The Moment I Realized My Sub-Agents Were Flying Blind
Originally posted on X — view the original post.
I discovered something about my AI assistant yesterday that changed how I organize everything.
My assistant has workspace files — markdown files it reads every session so it “remembers” things. I had been stuffing procedures into these files: how to post to Facebook, how to manage my email lists, how to run ad campaigns.
The problem: those files get truncated at 20,000 characters. Go past the limit and the end just disappears. The assistant doesn’t see it and doesn’t know it’s gone.
But the bigger issue was sub-agents. When my assistant delegates work to a cheaper AI session (posting to social media, processing email at 2 AM), those sub-agents can’t see the workspace files at all. They were doing the work with none of my rules.
The fix: skills. Skills are instruction files that load on demand AND are visible to sub-agents. I spent an evening moving procedures out of workspace files and into skills — email handling, social media, ad campaigns, website editing. The workspace files got leaner, the sub-agents got smarter, and nothing was lost.
Now my workspace files hold facts (people, projects, status). Skills hold procedures (how to do things). Simple rule: if a sub-agent needs it, it’s a skill.
I teach a class on setting up and getting the most from OpenClaw — details at themeperks.com/openclaw-course/.
