Wave Coordinator

Manage large-scale subagent dispatch through structured waves. Prevents context exhaustion, ensures output diversity, and avoids duplication across batches. Works alongside Skill(superpowers:dispatching-parallel-agents) — wave-coordinator handles batching and diversity, dispatching-parallel-agents handles the actual subagent spawning mechanics.

The Core Problem

Dispatching 10+ agents at once causes three failures:

1. Context exhaustion — spawning agents is expensive; running out mid-batch leaves work incomplete
2. Homogeneous output — identical prompts produce near-identical results, wasting compute
3. Duplication — later waves repeat what earlier waves already produced

Wave coordination solves all three.

Wave Sizing Rule

Maximum 5 concurrent subagents per wave. If N > 5, divide into sequential waves:

N=12 → Wave 1 (5) → Wave 2 (5) → Wave 3 (2)
N=7  → Wave 1 (5) → Wave 2 (2)
N=5  → Wave 1 (5) — single wave, no split needed

Each wave completes fully before the next launches. Do not launch wave 2 until all wave 1 agents have returned results.

Context Budget Check

Before launching each wave, estimate context budget:

1. Count tokens consumed so far (rough estimate: each spawned agent costs ~2-4k tokens in overhead)
2. Reserve at minimum 20% of the context window for synthesis and final output
3. If budget is tight, reduce the next wave size to 2-3 agents
4. If budget is critically low, stop dispatching and synthesize from what you have

Hard rule: Never launch a wave if you estimate it will hit the context limit before completion. Stop early and synthesize. Incomplete partial output is better than a context overflow crash.

Directive Diversity

Each agent in a wave must receive unique creative direction. Do not send the same prompt to all agents in a wave.

How to generate diverse directives

Before dispatching, generate N distinct emphasis angles for N agents. Vary along at least one axis:

Example: Generating 5 skill variants

Agent 1: "Write the most concise version possible. No examples, pure principle."
Agent 2: "Lead with 3 concrete examples, then derive the rule."
Agent 3: "Focus entirely on error cases and what can go wrong."
Agent 4: "Write for someone encountering this concept for the first time."
Agent 5: "Assume expert audience. Skip fundamentals, go deep on edge cases."

Never assign the same emphasis to two agents in the same wave.

Deduplication Check

Before launching each wave after the first:

1. Read the output produced by all prior waves
2. Identify themes, approaches, or content already covered
3. Add exclusion instructions to the new wave's directives: "Do NOT produce a version similar to [description of prior output]"
4. If a prior wave already produced a high-quality result for a particular angle, skip that angle in subsequent waves

Wave Progress Tracking

Maintain a mental (or written) wave ledger before each dispatch:

Wave 1: [5 agents] — launched, awaiting results
Wave 2: [5 agents] — pending (blocked on wave 1)
Wave 3: [2 agents] — pending (blocked on wave 2)

Output so far: [list of completed items]
Remaining: [list of items not yet produced]

Update the ledger after each wave completes. This prevents re-dispatching work already done and helps identify what the final synthesis pass needs.

Integration with superpowers

Wave-coordinator handles what to dispatch and when. Skill(superpowers:dispatching-parallel-agents) handles how to spawn subagents. Use them together:

1. Use this skill to plan wave sizes, generate diverse directives, and track progress
2. Use Skill(superpowers:dispatching-parallel-agents) for the actual subagent spawning call syntax

If the superpowers plugin is not installed, use Claude Code's native Task tool for subagent spawning instead. Do not silently degrade — state which tool you are using.

Worked Example

Task: Generate 8 variations of a landing page headline.

Wave plan:

Wave 1 (5 agents):

• Agent A: Urgency angle ("Limited time, immediate benefit")
• Agent B: Social proof angle ("Join 10,000+ users who...")
• Agent C: Problem-first angle ("Tired of X? Meet Y.")
• Agent D: Benefit-first angle ("Do X in half the time.")
• Agent E: Curiosity angle ("The surprising way to X")

Collect wave 1 output. Review for quality and coverage.

Wave 2 (3 agents — note: reduced from 5 because only 3 remain):

• Check wave 1 output first
• Agent F: Contrast angle not yet covered
• Agent G: Minimalist / single-word-impact angle
• Agent H: Question format not yet tried

Synthesize all 8 results. Rank by quality. Present top 3 with rationale.

Key Rules

• 5 agents max per wave — no exceptions
• Check context budget before each wave
• Unique directive per agent — never duplicate prompts within a wave
• Read prior output before launching the next wave
• Stop and synthesize if budget runs low — do not push through to completion at the cost of a crash
• Wave 2+ directives must explicitly exclude angles already covered in prior waves