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:
- Context exhaustion — spawning agents is expensive; running out mid-batch leaves work incomplete
- Homogeneous output — identical prompts produce near-identical results, wasting compute
- 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 neededEach 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:
- Count tokens consumed so far (rough estimate: each spawned agent costs ~2-4k tokens in overhead)
- Reserve at minimum 20% of the context window for synthesis and final output
- If budget is tight, reduce the next wave size to 2-3 agents
- 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:
| Axis | Example variations |
|---|---|
| Tone | formal / conversational / terse / expansive |
| Focus | conciseness / error handling / edge cases / performance / examples |
| Perspective | beginner / expert / skeptic / advocate |
| Structure | prose / bullet list / table / code-first |
| Constraint | max 200 words / no jargon / no code / examples only |
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:
- Read the output produced by all prior waves
- Identify themes, approaches, or content already covered
- Add exclusion instructions to the new wave's directives: "Do NOT produce a version similar to [description of prior output]"
- 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:
- Use this skill to plan wave sizes, generate diverse directives, and track progress
- 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