Agents and internal workers
Two forms of delegation with different context and filesystem boundaries.
Jian supports asking another persistent agent and spawning an internal worker for a focused task. These are different operations; choose based on whether you need another agent's role or parallel work within the same profile.
| Another agent | Internal subagent | |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Another persistent profile | A worker for the same profile |
| Private state | Its own memories, sessions, and configuration | Private task transcript; does not inherit the parent conversation or its memories |
| Communication | Explicit question and reply | Task brief and returned result |
| Workspace | That profile's workspace | Same profile workspace and repository checkouts as the parent |
| Typical use | Ask a specialist agent for its judgment | Delegate a bounded implementation, investigation, or review |
Ask another agent
The agent can use list_agents to discover names, IDs, and summaries, then ask_agent to send a question. Include the required context in the message: the recipient cannot inspect the sender's private history.
If the answer takes longer than the initial wait, it can arrive later as a turn in the originating conversation. Repeatedly asking the same question is not needed. Self-calls and cycles are bounded, and chains share a budget.
A reply is evidence to assess, not authority to override the owner's instructions.
Delegate to an internal worker
spawn_subagent accepts a focused assignment. A useful brief includes the objective, relevant facts and files, acceptance criteria, and the requested output. A worker does not magically receive everything the parent knows.
Workers have light, standard, and deep model tiers. Decisions can select a tier from the brief; without it, the default is standard. Actual model availability comes from the gateway's connected providers.
The parent can follow each worker's status, messages, and activity in the conversation. The result returns when the worker finishes.
Shared workspaces require coordination
Internal workers use the same profile's tools and workspace. Jian does not automatically create a separate checkout or Git worktree. Two workers editing the same files can interfere with each other.
Assign non-overlapping effects, or explicitly prepare worktrees when isolation is needed. Resource leases are available for coordinated external resources. Treat a worker's report as a handoff to verify, especially before publishing or merging.
Approval inheritance
Internal workers inherit the originating conversation's protection. In Ask first, a worker that cannot request approval itself reports the proposed action to its parent. Delegation is not a route around approvals or machine permissions.