feat(spawn): allow passing an initial prompt to the spawned agent#212
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Eotel wants to merge 3 commits into
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feat(spawn): allow passing an initial prompt to the spawned agent#212Eotel wants to merge 3 commits into
Eotel wants to merge 3 commits into
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Add an optional --prompt <text> to spawn.sh. When provided, the boot prompt becomes the existing actas slash command followed (newline- separated) by <text>, so the spawned agent claims its identity AND acts on the task in the same first turn. This is the only way to hand a one-shot goal to a codex peer: codex has no Monitor (docs/codex-monitor-beta.md), so a message sent after spawn is never noticed by the now-idle session. Carrying the task in the boot prompt sidesteps that with no monitor/bridge needed. With no --prompt, behavior is byte-for-byte unchanged. Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01JD5uF5Z9Y1cydABGDFwCbA
Add two bats tests for the new --prompt flag:
- with --prompt, the generated boot script contains the actas command
AND the task text;
- without --prompt, the boot script carries no extra task text (guards
the byte-identical claim).
Also surface --prompt in the top-of-file usage synopsis, matching how the
options block already documents it.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01JD5uF5Z9Y1cydABGDFwCbA
Complements 21d6a2f (claude-code folding + backward-compat tests) on this branch. Adds the coverage it didn't: - codex folding: the task lands in a spawned codex's first prompt too — the no-Monitor case --prompt exists for; - the missing-arg guard; - `--prompt ""` as a no-op. Also fix `--prompt ""`: the parser used ${2:?...}, which rejects an explicit empty string and contradicts the existing `[ -n "$PROMPT" ]` no-op guard. Switch to ${2?...} so a MISSING arg still errors but an empty string degrades to a plain spawn (e.g. a scripted `--prompt "$VAR"` with an empty VAR). Document --prompt in SKILL.md (the agent-facing command surface) and llms.txt; the prior commits only updated README + the spawn.sh synopsis/options.
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Motivation
spawn.shboots a new agent with a hardcoded initial prompt of only the actas slash command (/<cmd> actas <name>). The agent registers, then goes idle. For a codex peer this is a problem: codex has no Monitor — no real-time message delivery (seedocs/codex-monitor-beta.md) — so a message yousendafter spawn is never noticed by the idle session. The leader has no clean way to hand a one-shot task to a freshly-spawned codex peer.Change
Add an optional
--prompt <text>tospawn.sh. When provided, the boot prompt becomes the existing actas slash command followed (newline-separated) by<text>, submitted as the session's first message. The spawned agent claims its identity and acts on the task in the same first turn — no monitor/bridge needed.The prompt flows through both launch paths unchanged in shape:
--initial-inputflag.printf '%q'in the boot-script block escapes the embedded newline (as$'\n'), so the whole multi-line prompt reaches the CLI as one argument.Backward compatibility
With no
--prompt,ACTAS_PROMPTis untouched and the generated boot script is byte-for-byte identical to before. The new option slots into the existingcaseparse loop and uses the same${2:?...}missing-arg guard as the other value-taking options.Usage
The new codex agent joins as
reviewerand immediately starts the review in its first turn.Validation
bash -n scripts/spawn.sh— passes.shellcheck scripts/spawn.sh— no new warnings introduced (the 3 pre-existing SC2034/SC2016 notices are unchanged before/after this diff).Docs: updated the
spawnsection ofREADME.md(example + options list + a paragraph on the codex one-shot use case).