request-supervisor

Request Supervisor

Protocol for deciding whether to request help from supervisor (user or parent-agent).

When to Use

This is the escalation gate, and over-using it defeats the autonomy it guards. Do not invoke for decisions you can resolve yourself from the code, project conventions, or a sensible default — act, and note the choice. Reserve it for genuine forks: missing credentials/auth, approval for a destructive or irreversible action, or intent that stays ambiguous after you've exhausted the cheap ways to disambiguate.

Before Making Any Request — Checklist

1. Do I have a tool that can do this? (bash, curl, file read/write, etc.) → YES: Do it yourself. Do not request.
2. Does this require credentials or auth I don't have? → YES: Request, specifying exactly what you need.
3. Does this require approval for a destructive or irreversible action? → YES: Request approval, explain what and why.
4. Does this require information only the supervisor has? (business context, priorities, preferences) → YES: Request with specific questions.

Pre-Flight Check — Before Suggesting Commands to User

Verify CLI commands before suggesting them. Skip verification only for well-established standard tools (ls, cat, grep, git, etc.) — for any project-specific or less common tool, check first.

1. Command exists? Run <tool> --help or which <tool> before recommending.
2. Subcommand exists? Run <tool> <subcommand> --help to confirm.
3. Can I run it myself? If yes — run it, don't ask the user to run it for you.
4. If it fails — read the error, debug the root cause. Do not retry blindly or suggest reinstall as first fix.

Valid Reasons to Request

• Authentication or authorization you cannot perform
• Approval for destructive or irreversible actions
• Business decisions or priority calls
• Access to systems you have no tools for

Invalid Reasons (Do It Yourself)

• Running commands or scripts
• Checking endpoint availability
• Reading or writing files
• Running tests or verification
• Installing dependencies
• Looking up documentation
• Suggesting CLI commands you haven't verified with --help
• Asking user to run something you can run via Bash tool

Completion

• Decision made: either acted autonomously or sent a focused request
• If requesting: specific question with context, not a vague "what should I do?"