/delegation-prompt-crafter

name: delegation-prompt-crafter
description: Transform clarified user requests into structured delegation prompts optimized for specialist agents (cto-architect, strategic-cto-mentor, cv-ml-architect). Use after clarification is complete, before routing to specialist agents. Ensures agents receive complete context for effective work.

Delegation Prompt Crafter

Creates structured, context-rich prompts for specialist agents that maximize their effectiveness and minimize back-and-forth.

When to Use

• After clarification-protocol has resolved ambiguities
• When routing to cto-architect for design work
• When routing to strategic-cto-mentor for validation
• When routing to cv-ml-architect for ML-specific architecture
• For any handoff between agents in a workflow

Why This Matters

Specialist agents work best with: 1. **Clear context**: Business goals, constraints, current state 2. **Specific task**: Exactly what deliverable is expected 3. **Structured requirements**: Must-haves vs nice-to-haves 4. **Quality criteria**: How to evaluate success

Without this structure, agents may:

• Ask redundant questions (wasting time)
• Solve the wrong problem (misunderstanding context)
• Over-engineer or under-engineer (missing constraints)
• Produce outputs in wrong format (unclear expectations)

Delegation Prompt Structure

Every delegation prompt follows this format:

## CONTEXT

### Business Goal
[What business outcome this serves]

### Current State
[Relevant existing systems, constraints, decisions]

### Key Constraints
- [Constraint 1: e.g., "Budget: < $10K/month infrastructure"]
- [Constraint 2: e.g., "Timeline: MVP in 8 weeks"]
- [Constraint 3: e.g., "Team: 3 senior engineers, Python/React expertise"]

### Background Information
[Any relevant context from clarification or previous agents]

---

## TASK

### Primary Deliverable
[Exactly what output is expected]

### Format Requirements
[Structure, sections, level of detail expected]

### Scope Boundaries
- **In scope**: [What to cover]
- **Out of scope**: [What to explicitly exclude]

---

## REQUIREMENTS

### Must-Haves
- [Critical requirement 1]
- [Critical requirement 2]

### Nice-to-Haves
- [Optional enhancement 1]
- [Optional enhancement 2]

### Quality Criteria
- [Criterion 1: e.g., "Architecture must support 10x growth"]
- [Criterion 2: e.g., "Trade-offs explicitly documented"]

### Integration Points
- [What this output feeds into: e.g., "Will be validated by strategic-cto-mentor"]
- [What depends on this: e.g., "Development team will implement from this"]

---

## ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

[Any other relevant information, links to documentation, previous decisions, etc.]

Agent-Specific Templates

See the prompt-templates folder for pre-built templates:

• [architect-delegation.md](prompt-templates/architect-delegation.md) - For cto-architect design work
• [mentor-delegation.md](prompt-templates/mentor-delegation.md) - For strategic-cto-mentor validation
• [ml-architect-delegation.md](prompt-templates/ml-architect-delegation.md) - For cv-ml-architect ML work

Crafting Guidelines

Context Section

**Business Goal**: Be specific about outcomes, not activities

• Bad: "Build a notification system"
• Good: "Enable real-time alerts so users act on time-sensitive events, reducing missed opportunities by 50%"

**Current State**: Include what exists and what's working

• Existing architecture and tech stack
• Pain points with current solution
• Previous attempts and why they failed
• Existing integrations that must be preserved

**Constraints**: Be explicit about non-negotiables

• Budget (infrastructure and development)
• Timeline (deadlines, milestones)
• Team (size, skills, availability)
• Technical (must-use technologies, compliance)
• Political (stakeholder preferences, past decisions)

Task Section

**Primary Deliverable**: One clear output

• Bad: "Help us with the architecture"
• Good: "Provide a system architecture design document with component diagrams, data flow, and technology recommendations"

**Format Requirements**: Specify structure

• "7-section architecture document per standard format"
• "Executive summary (2 pages max) + detailed appendix"
• "Focus on Phase 1 MVP, with notes on Phase 2 considerations"

**Scope Boundaries**: Prevent scope creep

• Explicitly state what's NOT included
• Call out decisions already made
• Identify what other agents will handle

Requirements Section

**Must-Haves vs Nice-to-Haves**: Force prioritization

• Must-haves are blocking—solution fails without them
• Nice-to-haves are enhancements—can be deferred

**Quality Criteria**: Measurable success

• "Latency < 200ms at p95"
• "Support 100K concurrent users"
• "Cost < $5K/month at launch scale"

**Integration Points**: Connect the workflow

• What happens after this agent finishes?
• Who consumes this output?
• What format do downstream consumers need?

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. The Information Dump

**Bad**: Copying entire conversation history into delegation **Good**: Distill to relevant context only

2. The Vague Task

**Bad**: "Design a good system" **Good**: "Design a notification system architecture that supports 100K users, uses our existing PostgreSQL database, and costs < $2K/month"

3. The Missing Constraints

**Bad**: Letting agent assume unlimited budget/time **Good**: Explicitly stating constraints, even if flexible

4. The Forgotten Handoff

**Bad**: No mention of what happens next **Good**: "This design will be validated by strategic-cto-mentor before implementation begins"

Output Examples

Example 1: Architecture Delegation

## CONTEXT

### Business Goal
Enable customers to receive real-time notifications for order status changes, reducing support tickets about "where's my order" by 60%.

### Current State
- Monolithic Node.js backend, PostgreSQL database
- Notifications currently sent via email batch (hourly)
- 50K active users, expecting 200K in 12 month