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1 | 1 | # Model tiers and agent tooling |
2 | 2 |
|
3 | | -The workflow talks about capability tiers, not vendor names. Map whatever stack is in use onto |
4 | | -these four tiers. The model names below are a mid-2026 snapshot — they go stale; when a name no |
5 | | -longer exists, map its replacement by tier, not by nostalgia. |
| 3 | +The workflow talks about capability tiers, not vendor names. Map whatever stack is in use onto these four tiers. The |
| 4 | +model names below are a mid-2026 snapshot — they go stale; when a name no longer exists, map its replacement by tier, |
| 5 | +not by nostalgia. |
6 | 6 |
|
7 | 7 | ## The four tiers |
8 | 8 |
|
9 | | -| Tier | Role | Anthropic | OpenAI | Google | |
10 | | -| ----------- | ------------------------------------------- | ----------------- | ----------------- | ----------------- | |
11 | | -| Escalation | Judgment calls the coordinator flags | Fable 5, Opus 4.8 | Sol, GPT-5 (high) | Gemini 2.5 Pro | |
12 | | -| Coordinator | Resident; owns every phase by default | Sonnet 5 | GPT-5, GPT-4.1 | Gemini 2.5 Flash | |
13 | | -| Implementer | Pinned-spec work, often same tier as coordinator | Sonnet 5 | GPT-5, GPT-4.1 | Gemini 2.5 Flash | |
14 | | -| Trivial | Mechanical edits | Haiku 4.5 | GPT-4.1 mini | Gemini Flash-Lite | |
15 | | - |
16 | | -- **Escalation** — the strongest reasoning model available, called only when a trigger in |
17 | | - [escalate.md](escalate.md) fires: unclear root cause, architectural risk, security sensitivity, |
18 | | - an irreversible operation, repeated spec gaps, or low confidence in a review. Answers one |
19 | | - specific question, then hands control back to the coordinator. |
20 | | -- **Coordinator** — a capable mid-tier model, resident for the whole task. Owns analysis, |
21 | | - planning, supervision, and verification by default. It's capable enough for the large majority |
22 | | - of work, and cheap enough relative to Escalation tier that most tasks never need to call up at |
23 | | - all — that's the point of the split. |
24 | | -- **Implementer** — often literally the same model as the coordinator; the distinction is |
25 | | - parallelism and workspace isolation, not capability. Falls back to a smaller model for batches |
26 | | - of mechanical, unambiguous edits. |
27 | | -- **Trivial** — small, very fast models for mechanical, unambiguous edits: renames, config |
28 | | - tweaks, typo fixes, doc touch-ups. Batch several to amortize the dispatch overhead. When in |
29 | | - doubt between trivial and implementer, pick implementer — a wrong cheap edit costs more than |
30 | | - the price difference. |
| 9 | +- **Tier:** Escalation |
| 10 | + - **Role:** Judgment calls the coordinator flags |
| 11 | + - **Anthropic:** Fable 5, Opus 4.8 |
| 12 | + - **OpenAI:** Sol, GPT-5 (high) |
| 13 | + - **Google:** Gemini 2.5 Pro |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +- **Tier:** Coordinator |
| 16 | + - **Role:** Resident; owns every phase by default |
| 17 | + - **Anthropic:** Sonnet 5 |
| 18 | + - **OpenAI:** GPT-5, GPT-4.1 |
| 19 | + - **Google:** Gemini 2.5 Flash |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +- **Tier:** Implementer |
| 22 | + - **Role:** Pinned-spec work, often same tier as coordinator |
| 23 | + - **Anthropic:** Sonnet 5 |
| 24 | + - **OpenAI:** GPT-5, GPT-4.1 |
| 25 | + - **Google:** Gemini 2.5 Flash |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +- **Tier:** Trivial |
| 28 | + - **Role:** Mechanical edits |
| 29 | + - **Anthropic:** Haiku 4.5 |
| 30 | + - **OpenAI:** GPT-4.1 mini |
| 31 | + - **Google:** Gemini Flash-Lite |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +- **Escalation** — the strongest reasoning model available, called only when a trigger in [escalate.md](escalate.md) |
| 34 | + fires: unclear root cause, architectural risk, security sensitivity, an irreversible operation, repeated spec gaps, or |
| 35 | + low confidence in a review. Answers one specific question, then hands control back to the coordinator. |
| 36 | +- **Coordinator** — a capable mid-tier model, resident for the whole task. Owns analysis, planning, supervision, and |
| 37 | + verification by default. It's capable enough for the large majority of work, and cheap enough relative to Escalation |
| 38 | + tier that most tasks never need to call up at all — that's the point of the split. |
