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Author SHA1 Message Date
Drew Ritter
78cc189244 fix(sdd): batch reviews check the diff against the brief's file list
Batching moves N edits under one review, which changes the review's
failure profile: an implementer that silently skips one file of twelve
produces a diff full of correct, uniform edits — nothing conspicuous is
missing, and no seat in the pipeline was assigned to notice. The single
combined review is the only net for a dropped edit, but the reviewer
template never told it to count.

The batch brief already lists every file with its change, so the reviewer
reconciles the diff against that list file by file; a listed file with no
hunk is a Missing finding regardless of how clean the rest of the batch
looks. Conditional on a multi-file brief, so single-task reviews are
unchanged.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-04 14:25:40 -07:00
Jesse Vincent
e7a4285985 fix(sdd): batch small same-shape tasks into one dispatch
Plans sometimes enumerate many tiny, same-shape edits (one-line fixes,
constant changes, a field added across files) as separate tasks. The
current loop dispatches a fresh implementer plus review per task, so a
12-micro-task plan costs ~24 subagent seats for what one subagent could
do in a single pass. In controlled evals on a micro-task plan, batching
cut cost 73% and dispatches 87% with better completion than control; on
a 5-non-trivial-task plan the rule correctly never batched (dispatch
counts and completion identical to control).

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_0185AJr98gHx5EmwqNeft4Sy
2026-08-02 19:36:55 -07:00
5 changed files with 14 additions and 46 deletions

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@@ -34,15 +34,6 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
Your review is read-only on this checkout. Do not mutate the working tree, the index, HEAD, or branch state in any way. Use tools like `git show`, `git diff`, and `git log` to inspect history. If you need a working copy of a different revision, check it out into a separate temporary directory (e.g. `git worktree add /tmp/review-[SHA] [SHA]`) — never move HEAD on this checkout.
## You Do Not Dispatch Subagents
Do all of this review yourself. Never spawn a subagent to review part
of the diff, and never spawn another reviewer for a second opinion.
This process already provides every review seat the work gets; a
reviewer you spawn duplicates one of them at full cost, and its
verdict counts for nothing. If the diff feels too large for one
pass, review it in passes yourself and say so in your report.
## What to Check
**Plan alignment:**

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@@ -193,6 +193,14 @@ that implementer. Single-file mechanical fixes also take the cheapest tier.
## The Task Loop
**Batch small same-shape work.** When the plan lists several tasks that are
each a small, independent edit of the same kind — the same one-line fix,
constant change, or field addition repeated across files — do not dispatch
one subagent per task. Compose ONE dispatch brief listing every file and
its change, send the whole batch to a single subagent, and review its diff
as one unit. Reserve one-dispatch-per-task for work that needs its own
judgment, its own tests, or its own review surface.
Everything you paste into a dispatch prompt — and everything a subagent
prints back — stays resident in your context for the rest of the session
and is re-read on every later turn. Hand artifacts over as files.
@@ -223,12 +231,6 @@ and fix-round diffs need it.
later dispatches — a real session's dispatch hit 42k chars of which 99%
was pasted history. A fresh subagent needs its task, the interfaces it
touches, and the global constraints. Nothing else.
- The dispatch carries the no-subagents contract (it is in the
implementer template): the implementer never dispatches subagents —
not helpers, and never a reviewer. Review arrives from you, after the
report. In real sessions, every reviewer a worker spawned duplicated
the task review the controller dispatched anyway — a full extra
review seat per task.
- If an earlier task parked a finding in the area this task touches, carry
a pointer to that ledger entry in the dispatch.
- Record the implementer's agent identity from the dispatch result —
@@ -440,7 +442,6 @@ Use superpowers:finishing-a-development-branch.
| "The fix was small, skip the re-review" | Unreviewed fixes are how regressions land. Every round ends with a scoped re-review. |
| "Reviews slow the loop down" | The loop without reviews is just unverified churn. Reviews are the loop's brakes and steering. |
| "Ledger bookkeeping is overhead" | The ledger is what survives compaction. Controllers without one have re-dispatched entire completed task sequences. |
| "The implementer spawned its own reviewer — free extra assurance" | It's a duplicate seat reviewing the same diff; the task review is the gate. A worker-spawned reviewer is a defect to flag, not rigor. |
## Example Workflow

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@@ -47,18 +47,6 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
While iterating, run the focused test for what you're changing; run the
full suite once before committing, not after every edit.
## You Do Not Dispatch Subagents
Do all of this task's work yourself. Never spawn a subagent to
implement part of the task, and above all never spawn a reviewer to
check your work. Self-review (below) means reading your own diff.
Review is the controller's job: after you report, it dispatches a
fresh reviewer against your diff. A reviewer you spawn duplicates
that review at full cost, and its approval counts for nothing in
the process. If you catch yourself thinking "an independent review
would strengthen my report" — that review is already scheduled.
Report instead.
## Code Organization
You reason best about code you can hold in context at once, and your edits are more

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@@ -43,15 +43,6 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
Your review is read-only on this checkout. Do not mutate the working
tree, the index, HEAD, or branch state in any way.
## You Do Not Dispatch Subagents
Do all of this review yourself. Never spawn a subagent to review part
of the diff, and never spawn another reviewer for a second opinion.
This process already provides every review seat the work gets; a
reviewer you spawn duplicates one of them at full cost, and its
verdict counts for nothing. If the diff feels too large for one
pass, review it in passes yourself and say so in your report.
## Scope
Your scope is the findings list and the fix diff. Verdict every finding.

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@@ -52,15 +52,6 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
Your review is read-only on this checkout. Do not mutate the working
tree, the index, HEAD, or branch state in any way.
## You Do Not Dispatch Subagents
Do all of this review yourself. Never spawn a subagent to review part
of the diff, and never spawn another reviewer for a second opinion.
This process already provides every review seat the work gets; a
reviewer you spawn duplicates one of them at full cost, and its
verdict counts for nothing. If the diff feels too large for one
pass, review it in passes yourself and say so in your report.
## Do Not Trust the Report
Treat the implementer's report as unverified claims about the code. It
@@ -95,6 +86,12 @@ Subagent (general-purpose):
- **Misunderstood:** right feature built the wrong way, wrong problem
solved
If the brief lists several files each with its own change (a batched
dispatch), check the diff against that list file by file: every listed
file must have its corresponding hunk. A listed file the diff never
touches is a Missing finding, no matter how clean the rest of the
batch looks.
If a requirement cannot be verified from this diff alone (it lives in
unchanged code or spans tasks), report it as a ⚠️ item instead of
broadening your search.