Brief Delegate

brief-delegate — focused task brief for a sub-session

You are writing a brief that delegates one task to a fresh Claude Code session. The sub-session must be able to execute the task from this brief alone — without the parent's context.

Where to save

~/.claude/projects//briefs/brief-.md

Compute the paths yourself — no shell needed for the slug:

• ` = current working directory with every / replaced by - (e.g. cwd /Users/you/code/myapp → slug -Users-you-code-myapp`). You already know the cwd from your environment.
• briefs dir = /.claude/projects//briefs (absolute, your real home path).

You do need one shell call — the timestamp, since Claude has no clock:

date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S   # local time — keeps the filename stamp consistent with the log stamp

The filename is brief-.md. Write it with the Write tool (it creates the briefs dir if missing) — don't shell out to create the file.

Before writing

If the user hasn't already told you, ask once for:

• The single task to delegate (one sentence)
• Success criteria (one or two bullets)

Don't proceed with a vague task — the sub-session will spin.

What to write

# Brief — 

**Flavor**: delegate
**Created**: 
**Project**: 
**Read first**: `CLAUDE.md`, then [the SPECIFIC docs the sub-session needs for THIS task — scan the repo and name them (spec, design doc, the module's README). A bare `CLAUDE.md` is not enough; the sub-session has none of the parent's context.]

## Task

## Context

## Steps
1. 
2. 
3. 

## Success criteria
- 

## Constraints
- 

## Report back
Commit at logical checkpoints as you go (if this is a git repo) — those SHAs are how the parent reviews exactly what changed. When done, write a new brief using the `brief-report` skill (`/brief-report`). It will save to `~/.claude/projects//briefs/`. Set its **Responds to:** to THIS brief (`brief-.md`). Include:
- What changed (files + commit SHAs)
- What worked / what didn't
- Any new blockers or surprises

When you print this brief's path to the user, the path you give them IS the file the sub-session reads — so the sub-session always knows which brief to cite as Responds to.

After writing

1. Append the log entry via the shared helper (owns the format + trim + file pruning — don't hand-format the line). Pass the absolute briefs dir and the file you just wrote:

``bash ~/.claude/skills/_brief-shared/append-log.sh "" delegate "" "" ``

1. Print the file path.
2. Tell the user verbatim: "Open a new Claude Code session in this project, then say: Read and execute it." — they could also say /brief-resume and pick this one from the list.

What NOT to include

• Don't include exploratory ideas — the sub-session does one thing.
• Don't pad with "consider also..." or "you might want to..." — every line is an instruction.
• Don't include reasoning traces or alternatives that were rejected.
• Don't leave success criteria vague ("looks good", "feels right" — never).

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: useaitechdad
• Source: useaitechdad/agent-skills
• License: Apache-2.0

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.