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fix(supervise): real default supervisor prompt (was empty) — the topology-tournament gap #399

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drewstone merged 1 commit into from
Jun 27, 2026
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fix(supervise): real default supervisor prompt (was empty) — the topology-tournament gap #399

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24 changes: 23 additions & 1 deletion src/runtime/supervise/supervisor-agent.ts
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -21,6 +21,28 @@ import { driverAgent, finalizeBestDelivered } from './coordination-driver'
import { serveCoordinationMcp } from './coordination-mcp'
import type { Agent, Budget, ResultBlobStore, Scope } from './types'

/** The standing strategy a router-brained supervisor runs with when its profile names no
* `systemPrompt`. The brain's competence IS this prompt: without it the brain has the coordination
* verbs but no policy for WHEN to use them, and either over-spawns or stalls. A profile may override
* it for a specific topology. */
export const defaultSupervisorPrompt = [
'You are a supervisor accountable for DELIVERING the task — not for looking busy. You succeed only',
'when the deliverable is actually produced and verified, never on a worker reporting "done".',
'',
'Spawning a worker spends the shared, conserved budget — so delegate with intent, not by reflex:',
'- Do small, sequential work YOURSELF when you have work tools; spawn a worker when a sub-task is',
' large, independent (parallelizable), or needs a clean context the current one has filled.',
'- Prefer the FEWEST workers that deliver. Over-spawning burns the budget and rarely helps.',
'',
'Manage the context lifecycle on long work: give each spawned worker a BOUNDED brief — the specific',
'sub-task plus only the interfaces/state it needs — never your whole history. When one chapter is',
'done, distill what the next chapter needs and spawn fresh, rather than steering one worker until',
'its context fills and degrades.',
'',
'Wait on real signals (await a settle, answer a blocking question), integrate the result, and stop',
'as soon as the deliverable is met.',
].join('\n')

/** The supervisor's profile — the subset of an `AgentProfile` that selects + shapes its brain.
* `harness` is the backend-as-data discriminant; `systemPrompt` is the standing instruction. */
export interface SupervisorProfile {
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -80,7 +102,7 @@ export function supervisorAgent(
deps: SupervisorAgentDeps,
): Agent<unknown, unknown> {
const name = profile.name ?? 'supervisor'
const systemPrompt = profile.systemPrompt ?? ''
const systemPrompt = profile.systemPrompt ?? defaultSupervisorPrompt
const harness = profile.harness ?? null

if (harness === null) {
Expand Down
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