# Agent Write-Capabilities Fix

**Date:** 2026-09-22
**Scope:** Spire skill and agent definitions

## Problem

The `Explore` and `Plan` agent types in Claude Code are READ-ONLY -- they cannot use Edit, Write, or NotebookEdit. Spire's delegation guidance promoted these types as preferred "safe leaves" (because they cannot sub-delegate), without warning that they also cannot produce file artifacts. This caused Igor and other coordinators to dispatch `Explore` agents for research and investigation tasks that needed to write reports, designs, or plans to the workpad.

## Changes

### `plugins/spire/skills/igor/references/model-tiers.md`
- Added `subagent_type` column to the delegation table with explicit values for each tier (`"researcher"`, `"scout"`, `"search"`, `"adept"`, `"athanor"`, or "omit" for general-purpose).
- Added `scout` and `search` rows for read-only lookup tiers.
- Replaced the old "Sub-delegation guard" section (which presented `Explore`/`Plan` as desirable defaults) with a new "Write-capability guard" section that explicitly warns about their read-only limitation and recommends Spire's pinned agents instead.
- Kept the sub-delegation guard as a separate section focused only on which types can spawn children.

### `plugins/spire/skills/igor/SKILL.md`
- Replaced "Dispatch an Explore agent" with "Dispatch a `search` agent" (line 19).
- Replaced "one-shot Explore agent" with "one-shot `search` or `scout` agent" (line 105).
- Added `subagent_type` / `model` column to the delegation table with explicit values for every row.

### `plugins/spire/skills/zathras/SKILL.md`
- Replaced "Explore agent or adept" with "`search` agent or adept" in the delegation table.
- Added `subagent_type` / `model` column to the delegation table.

### `plugins/spire/agents/adept.md`
- Replaced "Dispatch Explore subagents" with "Dispatch `search` subagents" in both genesis (line 50) and consultation (line 77) sections.

## Principle

- `Explore` and `Plan`: only for pure lookups or pure planning where the answer returns in agent reply text, not as a file.
- `scout` and `search`: preferred read-only alternatives (Spire-pinned, tool-restricted).
- `researcher`: the correct choice for research that produces a written report.
- Omit `subagent_type` (general-purpose default) for any task needing write access that does not match a pinned agent.
- `model` parameter remains required on all Agent calls.