| 39 | +- **Implementer** — often literally the same model as the coordinator; the distinction is parallelism and workspace |
| 40 | + isolation, not capability. Falls back to a smaller model for batches of mechanical, unambiguous edits. |
| 41 | +- **Trivial** — small, very fast models for mechanical, unambiguous edits: renames, config tweaks, typo fixes, doc |
| 42 | + touch-ups. Batch several to amortize the dispatch overhead. When in doubt between trivial and implementer, pick |
| 43 | + implementer — a wrong cheap edit costs more than the price difference. |
31 | 44 |
|
32 | 45 | ## Tooling mappings |
33 | 46 |
|
34 | 47 | How to run the coordinator/escalation/implementer split in common agent tooling: |
35 | 48 |
|
36 | | -- **Claude Code** — run the session itself on a coordinator-tier model (e.g. Sonnet 5). Call |
37 | | - `Agent` with `model: opus` (or `fable`) only at an escalation checkpoint, scoped to the one |
38 | | - question that triggered it. Use worktree isolation for parallel implementer-tier tasks, and |
39 | | - `model: haiku` for batched trivial edits. |
40 | | -- **GitHub Copilot** — run Copilot Chat on a coordinator-tier model for the whole flow; switch the |
41 | | - model picker to the strongest reasoning model only for the specific question an escalation |
42 | | - trigger flagged, then switch back. Standalone, well-specified tasks can still be assigned to the |
43 | | - Copilot coding agent (assign the issue or PR to Copilot), which works on its own branch — the |
44 | | - pinned spec becomes the issue body. |
45 | | -- **Codex** — orchestrate locally (CLI or chat) on a coordinator-tier model; dispatch each pinned |
46 | | - spec as a Codex cloud task, one task per independent unit, and review the resulting diffs |
47 | | - yourself, escalating to the frontier model only when a trigger fires. |
48 | | -- **Cursor and similar IDE agents** — one composer/agent session per task on a coordinator-tier |
49 | | - model; background agents for the parallel implementer-tier ones; switch to the strongest model |
50 | | - in-session only for an escalation checkpoint, then switch back. |
51 | | - |
52 | | -**No subagent support at all?** Keep the phases, drop the parallelism: run the whole flow on a |
53 | | -coordinator-tier model, and switch the session model up to the strongest one only for the specific |
54 | | -question an escalation trigger flagged, then switch back down. The discipline transfers even when |
55 | | -the delegation mechanism does not. |
| 49 | +- **Claude Code** — run the session itself on a coordinator-tier model (e.g. Sonnet 5). Call `Agent` with `model: opus` |
| 50 | + (or `fable`) only at an escalation checkpoint, scoped to the one question that triggered it. Use worktree isolation |
| 51 | + for parallel implementer-tier tasks, and `model: haiku` for batched trivial edits. |
| 52 | +- **GitHub Copilot** — run Copilot Chat on a coordinator-tier model for the whole flow; switch the model picker to the |
| 53 | + strongest reasoning model only for the specific question an escalation trigger flagged, then switch back. Standalone, |
| 54 | + well-specified tasks can still be assigned to the Copilot coding agent (assign the issue or PR to Copilot), which |
| 55 | + works on its own branch — the pinned spec becomes the issue body. |
| 56 | +- **Codex** — orchestrate locally (CLI or chat) on a coordinator-tier model; dispatch each pinned spec as a Codex cloud |
| 57 | + task, one task per independent unit, and review the resulting diffs yourself, escalating to the frontier model only |
| 58 | + when a trigger fires. |
| 59 | +- **Cursor and similar IDE agents** — one composer/agent session per task on a coordinator-tier model; background agents |
| 60 | + for the parallel implementer-tier ones; switch to the strongest model in-session only for an escalation checkpoint, |
| 61 | + then switch back. |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +**No subagent support at all?** Keep the phases, drop the parallelism: run the whole flow on a coordinator-tier model, |
| 64 | +and switch the session model up to the strongest one only for the specific question an escalation trigger flagged, then |
| 65 | +switch back down. The discipline transfers even when the delegation mechanism does not. |
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