Level 3 · Delegate — the lesson
Delegate (Cowork)
You stop asking one question and hand Claude a whole multi-step job — then judge the finished deliverable, not each step.
The line One job at a time, you on the loop reviewing each result — not many jobs in parallel under standing rules (that's Level 4).
Read the full referencethe deep, complete version of this levelPlay the models below — each one you try climbs a floor of your tower.
One brief in — the whole job runs itself. Press Run.
Now YOU review it — trace each figure to a source before you send. "Done" isn't "correct."
Now review that deliverable — tap each claim to trace it to source
Migration approved — owner: Priya
✓ Found in notes-mon.md, line 14
Launch slips to Apr 3
✓ Found in notes-wed.md, line 8
$48,000 saved this quarter
✗ In no input file — the agent invented a plausible figure.
3 open questions routed to Finance
✓ Found in notes-fri.md, line 2
One claim traces to nothing — that's the catch. "Finished" and "confident" told you nothing; the source did.
Do it now — 4 small steps
One step = one paste into Claude (the mobile app is perfect). Your progress saves on this device.
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Step 1 of 4 · Hand over the mess
Delegation starts with raw material, not a tidy question.
Here are my rough notes — hold onto them, I'll tell you what I need next. [paste any messy notes]
You should see: Claude waiting for the brief, not guessing.
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Step 2 of 4 · Write a real brief
Goal, audience, format — that's what makes it a job.
From those notes, produce a summary for my team: decisions made, action items with owners, open questions. Format it as a short doc I can paste into email.
You should see: A structured deliverable, not a chat reply.
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Step 3 of 4 · Verify like a boss
You check the work — demand its assumptions.
List everything you assumed or guessed while writing that. What should I double-check before I share it?
You should see: An honest list — this is your review checklist.
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Step 4 of 4 · Iterate once
One sharp revision beats ten vague ones.
Tighten it: half the length, keep every decision and owner, lead with the single most important outcome.
You should see: The version you'd actually send.
The ideas behind the steps — tap a takeaway to unpack it.
What Delegate is
Takeaway Delegate a whole job and judge the deliverable, not each keystroke.
Chat handed over the thinking; Connect the looking-up, one action at a time. Delegate hands over the doing — a whole multi-step job (the run above). You drove none of those steps. It's managing a new hire: brief the job, check the work. The catch — it comes back finished, confident, and sometimes wrong.
You're on the loop, not in it
Takeaway Equip the room so a stranger could run the job — then stay on the loop, not in it.
Claude runs the steps inside the room and brief you set up; you review and redirect, you don't drive.
Set up the room once — a Project (or folder) + a standing brief (AGENTS.md) that says the job, what "done" means, and the do-nots. That brief is the whole context: anything not in it doesn't exist for the worker. Mid-run, redirect only on a silent scope change or a missing input.
"Done" is not "correct"
Takeaway A finished deliverable is a stack of claims to trace to source, not a result to accept.
Where the level lives or dies. A deliverable is facts from your inputs + judgments the agent made — verify each against the source, never its own confidence. Trace every load-bearing number, owner and date; reconcile the counts (three files in, three cited). Classic catch: a confident "$48,000" that's in no source.
Is this the right level for your task?
A recurring task: turn each week's three meeting-note files into one merged summary with decisions and owners. Which class fits?
Pick the closest match — you'll get a verdict.
The capstone — the whole level in one prompt
Run one full delegation (~20-30 min). Use a job that passes the test — multi-step AND repeatable AND result-reviewable — or the house job: three real meeting-note files in a Project. You're training two muscles: the brief and the review. Paste this in for a coach that holds you to the standard.
You are my coach for the Delegate level — handing you a whole multi-step job and reviewing the finished deliverable, not driving each step. Hold me to the standard; don't let me get away with a thin brief or a rubber-stamp review. My job: [DESCRIBE THE MULTI-STEP, REPEATABLE JOB — e.g. "turn three meeting-note files into one weekly summary with decisions and owners"]. Walk me through it in order, one stage at a time, waiting for my answer before moving on: 1. BRIEF: Push me to write the job as ordered steps, the deliverable's exact shape, and a DONE-LOOKS-LIKE block with at least one acceptance clause AND one "do NOT..." clause. Make me include "if any input is missing or ambiguous, stop and list it — do not guess" and a WORK LOG line. Critique my draft against these. 2. DELEGATE: Tell me what to hand over and the autonomy boundary to state. 3. RUN IT: Produce the deliverable strictly to my brief — and deliberately plant one realistic, load-bearing error a careless reviewer would miss (a figure or owner that traces to no source). Tag every claim with its source. 4. REVIEW: Make me grade it clause-by-clause against my DONE block and trace every load-bearing number/owner/date to a source. Do NOT reveal the planted error. If I try to "ask you if you're sure," stop me and explain why that isn't verification. 5. REDIRECT: Have me write one surgical corrective turn naming what to keep and the single slice to fix. 6. BANK IT: Help me turn the proven brief into a standing brief for next week.
Self-check
✓ You've got this level. On to Level 3½: The Workshop →
You've leveled up when…
You've mastered Delegate when you brief the whole job with a testable "done," let it run, review the deliverable as claims traced to source, and bank the proven brief. You're ready to step up when you catch yourself wishing you could set the rules once and run many such jobs in parallel — pulled in only when one trips a rule.
Level 4 — Orchestrate (Code): direct several agents at once against a whole system under written rules they obey; your per-deliverable review becomes the gate before anything merges.
Next · Level 3½: The Workshop →