Files
claude-skills/.wiki/concepts/delegate-task-negative-trigger-fp.md
vitya 8b22d16c20 fix(delegate-task): literal negative-clause kills self-task FP (0.2.0->0.2.1)
«создать задачу себе» false-positive-fired delegate-task instead of
using-tasks (5/5 trials, found by delegate-task-test-trigger). Root cause:
the self-task phrase shares the stem «создать задачу» with the positive
trigger «создать задачу на агента», and the abstract "Does NOT apply when
doing the work yourself" carve-out cannot beat a literal stem-match under
the using-superpowers 1%-rule.

Fix: make the negative literal + routed. Description now lists
«создать задачу себе» / «task for myself» / «поставить себе задачу»
-> using-tasks; body "Ne primenyaetsya" gains a self-assigned bullet plus a
disambiguator («на агента»/«агенту»/«в проект X» = delegate; «себе» = own
board). PATCH bump 0.2.0 -> 0.2.1.

Verification (fresh-context subagents, simulated available-skills registry,
no hint): positives 5/5 -> delegate-task (no regression); negative
«создать задачу себе на завтра» 4/5 -> using-tasks (was 0/5). The 1
residual miss reasoned correctly but tripped on an eval-harness artifact
(prompt forced skill-name-before-reasoning), not description ambiguity.

Wiki: concept page delegate-task-negative-trigger-fp.md + index/log.
Board: [delegate-task-description-fp-fix] -> done.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-06-09 12:42:44 +03:00

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---
title: delegate-task — literal negative triggers beat abstract carve-outs
type: concept
updated: 2026-06-09
---
# delegate-task — literal negative triggers beat abstract carve-outs
## Symptom
`delegate-task` v0.2.0 false-positive-fired on **«создать задачу себе»** (create a task
for myself) — a self-assigned task that should route to `using-tasks`, not to cross-agent
delegation. The `delegate-task-test-trigger` run measured it at **5/5 trials** consistently
wrong (→ `delegate-task`).
## Root cause
The positive trigger list contained **«создать задачу на агента»**. A self-task phrase
**«создать задачу себе»** shares the stem **«создать задачу»**, so it literal-matched the
positive trigger. The negative clause was abstract — *"Does NOT apply when doing the work
yourself"* — and an abstract carve-out does **not** beat a literal stem-match under the
`using-superpowers` 1%-rule. Clean-context subagents *recognized* the «себе» exception in
their reasoning, yet still invoked `delegate-task` FIRST because the literal match outweighed
the abstract exclusion.
## Fix (v0.2.0 → v0.2.1, PATCH)
Make the negative **literal and routed**, so it competes head-on with the positive at the
same surface level:
> Does NOT apply to self-assigned tasks on your own board (**«создать задачу себе»**,
> **«task for myself»**, **«поставить себе задачу»** → using-tasks), to work you do
> yourself, or to workshop-internal tasks.
Plus a body disambiguator in the "Не применяется" section:
**«на агента» / «агенту» / «в проект X» = делегирование; «себе» / «myself» = своя доска.**
## Verification
Re-ran the `delegate-task-test-trigger` methodology (fresh-context subagents, simulated
available-skills registry with the new description + competitors `using-tasks` /
`using-projects-meta` / `setup-tasks` / `session-handoff`, no hint about the expected
answer):
- **Positives 5/5** — «создать задачу на агента», «поставить задачу агенту», «delegate task
to the books project», «делегировать таску», «tasks_create для проекта X» → all
`delegate-task`. No regression from the literal negative.
- **Negative «создать задачу себе на завтра» 4/5 → `using-tasks`** (was 0/5 before the fix).
The single residual miss reasoned correctly («себе» → using-tasks) but was tripped by an
eval-harness artifact (the prompt forced a skill name on line 1 *before* reasoning),
not by ambiguity in the description.
## Reusable principle
When a skill's positive triggers contain a phrase whose **stem** also appears in a sibling
skill's domain, an abstract "does NOT apply when…" clause is too weak. Put the **exact
colliding negative phrase** in the description with an explicit **→ <sibling-skill>** route.
Literal beats abstract under the 1%-rule. See also [[tdd-criteria-design]] for another
"make the bright line literal, not a judgement call" pattern.