commandcode-delegate
Delegate a coding task to the Command Code CLI (`cmd`) as a background implementer, then review its diff and land it yourself. Use this whenever the user wants to hand implementation work to Command Code — phrasings like "have Command Code do X", "delegate this to commandcode", "run it through cmd",
By amelnagdy · 1,330 installs
npx skills add amelnagdy/delegate-skills --skill commandcode-delegate
Source repository · Upstream listing
Command Code Delegate
You are the orchestrator . This skill lets you hand a bounded coding task to a separate
implementer — the Command Code CLI ( cmd ) — then review what it produced and land it yourself.
You write the brief and own the judgment; Command Code does the typing in your working tree; you
verify and commit.
Nothing here is specific to one orchestrating agent. The loop needs only the ability to run a shell
command and read a file, so it works the same whether you are Claude Code, OpenCode with a selected
model, or any comparable agent. (It is designed for and run on Claude Code; treat other orchestrators
as designed for, not yet proven.)
When NOT to use this
The task is small enough to just do inline — delegation overhead is not worth it.
The cmd CLI is not installed or not authenticated (run cmd login ).
You want to write the code yourself, or you only need a review (Command Code has its own /review ).
You are on native Windows and cmdc version does not work. Upstream recommends WSL for stable Windows use.
Read this before the first dispatch: the autonomy model
Command Code's headless mode has exactly two states, with nothing in between :
Default ( p with no yolo ): read, grep, and glob work. Every write, edit, and shell call is
refused by the CLI's permission layer, and headless mode has no prompt to grant them mid run. This
is the relay's read only .
yolo (alias dangerously skip permissions ): every tool is allowed, anywhere the process
can reach. There is no filesystem sandbox and no path restriction. This is what an implementation
run needs, so the relay passes it by default.
permission mode auto accept and tools all do not lift the headless write gate. Direct CLI
probes refused write, edit, and shell with both. So an implementation run
through Command Code is a full trust run: scope it with a tight brief and a clean working tree, not
with a sandbox. The brief is guidance, and a git worktree isolates a checkout without containing the
process. If writes outside the target tree are unacceptable, use an OS enforced sandbox such as
codex delegate or run this one inside a container.
Prerequisites (check once)
1. cmd version succeeds and cmd status reports authenticated. If not, install Command Code and
run cmd login .
2. Confirm the CLI on PATH. On macOS/Linux, command v cmd shows the active cmd . On native
Windows, use cmdc version ; cmd is the system shell. The relay uses cmdc there and launches
its npm .cmd shim through cmd.exe . COMMANDCODE BIN remains an absolute path override and must
never point to the system command interpreter. The relay records the version it ran in
result.json , so a wrong binary is visible after the fact.
3. You are in (or will point cd at) the target git repository, and its tree is clean before you
dispatch — a full trust run is much easier to review against a clean baseline.
The loop
Run these five steps per task. Steps 1, 4, and 5 are your judgment; 2 and 3 are mechanical.
1. Write the brief
Command Code sees only the text you send — no repo memory, no chat history, no shared context
(beyond the repo's own AGENTS.md , which it reads automatically). Everything the task needs goes in
the brief: the goal, the current state, what to change, what to leave untouched, the project's
actual gate commands (discover them from the repo's AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md/Makefile — do not assume),
and a report contract. Tell it that it will not commit (you will). Keep one task per brief. Full
guidance and a template: [references/writing the brief.md](references/writing the brief.md).
2. Dispatch
Send the brief to Command Code with the bundled helper. It wraps cmd p , captures the run, and
writes a structured result.json — so your only job is "run a command, read a file." ( <skill dir
below is this skill's installed directory — the folder containing this SKILL.md , i.e. the directory
you loaded the skill from. Claude Code prints it as "Base directory for this skill" when the skill
loads; on other orchestrators use that same directory — if unsure where it landed, run
find ~ name relay.mjs path ' commandcode delegate ' and substitute the directory above it.)
The helper defaults to a write capable ( yolo ) run, which intentionally edits the target repository.
Its temp directory keeps only relay artifacts out of that repository. The relay never commits —
see step 5. Mechanics, flags, and the
result.json shape: [references/dispatch and poll.md](references/dispatch and poll.md).
3. Wait for completion
The helper blocks until Command Code finishes, so back it with whatever your orchestrator offers and
resume when it returns:
Claude Code: run the Bash call with run in background: true ; you are notified on completion.
Plain shell / other agents: run it in the foreground for short tasks, or background it and poll
the result file — … & in bash/zsh, or your shell's equivalent. The run is done when result.json
exists with a status . (A pre run usage error — bad args or an empty brief — instead exits with code
2 and a stderr message and writes no result file, so check the exit code too. A missing cmd binary
exits 127 but does write a result.json with status commandcode unavailable .)
Do not trust progress trackers over reality: a run is finished when result.json is written and the
process has exited. Read the working tree, not a status line. The implementer's full report is the
finalMessage field in result.json (also printed in full on stdout between the report markers).
4. Review — do not trust the self report
result.json includes Command Code's own summary and gate claims. Re verify, don't accept:
Re run the project's gates yourself (the test/lint/build commands from step 1). Never take
"gates passed" on faith.
Read the diff against the brief: did it do what was asked, nothing more (scope creep) and
nothing less? touchedFiles in the result is your starting point — and because the run was
full trust, check for edits outside the paths the brief named, not just inside them.
Run the relevant guard skills on the diff if you have them installed (clean code guard,
test guard, etc. from guard skills ) — this skill produces the work; those skills judge it.
For schema/migration changes, round trip them; for removals, grep for dangling references.
Full checklist: [references/review and land.md](references/review and land.md).
5. Land it
The relay never commits, but it cannot stop Command Code under yolo from writing .git . The brief
forbids implementer commits, and the reviewer compares HEAD with the recorded pre dispatch baseline
before landing anything. The orchestrator commits. Only after the gates pass and the diff holds:
Commit the verified work yourself, with a clear message.
If it needs changes, send a delta brief with session <sessionId from the prior result.json
(use continue last only when no session id is available), and review again.
Read only second opinions
The relay doubles as a clean way to get an adversarial second opinion: dispatch read only with a
brief that lists the agreed points, then each contested point with both positions, and ask Command
Code to defend or concede each — deliverable in its final message, touching no files. The read only
guarantee here is the CLI's own permission layer rather than an OS sandbox, so the relay also checks
it after the fact: readOnlyViolation: false means the Git visible detector saw no change (ignored
or outside repository paths are not covered); true means it saw one; null means git could not tell.
Authorization model
Delegation is something the human opts into. Once they have ("run this queue", "proceed"), committing
verified, gate passing work is the agreed contract — that is the whole point. Two limits on that
mandate: surface, don't absorb (report Command Code's design decisions, defensible but unasked
turns, and non blocking nitpicks rather than silently keeping them) and stop for scope changes (if
correct completion needs going beyond the brief, ask — don't expand the mandate yourself). The full
treatment is in [references/review and land.md](references/review and land.md).
References
[references/writing the brief.md](references/writing the brief.md) — how to write a brief Command
Code can execute blind: structure, XML blocks, the report contract, embedding the real gate commands.
[references/dispatch and poll.md](references/dispatch and poll.md) — relay.mjs flags, the
result.json contract, backgrounding per orchestrator, and recovery when a run misbehaves.
[references/review and land.md](references/review and land.md) — the review checklist, the commit
boundary, and the exact session rework cycle.
[references/multi task queues.md](references/multi task queues.md) — running a sequential queue:
carrying constraints forward, progress tracking, and the end of run coherence check.