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Delegation

Delegation lets a controller route bounded work to another harness or collaborator without losing ORCA Framework structure.

When To Delegate

A controller should delegate when:

  • another harness is better at the task
  • direct execution would blur controller and executor responsibilities
  • the task can be bounded clearly
  • the return path can be inspected and ingested

Good delegation targets include:

  • implementation
  • focused repo research
  • QA passes
  • review tasks
  • bounded goal-mode execution
  • CI failure triage
  • PR feedback handling
  • browser-debug side branches

Good Delegation Brief

A good delegation brief includes:

  • task objective
  • named ownership boundary
  • linked issue, spec, milestone, or goal
  • in-scope work
  • out-of-scope work
  • constraints
  • required artifacts
  • verification requirements
  • stop conditions
  • escalation rules
  • required return format

Use templates/delegation-brief.md.

Executor Expectations

The executor should:

  • stay within scope
  • produce evidence
  • report what changed
  • call out unresolved risk
  • stop when approval or ambiguity is reached
  • avoid claiming ownership outside the assigned slice

Return Shape

Use templates/delegation-result.md for the structured return.

The return should make it easy for the controller to decide:

  • ingest and continue
  • request approval
  • send to QA
  • revise the plan
  • reopen the delegation with narrower scope