From 92fec50fcba6c087f258ce6bb9400797e7edcfb5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Andr=C3=A9=20Padez?= Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:53:50 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] a spawned agent runs on the cheapest model that works MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit a commander spawned a classification agent on Opus, spent $0.26 deciding which of three folders a transcript belonged in, noticed, and said it would pin Haiku instead. it was right and nothing had told it — the model rule lives in the delegating skill, which is about the platform's own agents. so it is in the template now: haiku for anything mechanical and repeated, sonnet where there is real judgement, opus almost never — and if a spawned agent seems to need opus, the rules in CLASSIFICATION.md are too vague and sharpening them is cheaper than paying for the same decision every time. with the reason it matters more here than anywhere: a commander fires once per item, forever. the difference between models is not one decision, it is one decision multiplied by however long the owner keeps using it. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 Officer-Session: 656f5c85-e49a-4f1f-b9f3-042a04b4d043 --- src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts | 9 +++++++++ 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+) diff --git a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts index 3c458d38..307fa834 100644 --- a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts +++ b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts @@ -288,6 +288,15 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string { 'or whatever else you wrote for the job. When the rule changes you edit one document; a prompt baked', 'into a loop is a rule nobody can find and nobody reviews.', '', + '**And it runs on the cheapest model that will get it right.** Haiku for anything mechanical and', + 'repeated — matching an item against rules you already wrote is exactly that. Sonnet when there is real', + 'judgement in it. Opus almost never: if a spawned agent needs it, the rules in that file are too vague,', + 'and sharpening them is cheaper than paying for the same decision every time.', + '', + 'This is the one cost that grows without anybody noticing. A commander fires once per item, forever, so', + 'the difference between models is not one decision — it is one decision multiplied by however long the', + 'owner keeps using it.', + '', '**Say what is provisional.** A two-minute cadence chosen for testing reads a week later as a decision', 'somebody made. Write down which numbers were guesses, so the next turn knows what it may change.', '',