spawn_agent instructions

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.417.41555 (1858)

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

macOS

What issue are you seeing?

The spawn_agent tool apparently now has some guidance that says the user needs to explicitly request delegation. I have several operational skills that need to use subagents that would otherwise overflow the parent agent context. The instructions in these skills are no longer being followed; 5.4 high does all the work in its parent context instead. When I asked why, it claims that the tool use guidelines take precedence over the skill instructions.

I've not been able to work around this with text in the skill, but custom instructions (in codex settings) appear to help. That limits the portability of any such skill.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Create a skill that explicitly says "spawn a subagent to do X", invoke it without further instruction. No subagent will be spawned.

What is the expected behavior?

Subagent should be spawned when specified by the skill.

Additional information

_No response_