Skill: Subordinate Management (Supervisor Tools)

Supervisor tools automatically enabled for Anima that have subordinates. Manages pause, resume, model change, background model change, and restart of direct subordinates; status confirmation across all subordinates; and task delegation with progress tracking.

Available Tools

Direct Subordinates Only

Tool	Purpose
disable_subordinate	Pause subordinate (status.json enabled: false → process stop + prevent auto-resume)
enable_subordinate	Resume paused subordinate
set_subordinate_model	Change subordinate's main LLM model (updates status.json; requires restart_subordinate to take effect)
set_subordinate_background_model	Change subordinate's background model (for heartbeat/cron; updates status.json; requires restart_subordinate to take effect; empty string to clear)
restart_subordinate	Restart subordinate process (status.json restart_requested flag; Reconciliation restarts within ~30 seconds)
delegate_task	Delegate task to direct subordinate (queue add + DM send + tracking entry on your side)

All Subordinates (Including Grandchildren)

Tool	Purpose
org_dashboard	Tree view of process status, last activity, current task, and task count for all subordinates
ping_subordinate	Liveness check for subordinates (name omitted = all at once, specified = single)
read_subordinate_state	Read subordinate's current_task.md and pending.md
audit_subordinate	Comprehensive audit of subordinate's recent activity (summary, tasks, errors, tool usage, communication)

Delegated Task Tracking

Tool	Purpose
task_tracker	Track progress of tasks delegated via delegate_task from the subordinate's queue (status: all / active / completed; default: active)

Important: disable_subordinate vs send_message

• disable_subordinate: Sets status.json to enabled: false. Reconciliation does not auto-resume. Use this one
• Sending "take a break" via send_message alone does not stop the process. Reconciliation will restart even after messaging

Usage

Pause and Resume

When pausing multiple subordinates, call disable_subordinate for each one:

disable_subordinate(name="aoi", reason="Temporary pause due to reduced workload")
disable_subordinate(name="taro", reason="Temporary pause due to reduced workload")
enable_subordinate(name="aoi")

Model Change and Restart

Model changes are saved to status.json, but restart_subordinate is required to apply them to the running process:

set_subordinate_model(name="aoi", model="claude-sonnet-4-6", reason="Load balancing")
restart_subordinate(name="aoi", reason="Apply model change")

To change the background model (for heartbeat/cron):

set_subordinate_background_model(name="aoi", model="claude-sonnet-4-6", reason="Reduce heartbeat load")
restart_subordinate(name="aoi", reason="Apply background model change")

To clear the background model and revert to the main model:

set_subordinate_background_model(name="aoi", model="", reason="Unify to main model")
restart_subordinate(name="aoi")

Status Confirmation and Audit

org_dashboard()                         # Dashboard for all subordinates
ping_subordinate()                      # Liveness check for all subordinates
ping_subordinate(name="aoi")            # Liveness check for single subordinate
read_subordinate_state(name="aoi")      # Current task and pending task content
audit_subordinate(name="aoi")           # Comprehensive audit of last 1 day
audit_subordinate(name="aoi", days=7)   # Audit last 7 days (days: 1–30)

Also available via CLI (useful for S-mode via Bash):

animaworks anima audit aoi              # Audit last 1 day
animaworks anima audit aoi --days 7     # Audit last 7 days

Task Delegation

delegate_task(name="aoi", instruction="Summarize weekly report", deadline="1d", summary="Weekly report creation")
# name, instruction, deadline are required. summary is optional (defaults to first 100 chars of instruction)
task_tracker(status="active")      # Check progress of delegated tasks (status: all / active / completed)

Permissions

• Direct subordinates only: disable_subordinate, enable_subordinate, set_subordinate_model, set_subordinate_background_model, restart_subordinate, delegate_task
• All subordinates (recursive): org_dashboard, ping_subordinate, read_subordinate_state, audit_subordinate
• You cannot pause, resume, change model, or delegate to subordinates of subordinates (grandchildren). Ask their supervisor
• You cannot operate on yourself