sub-agent delegation by dexhorthy · Pull Request #71 · humanlayer/agentcontrolplane

dexhorthy · 2025-04-14T17:05:10Z

Important

Add sub-agent delegation functionality to allow agents to delegate tasks to sub-agents, with validation and testing.

Behavior:
- Adds sub-agent delegation functionality, allowing agents to delegate tasks to sub-agents.
- Updates AgentSpec in agent_types.go to include SubAgents and Description fields.
- Implements sub-agent validation in validateSubAgents() in agent_controller.go.
- Handles sub-agent delegation in processDelegateToAgent() in toolcall_controller.go.
Tests:
- Adds tests for sub-agent delegation in agent_controller_test.go, collect_tools_test.go, and toolcall_controller_test.go.
- Tests cover scenarios like sub-agent readiness, task delegation, and tool call processing.
Misc:
- Updates README.md to include a section on delegating to a sub-agent.
- Modifies kustomization.yaml to update the controller image tag.

^{This description was created by}^{for e779a02. It will automatically update as commits are pushed.}

Implement support for delegating tasks to sub-agents by enhancing the collectTools function to create delegate tools for each sub-agent referenced in an agent's spec. This feature allows parent agents to dispatch work to specialized sub-agents. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

balanceiskey · 2025-04-15T21:03:22Z

acp/internal/controller/agent/agent_controller.go

 		}

 		// Check that the context about the user/channel is provided based on the channel type
+		// todo(dex) why does this happen at runtime in the agent controller and not when the contact channel is created?


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Looked at 1830 lines of code in 18 files
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Skipped posting 8 drafted comments based on config settings.

1. acp/test/utils/toolcall.go:33

Draft comment:
Avoid hardcoding the 'acp.humanlayer.dev/toolcallrequest' label value ("test123"). Consider parameterizing it for better test flexibility.
Reason this comment was not posted:
Comment was not on a location in the diff, so it can't be submitted as a review comment.

2. acp/test/utils/toolcall.go:31

Draft comment:
Avoid using a hardcoded label value ('test123'); consider parameterizing it or adding a clarifying comment for test flexibility.
Reason this comment was not posted:
Comment was not on a location in the diff, so it can't be submitted as a review comment.

3. README.md:523

Draft comment:
Typo: In the 'Adding Tools with MCP' section, please remove the apostrophe in "Agent's aren't that interesting without tools" to read "Agents aren't that interesting without tools."
Reason this comment was not posted:
Comment was not on a location in the diff, so it can't be submitted as a review comment.

4. README.md:953

Draft comment:
Typo: Please capitalize 'next' to 'Next' at the beginning of the sentence "next, we can create a router agent that can delegate to the web search agent."
Reason this comment was not posted:
Decided after close inspection that this draft comment was likely wrong and/or not actionable: usefulness confidence = 0% vs. threshold = 50%
While technically correct that sentences should start with capital letters, this is a very minor stylistic issue in documentation. The rules state not to make comments that are obvious or unimportant. Capitalization fixes fall into this category - they don't affect functionality and are trivial to spot.
The comment is technically correct about proper English capitalization rules. The change would make the documentation slightly more professional looking.
While correct, this type of minor stylistic fix is exactly what the rules say to avoid - it's an obvious and unimportant change that doesn't affect functionality or understanding.
Delete this comment. It points out a trivial capitalization issue which falls under the "obvious and unimportant" category that we should not comment on.

5. README.md:1203

Draft comment:
Typo: In the userMessage for the human-expert-task, there's a duplicate 'the' in "Ask an expert what the the fastest animal on the planet is." Please remove one instance to correct it.
Reason this comment was not posted:
Comment was not on a location in the diff, so it can't be submitted as a review comment.

6. acp/api/v1alpha1/toolcall_types.go:38

Draft comment:
The comment on the ToolType field (currently stating 'ToolType identifies the type of the tool (MCP, HumanContact)') is outdated, as it should now include 'DelegateToAgent' to be consistent with the updated file-level comment and constant definitions. Please update this comment to reflect all available tool types.
Reason this comment was not posted:
Comment was not on a location in the diff, so it can't be submitted as a review comment.

7. acp/internal/controller/toolcall/toolcall_controller.go:1118

Draft comment:
Typographical error: In the comment above, 'the current namends up like -' should be corrected to something like 'the current name ends up like -' for clarity.
Reason this comment was not posted:
Comment did not seem useful. Confidence is useful = 30% <= threshold 50%
This comment is pointing out a typographical error in a comment within the code. While it is not directly related to the functionality or logic of the code, correcting typographical errors can improve code readability and maintainability. However, it does not suggest a change in the code's behavior or logic, nor does it ask for tests or confirmation of intent. It is more of an informative comment about a non-functional aspect of the code.

