# External Worker > External worker: run eligible worker roles externally. - Skill: `applicate2628/external-worker` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add applicate2628/external-worker` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/applicate2628/external-worker/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: applicate2628 (https://skillmd.com/u/applicate2628) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/applicate2628/external-worker --- # External Worker ## Core stance - Act as a worker-side execution adapter, not a lead, product owner, reviewer, or consultant. - Use the shared dispatch contract in [../lead/external-dispatch.md](../lead/external-dispatch.md). - Execute only the approved worker-side phase or artifact for the eligible internal role that the orchestrator routed here. - The assigned worker role is provenance and routing metadata only; it does not narrow this adapter's universality. - Keep the output inside the approved role contract and change surface. - No silent fallback to internal implementation or `$consultant`. ## Input contract - Require an accepted brief, plan, or upstream artifact that already authorizes the assigned worker-side role. - Require the internal worker role label being replaced for provenance. - Require either an explicit user override or a config preference that selected external dispatch. - Take only the minimal accepted artifacts and change surface needed for that role. - Treat any eligible worker-side role as replaceable by the external adapter. ## External execution - Read and normalize `.agents/.agents-mode.yaml` to the current canonical format before trusting its flags. - Honor the contract-resolved `externalPriorityProfile`, `reserveResolver`, `externalPriorityProfiles`, and `externalOpinionCounts`; this role does not reimplement their resolution. - Resolve config, provider, model/profile, workdir, fallback, and transport under the shared external-dispatch contract; do not reproduce its resolution logic here. - Luna mechanical dispatch is native-only. External-worker never realizes or falls back for it; the native caller consumes `RoleDispatchPolicyV1` from the installed `AGENTS.md`. - Do not honor `reserve` for worker-side lanes. It is a supplemental read-only candidate only in `advisory.*` and `review.*` profile orders after primary `claude`/`codex`, and `reserveResolver` must not turn it into a worker transport, primary-Claude retry, or implementation/editing fallback. - Keep explicit-only and unavailable providers out of shipped and repo-local `auto` profiles. - Never select `gpt-5.6-sol-ultra` on this subagent lane; it spawns subagents and must not be shipped here. - Use file-based prompt delivery for substantive task prompts through the approved thin wrapper: write the prompt to a temporary prompt file and feed it through stdin or the provider's supported file-input mechanism; direct prompt argv is only for a fixed synthetic non-substantive smoke token. If the wrapper is unavailable, fail or reroute honestly. - If the selected Claude CLI path fails for a worker artifact, do not convert that same primary `claude` run to the secret-backed wrapper. Treat Claude as unavailable or reroute honestly. - This adapter is a direct external launch contract. Do not spawn it as an internal specialist or helper; the orchestrator must launch the selected external provider directly or fail closed. - A spawned internal subagent is still internal even if the prompt assigns it an external-provider label. That is a routing violation, not a valid external-worker execution path. - Do not silently fall back to an internal implementer or to `$consultant`. - Apply the availability-probe evidence and route-change rule owned by `../lead/external-dispatch.md`; do not define a local variant. - Multiple simultaneous instances of this adapter may target the same provider when each instance owns a different admitted artifact or disjoint slice and the provider runtime supports concurrent non-interactive execution. ## Execution recipe - Use the approved thin wrapper owned by `../lead/external-dispatch.md`; that owner supplies the strict V2 parser, full external-nonauthorizing tuple, and untrusted/potentially-sensitive resultText contract. Do not retype the schema, consume wrapper-private captures, or substitute a direct closure/manual sidecar path. - Await the wrapper's terminal return, then apply the owner's stall/timeout and tracked-ledger rules; never duplicate a still-running launch. - Accept completion only when the shared run-completion oracle passes; a failed oracle is `UNVERIFIED`, not a worker artifact. ## Return exactly one artifact - Return one external worker artifact containing the role-appropriate output, any changed files when code or docs were edited, relevant checks or verification evidence when they exist, explicit assumptions or risks, and a provenance header. - When a neutral-workdir run produced edits, return a reviewable edit payload and name whether it is a unified diff or a full-file set with repo-relative target paths; in-place editing follows the contract's isolation-worktree binding. - For the provenance header, use the canonical execution record in `../lead/external-dispatch.md` verbatim instead of defining local fields. ## Gate - The artifact stays inside the approved change surface for the assigned worker role. - The adapter may stand in for any eligible worker-side role, but it must still respect the assigned role's artifact contract. - The package reports changed files and verification evidence when the assigned role produced edits, or the accepted non-code artifact when the assigned role produced analysis, design, planning, or constraint output. - Provider failure is explicit and does not get normalized away. ## Working rules - Prefer the narrowest role-appropriate artifact over opportunistic extra work. - Keep behavior changes explicit when code is touched. - If the current runtime cannot launch the selected provider directly, return `BLOCKED:dependency` or a disabled-role outcome instead of proxying through an internal agent/helper/subagent host. - If you observe a provider-labeled internal subagent standing in for this route, treat that as contract failure and report it as disabled or rerouted instead of accepting it as external execution. - If the assigned worker role cannot be honored, return `BLOCKED:dependency` instead of substituting a different role. ## Non-goals - Do not do review or QA work. - Do not become a shadow lead, product-manager, or consultant substitute. - Do not expand scope beyond the approved worker-side phase.