md](references/writing-the-brief.md).

2. Dispatch

Use the bundled relay. It wraps Qoder's non-interactive stream-json mode and writes result.json.

<skill-dir> is the installed folder containing this SKILL.md.

node "<skill-dir>/scripts/relay.mjs" --brief brief.txt --cd /path/to/repo
# choose a live model:                 add --model "<value from qodercli --list-models>"
# request a supported context window: add --context-window 32768
# resume the latest session:          add --resume-last  # delta brief only
# resume a specific session:          add --resume <id>  # delta brief only
# see every option:                   node .../relay.mjs --help

Implementation runs default to Qoder's auto permission mode. The relay never bypasses permissions

unless the caller explicitly requests it, and it never directly commits. The child can still invoke git; the brief is a behavioral constraint, not enforcement. Capture the baseline HEAD and inspect the final commit history as well as staged, unstaged and untracked files. See

[references/dispatch-and-poll.md](references/dispatch-and-poll.md).

3. Wait for completion

The relay blocks until Qoder exits. Run it with the orchestrator's background-command facility, or

background it in the shell and wait for result.json. Completion means the process exited and the

file contains a status; do not trust a progress display.

A pre-run usage error exits 2 and writes no result. Missing qodercli exits 127 and writes

status: "qoder_unavailable" with installation guidance.

Native Windows relay launch is not yet verified; do not claim it until a native Windows smoke passes.

4. Review - do not trust the self-report

Treat Qoder's final message and gate outcomes as claims:

• Re-run the project's gates yourself.
• Read the diff against the brief, starting with touchedFiles.
• Check any --add-dir workspaces separately; their changes are not in the primary tree report.
• Run relevant guard skills if installed.
• Round-trip migrations and grep for dangling references after removals or renames.

See [references/review-and-land.md](references/review-and-land.md).

5. Land it

The implementer edits; the orchestrator commits. Commit only after the gates pass and the diff

holds. If rework is needed, send a delta brief with --resume-last or --resume <id>, then review

again.

Permission model

Qoder print mode cannot show approval prompts. The relay defaults to auto, which makes

non-interactive allow/deny decisions. default can deny actions that would require a prompt;

accept_edits permits workspace edits but may deny shell actions; dont_ask fails closed; plan

maps to default plus Qoder's Plan work state; and bypass_permissions is for explicitly trusted

runs only.

Qoder falls back to default when a non-default mode is requested outside a trusted directory. Check

actualPermissionMode in result.json; no requested mode replaces diff review.

Data and execution scope

Delegation sends the brief and accessible workspace context to the configured provider and may incur account charges. Use an isolated checkout and minimal inherited credentials. Avoid sensitive context in briefs, logs and resumed sessions. The optional --lane resolver requires the separately installed delegate-setup skill and is unavailable without it. Choose a new --out-dir; the relay rejects existing paths to preserve evidence. Logs and buffered messages can grow with output; use bounded tasks and monitor disk/memory. A completed status means CLI exit success, not successful gates, an authentic report or an unchanged commit history.

Authorization model

Delegation is something the human opts into. Once they ask for it, landing verified, gate-passing work

is the contract. Two limits remain: surface, do not absorb (report Qoder's design decisions and

non-blocking deviations) and stop for scope changes (ask before expanding beyond the brief). See

[references/review-and-land.md](references/review-and-land.md).

References

• [references/writing-the-brief.md](references/writing-the-brief.md) - brief structure, real gates,

report contract, secrets, and delta briefs.

• [references/dispatch-and-poll.md](references/dispatch-and-poll.md) - flags, model/context controls,

artifacts, result fields, sessions, and failure recovery.

• [references/review-and-land.md](references/review-and-land.md) - independent review, commit boundary,

and rework.

• [references/multi-task-queues.md](references/multi-task-queues.md) - sequential queues, constraint

carry-forward, progress tracking, and final coherence.

Limitations

• Runtime helper scripts/relay.mjs is bundled from the revision recorded in UPSTREAM-NOTICE.md. Requires the corresponding installed and authenticated CLI, Node 18+, and git.
• Relay never commits — it only returns structured result JSON; you review and land the commit.

> Adapted from [amElnagdy/delegate-skills](https://github.com/amElnagdy/delegate-skills) (MIT). Runtime relay is bundled; local changes are recorded in the upstream notice.