8. acp/internal/controller/toolcall/toolcall_controller_test.go:52

Draft comment:
Typo noticed in the test description: 'todo wth is an MCPTool...' might be better written as 'todo what is an MCPTool...'. Consider fixing this for clarity.
Reason this comment was not posted:
Comment was not on a location in the diff, so it can't be submitted as a review comment.

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balanceiskey · 2025-04-15T21:07:40Z

acp/internal/controller/agent/agent_controller_test.go

+
+	BeforeEach(func() {
+		// Create a test LLM
+		llm := &acp.LLM{


What was the reason for not using TestLLM from utils?

oh i tried to refactor this test to follow the patterns better, looks like it didn't pick up the "use utils" instructions.

anyhow fine to improve this more later

balanceiskey · 2025-04-15T21:19:46Z

acp/internal/controller/task/task_controller.go

 		// Check for LLMRequestError with 4xx status code
+		// todo(dex) this .As() casting does not work - this error still retries forever
+		//
+		//     langchain API call failed: API returned unexpected status code: 400: An assistant message with 'tool_calls' must be followed by tool messages responding to each 'tool_call_id'. The following tool_call_ids did not have response messages: call_N38DB1obDYZF0yDYxZhK6lTe


I ran into this too, we gotta deal with this I think

yeah added to backlog

balanceiskey · 2025-04-15T21:22:46Z

acp/internal/controller/toolcall/toolcall_controller.go

+	}
+
+	// For delegate tools, extract the agent name from the format "delegate_to_agent__agentName"
+	parts := strings.Split(tc.Spec.ToolRef.Name, "__")


Not gonna fight hard on it just yet, but it bothers me this is the way we're now doing this across all three types. We should consider just passing down an additional field.

i mean at a certain point, "function name" is a single parameter we expose to the LLM, so at some point we're gonna have to parse a single name back into a multi-field object.

we could contort the jsonschema we feed to the llm to make it call like "delegate" and inject a parameter "agent_name": ..., I guess

agree this could use a clean up - open to proposals.

…:dexhorthy/smallchain into dexter/eng-1116-delegation-to-sub-agents

dexhorthy and others added 3 commits April 13, 2025 11:08

adding sub agents

037689d

wip on subagent tasking'

627cc9e

dexhorthy changed the title ~~DRAFT - wip on sub-sagent delegation~~ DRAFT - wip on sub-agent delegation Apr 14, 2025

dexhorthy added 11 commits April 14, 2025 10:56

wip

fc218c9

1 fix

448544c

merge from main

fd6318c

fix tests

0125929

wip

384a135

main

07849a1

context is optional

f6a59df

adding types

6c2e22e

valid sub agents listing

ee63520

it works

abc33a7

almost ready to merge

e779a02

dexhorthy marked this pull request as ready for review April 15, 2025 21:03

balanceiskey reviewed Apr 15, 2025

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ellipsis-dev bot reviewed Apr 15, 2025

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balanceiskey reviewed Apr 15, 2025

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dexhorthy added 3 commits April 15, 2025 18:30

refactoring and fixing tests

25bf1bc

fix tests

bec331a

what

d34b599

dexhorthy changed the title ~~DRAFT - wip on sub-agent delegation~~ sub-agent delegation Apr 16, 2025

dexhorthy and others added 5 commits April 16, 2025 09:30

fix linter etc

e943e87

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into HEAD

6a1de3c

mostly readme tweaks; one fix

b0dc65c

one more

b1e5bc6

Merge branch 'main' into dexter/eng-1116-delegation-to-sub-agents

b3167b9

dexhorthy added 3 commits April 17, 2025 11:01

Merge branch 'main' into dexter/eng-1116-delegation-to-sub-agents

7d85f05

Merge branch 'dexter/eng-1116-delegation-to-sub-agents' of github.com…

2a51dd3

…:dexhorthy/smallchain into dexter/eng-1116-delegation-to-sub-agents

Merge branch 'main' into dexter/eng-1116-delegation-to-sub-agents

89cc325

dexhorthy merged commit 69608e7 into humanlayer:main Apr 25, 2025
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sub-agent delegation#71

sub-agent delegation#71
dexhorthy merged 25 commits intohumanlayer:mainfrom
dexhorthy:dexter/eng-1116-delegation-to-sub-agents

dexhorthy commented Apr 14, 2025 •

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dexhorthy commented Apr 14, 2025 •

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