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Agents & fan-out
Subagents run in their own context and hand the parent conversation only a conclusion — never raw compiler output, NIF dumps, or full file contents.
Model tiering
| Agent | Model | Tools | Job |
|---|---|---|---|
nif-inspector | default (no override) | Read, Bash, Glob, Grep | Absorbs bulky NIF/phase artifacts and large Nim/Nimony source; returns the specific tag/symbol/phase/file:line that answers the question, one-to-few sentences, at most a tiny snippet. Prefers nif_outline/nif_query/nif_diff over raw reads (blocked >15KB anyway). |
nim-fixer | haiku | Bash, Read, Edit, compile, explain_failure, shrink, outline, nif_query, nif_render | Runs the diagnose loop: explain_failure → (optionally) shrink → targeted Read/Edit → compile to recheck → repeat. Stops at ok:true, ~6 attempts with no progress, or genuine ambiguity. Returns a minimal diff + one verdict line. |
nim-applier | haiku | Bash, Read, Edit, compile, build | Applies ONE pre-specified exact edit (old/new text or diff) + runs a given verify command. Does not diagnose, shrink, or improvise — ambiguous match or edit-doesn't-apply is reported and it stops. The mechanical fan-out worker for nim-fixer's decisions. |
The split: nim-fixer is the expensive reasoning loop (diagnose → decide → edit, one file at a time); nim-applier is the cheap, dumb, parallel-safe worker for edits someone else already fully specified. Never route a design decision or diagnosis to nim-applier — it will stop rather than guess.
workflows/fanout-apply
The parallel mechanical fan-out step, for after an expensive-model pass has already produced N independent, exact edit specs across a repeated pattern (e.g. the same lowering fix applied at N call sites):
{file, description, edit: {old, new} | diff, verify: "compile/build command", toolchain?}Each spec is handed to one haiku nim-applier-style stage, run in parallel — no cross-talk, so every item must be independently applicable (disjoint files, or disjoint regions of the same file). Returns:
{total, passed, failed, results:[{file, applied, gatePass, verdict, diff}], needsAttention}Not for research, diagnosis, or design decisions — those stay interactive in the main conversation or a nim-fixer delegation, where an expensive model (or a human) can actually judge an ambiguous diagnostic.
nif-inspector in practice
Referenced from /nif, /phase-diff, and /nimony-bug whenever the read would be heavy — delegate rather than reading a NIF diff or a wide symbol hunt inline. It still prefers the same MCP tools (nif_outline/nif_query/ nif_diff) over raw file access; the difference is that its context absorbs the intermediate bulk instead of the parent's.