tell - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: tell description: "Delegate tasks to other agents - pi sessions or external agents (claude, opencode, aider). Non-blocking with task tracking and completion notifications." script: scripts/tell.sh

Tell / Delegate

Delegate tasks to other agents. Works with both pi agent sessions and external agents (Claude Code, opencode, aider).

Script location: ~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh

Note: All commands below use tell.sh for brevity. Always use the full path above when executing.

Auto-notification: When a delegated task completes, you'll be notified via:

ntfy - Push notification to your devices
Session message - [TASK_RESULT:id] sent to your pi session

Tell a pi agent

Send a task to another pi agent running in a tmux session:

# Use full path (recommended)
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh mega "fix the failing tests in src/auth"
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh rx "review PR #42 and leave comments"

Explicit window targeting with session:window syntax:

~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh rx:agent "do something"    # Target rx session, agent window
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh mega:0 "do something"      # Target mega session, window 0

Multi-instance support: If a session has multiple pi instances (e.g., mega:0 and mega:agent), the tell skill will:

If session:window specified → use that socket directly
Otherwise try socket first (cleaner, no shell pollution)
Prefer the agent window socket, then window 0, then any available
Fall back to tmux send-keys if no socket available

Socket pattern: ${PI_STATE_DIR:-~/.local/state/pi}/sockets/pi-{session}-{window}.sock

Delegate to external agents (yolo mode)

Spawn an external agent in a tmux session to handle a task:

~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --agent claude "run the user-story-sync skill"
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --agent opencode "fix the failing tests in src/auth"
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --agent aider "refactor the database module"

Supported agents:

claude - Claude Code (runs with --dangerously-skip-permissions)
opencode - OpenCode
aider - Aider (runs with --yes-always)
codex - Codex CLI (runs with --full-auto)

Returns immediately. The agent runs in a background tmux session.

Task management

~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --list                    # List all tasks
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --status TASK_ID          # Check task status & output
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --watch TASK_ID           # Watch external task live
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --kill TASK_ID            # Kill a running external task

When you receive a task (pi agents)

You'll see: [TASK:abc123 from mega] do the thing

Send updates:

~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --update abc123 "halfway done"
~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh --done abc123 "finished, all tests pass"

Attach to external agent session

For interactive debugging, attach directly:

tmux -S ~/.local/state/pi/agent-sockets/tasks.sock attach -t task-abc123-claude

Detach with Ctrl+b d.

Completion notifications

When a task completes (either external agent or pi agent calling --done):

ntfy notification sent with task summary

Message sent to delegator's session:

[TASK_RESULT:abc123] claude completed: Task finished successfully
Original task: run the user-story-sync skill...

This lets you fire-and-forget tasks and get notified when they're done.

Examples

# Define shorthand for readability
TELL="~/.dotfiles/home/common/programs/pi-coding-agent/skills/tell/scripts/tell.sh"

# Tell specific window in a session
$TELL rx:agent "review the changes and suggest improvements"

# Auto-select best window (prefers 'agent', then '0')
$TELL mega "run the test suite"

# Delegate to Claude Code
$TELL --agent claude "run the user-story-sync skill"

# Check what's happening
$TELL --list
$TELL --status abc123