fix(research): restore subagent fan-out, record that a skill body and its allowed-tools must agree
research instructed "spawn one subagent per URL" while its allowed-tools granted no spawn tool, so it silently degraded to serial fetches. Three other skills spawn subagents without trouble because they declare no allowed-tools. The defect was the mismatch, not the spawning. ADR-0027 records the agreement rule. research drops allowed-tools and gets its steps 4-5 fan-out and the orchestrator-writes gotcha back (1.0.1 -> 1.1.0). Closes #116 Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01EGHFJextYtVQseaHPDDhxB
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# A skill's body and its `allowed-tools` must agree — a spawning step needs a spawn tool or no list
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**Status:** Accepted (2026-09-21)
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`plugins/bin/.apm/skills/research/SKILL.md` once told the agent to "spawn one subagent per URL"
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while its `allowed-tools` granted nothing that spawns. `WebFetch` was granted, so it never
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hard-failed: it degraded to serial fetches in the orchestrator's own context, and the "in
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parallel" wording, the page cap and the "subagents summarise, orchestrator writes" gotcha all
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quietly stopped meaning anything. The #99 retrofit rewrote steps 4 and 5 as honest serial reads
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with a real page cap and per-page reduction to notes (#116).
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The defect was a **mismatch between what the body instructs and what `allowed-tools` permits**. It
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was not that a skill spawned subagents. Three skills spawn today and work: `write-docs` (Reader
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Testing sub-agent), `improve-codebase-architecture` (`Explore`, and 3+ parallel sub-agents in
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`references/interface-design.md`) and `forge` (fork and clean-context subagents). None declares
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`allowed-tools`, so all inherit every tool, spawning included. `research` was the only one that
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both restricted the list and instructed spawning.
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**Decision: a skill may instruct spawning subagents, provided its `allowed-tools` agrees with its
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body.** Either:
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- omit `allowed-tools`, so the skill inherits every tool on every target; or
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- list the spawn tool — only once its per-target name is known, since `allowed-tools` is a flat list
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and `claude`, `copilot` and `codex` name it differently.
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A step that needs a tool the list does not grant must be rewritten as a step that does not need it.
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That is what the #99 retrofit did to `research`, and it stays correct until one of the two options
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above is taken.
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Fan-out is not confined to agents. `CONTEXT.md` says a plugin-scope agent *delegates to skills*
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because it cannot disclose to itself; it does not say skills may not delegate.
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## Consequence for `research`
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Its fan-out is restored, and `allowed-tools` is dropped to do it (version 1.0.1 → 1.1.0). That is
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the first of the two options above; the second is unavailable until the per-target spawn tool names
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are known.
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The cost is stated rather than hidden: `research` fetches arbitrary web pages, and inheriting every
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tool widens what an injected page could reach for. Two things bound it. The subagents only read and
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summarise, and the orchestrator alone writes files, so the write surface is unchanged in intent. And
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the least-privilege list was never enforceable across targets anyway, since it could not name a
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spawn tool. If a per-target form of `allowed-tools` appears, restore a list that includes the spawn
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tool.
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Rejected: banning spawning in skills (contradicted by three working skills, and unsupported by
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`CONTEXT.md`), and guessing a per-target spawn tool name in `allowed-tools` (no per-target form
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exists, and a wrong guess reproduces the defect silently).
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@@ -6,17 +6,8 @@ description: >-
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documentation written from existing code or specs -> `write-docs`. Not a bug
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or incident -> `diagnose`.
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metadata:
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version: "1.0.1"
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version: "1.1.0"
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category: research
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allowed-tools:
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- Grep
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- Glob
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- Read
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- Write
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- WebSearch
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- WebFetch
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- mcp__context7__resolve-library-id
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- mcp__context7__query-docs
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model: sonnet
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---
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@@ -25,6 +16,7 @@ model: sonnet
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- Never infer the output path. A run writes a directory's worth of files, and a guessed destination scatters them through someone's source tree. If the user named no path, stop and ask.
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- Write nothing outside the given output path. A file placed beside the agreed directory is one the user never asked for and will not think to look for.
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- Never write an empty topic file. A stub `troubleshooting.md` reads downstream as researched and closed.
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- Subagents read and summarise; the orchestrator writes every file. A subagent that writes has no view of the other subagents' notes, so its files collide with theirs.
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- A Context7 response that is a "no results" message, a redirect notice, or header-only boilerplate is not coverage. A topic area counts as covered only when the response carries at least one substantive paragraph.
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## Step 1 — Scope against the working directory
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@@ -52,11 +44,11 @@ If nothing usable comes back, stop and report what was searched, then ask for st
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## Step 4 — Read the sources
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`WebFetch` each URL in turn. No subagent tool is granted here, so the reads are serial and every fetched page lands in this context: reduce each page to notes by topic area, plus the links worth deepening, before fetching the next one.
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Spawn one subagent per URL, in parallel. Each fetches its page with `WebFetch` and returns notes by topic area plus the links worth deepening — never the raw page. The pages stay out of this context; only the notes come back.
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## Step 5 — Deepen
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`WebFetch` the links worth following, still one at a time and still reducing each page to notes. Stop a branch once its content turns repetitive or leaves the topic, and cap the whole step at roughly ten additional pages — serial reads make that cap a real budget, not a formality.
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Spawn one further subagent per link worth following, again in parallel and again returning notes only. Stop a branch once its content turns repetitive or leaves the topic, and cap the whole step at roughly ten additional pages.
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## Step 6 — Write
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