/vibe-delegate

name: vibe-delegate
description: >-
  Delegate a coding task to the Mistral Vibe CLI (`vibe`) as a background implementer, then review its
  diff and land it yourself. Use this whenever the user wants to hand implementation work to Vibe —
  phrasings like "have Vibe implement X", "delegate this to Vibe", "run it through Mistral Vibe", "use
  vibe to implement/fix/refactor" — or wants to run a queue of coding tasks through Vibe while staying
  the reviewer. DO NOT USE for tasks small enough to do inline, or when the user wants the code written
  directly without delegating.
license: MIT
metadata:
  version: 0.5.0

Vibe Delegate

You are the **orchestrator**. Hand a bounded coding task to a separate **implementer** — the Mistral Vibe CLI (`vibe`) — then review what it produced and land it yourself. You write the brief and own the judgment; Vibe does the typing in its own session; you verify and commit.

The loop needs only a shell command and file access, so any comparable orchestrator can drive it.

When NOT to use this

• The task is small enough to do inline; delegation overhead is not worth it.
• The `vibe` CLI is not installed or authenticated.

Prerequisites (check once)

1. Install [`uv`](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/), then Mistral Vibe:

• `uv tool install mistral-vibe`

2. Configure your API key with `vibe --setup`, or set `MISTRAL_API_KEY` in the environment. 3. Confirm `vibe --version` succeeds. 4. Work in, or point `--cd` at, the target git repository.

The loop

Run these five steps per task. Steps 1, 4, and 5 require judgment; 2 and 3 are mechanical.

1. Write the brief

Vibe sees only the text you send plus what it can inspect in the workspace — no chat history or shared context. Include the goal, current state, what to change, what to leave untouched, the project's **actual** gates, and a report contract. Tell Vibe not to commit. Keep one task per brief. See [references/writing-the-brief.md](references/writing-the-brief.md).

Default mode cannot approve most shell commands headlessly, so the orchestrator runs the gates. Ask Vibe to run them only when the human explicitly authorized `--full-access`.

2. Dispatch

Use the bundled helper. It wraps Vibe's headless `--prompt` mode, captures the structured event stream, and writes `result.json`. (`<skill-dir>` is the installed folder containing this `SKILL.md`.)

node "<skill-dir>/scripts/relay.mjs" --brief brief.txt --cd /path/to/repo
# limit turns for cost control:           add --max-turns <n>
# indicative price threshold/token cap:  add --max-price <usd> --max-tokens <n>
# planning/read-only:                     add --plan-only
# unrestricted shell and tools:           add --full-access (explicit authorization required)
# resume the most recent session:         add --resume-last  (delta brief only)
# resume a specific session:              add --session <id> (delta brief only)
# see all options:                        node .../relay.mjs --help

The child process's cwd pins the workspace. The relay writes artifacts under the system temp dir by default and never commits. See [references/dispatch-and-poll.md](references/dispatch-and-poll.md).

3. Wait for completion

The helper blocks until Vibe finishes. Run it with the orchestrator's background-command facility, or background it in the shell and poll for `result.json`. A pre-run usage error exits 2 and writes no result; a missing `vibe` exits 127 and writes `status: "vibe_unavailable"`. The watchdog writes `status: "timeout"`; terminating the relay on POSIX writes `status: "aborted"` after stopping Vibe's process tree.

Trust process state and the working tree over a progress display. Completion means the process exited and `result.json` exists.

4. Review — do not trust the self-report

Treat Vibe's final message and gate claims as claims:

• Re-run the project's gates yourself.
• Read the diff against the brief, starting with `touchedFiles`.
• Run relevant guard skills if installed.
• Round-trip migrations and grep for dangling references after removals or renames.

See [references/review-and-land.md](references/review-and-land.md).

5. Land it

The implementer edits the working tree; **the orchestrator commits.** Commit only after the gates pass and the diff holds. If rework is needed, send a delta brief with `--resume-last` or `--session <id>`, then review again.

Autonomy and permissions

In `--prompt` mode the relay always sets the agent profile explicitly:

| Relay flag | What Vibe gets | Use when | | --- | --- | --- | | *(default)* | `--agent accept-edits` | Normal implementation — built-in file edits are approved | | `--plan-only` | `--agent plan` | Read-only review, exploration, or planning | | `--full-access` | `--agent auto-approve` | Explicitly authorized runs that need arbitrary shell/tools |

Default mode lets Vibe edit files inside the target worktree. Approval-gated shell commands, including most project gates, are denied headlessly; the orchestrator runs the gates. `--full-access` disables Vibe's tool approvals and permits arbitrary shell/tool execution under the user account; use it only with explicit human authorization. Always inspect `touchedFiles` and the diff after a run.

`--trust` is always passed to prevent interactive directory-trust prompts in headless runs. It is not a sandbox and does not grant tool permissions.

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. Two limits remain: **surface, don't absorb** (report Vibe's design decisions, defensible-but-unasked turns, and non-blocking nitpicks) and **stop for scope changes** (if correct completion needs going beyond the brief, ask instead of expanding the mandate). See [references/review-and-land.md](references/review-and-land.md).

References

• [references/writing-the-brief.md](referen