ACI-007: The Delegation Model

Thesis

Delegation is the productive mental model for agentic coding, and pair programming is the wrong metaphor. Pair programming implies shared context and turn-taking; delegation implies a written brief, stated constraints and a checked outcome. An agent starts each session from what is written down, so the brief must carry the state the work happens in as well as the task.

Story

The most common metaphor for AI-assisted coding is "pair programming". GitHub branded its assistant this way, and blog posts describe "pairing with AI". The metaphor feels natural: two entities, one codebase, taking turns.