agentic-workflow

• Use run_in_background: true for all agents to keep main context minimal
• Use Task tool (never TaskOutput) to avoid receiving full agent transcripts
• Agents write outputs to .claude/cache/agents// for injection into subsequent agents
• Main conversation is pure orchestration — no heavy lifting, only coordination

1. Research Agent

```

Task(subagent_type="oracle", run_in_background=true, prompt="""

Query NIA Oracle (via /nia-docs skill) to verify approach and gather best practices.

Output to: .claude/cache/agents/oracle/-research.md

""")

```

• Enforce NIA as the research layer
• Output: Research findings

2. Planning Agent

```

Task(subagent_type="plan-agent", run_in_background=true, prompt="""

Read: .claude/cache/agents/oracle/-research.md

Use RP-CLI to analyze the target codebase section.

Generate implementation plan informed by research.

Output to: .claude/cache/agents/plan-agent/-plan.md

""")

```

• Receives: Research agent output as context
• Output: Implementation plan

3. Validation Agent

```

Task(subagent_type="validate-agent", run_in_background=true, prompt="""

Read: .claude/cache/agents/plan-agent/-plan.md

Read: .claude/cache/agents/oracle/-research.md

Review plan against research findings and best practices.

Output to: .claude/cache/agents/validate-agent/-validated.md

""")

```

• Reviews plan against research
• Output: Validated plan with amendments

4. Implementation Agent

```

Task(subagent_type="agentica-agent", run_in_background=true, prompt="""

Read: .claude/cache/agents/validate-agent/-validated.md

Read: .claude/cache/agents/oracle/-research.md

TDD approach: Write failing tests FIRST, then implement.

Run tests to verify.

Output summary to: .claude/cache/agents/implement-agent/-implementation.md

""")

```

• Receives: Validated plan + research context
• TDD: Failing tests first
• Output: Implementation + tests

5. Review Agent

```

Task(subagent_type="review-agent", run_in_background=true, prompt="""

Read: .claude/cache/agents/implement-agent/-implementation.md

Read: .claude/cache/agents/validate-agent/-validated.md

Read: .claude/cache/agents/oracle/-research.md

Cross-reference implementation against plan and research.

Run tests to confirm passing.

Output to: .claude/cache/agents/review-agent/-review.md

""")

```

• Cross-references all artifacts
• Confirms tests pass
• Output: Review summary

```bash

# Watch for system reminders:

# "Agent a42a16e progress: 6 new tools used, 88914 new tokens"

# Poll for output files:

find .claude/cache/agents -name "*.md" -mmin -5

# Check task file size growth:

wc -c /tmp/claude/.../tasks/.output

```

Stuck detection:

1. Progress reminders stop arriving
2. Task output file size stops growing
3. Expected output file not created after reasonable time

```

.claude/cache/agents/

├── oracle/

│ └── -research.md

├── plan-agent/

│ └── -plan.md

├── validate-agent/

│ └── -validated.md

├── implement-agent/

│ └── -implementation.md

└── review-agent/

└── -review.md

```

1. Never use TaskOutput - floods context with 70k+ token transcripts
2. Always run_in_background=true - isolates agent context
3. File-based handoff - each agent reads previous agent's output file
4. Poll, don't block - check file system for outputs, don't wait
5. TDD in implementation - failing tests first, then make them pass

• Session 2026-01-01: SDK Phase 3 implementation using this pattern