> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rotascale.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Delegate authority

> Hand work to another agent without handing it more authority than the parent had.

## Opt the parent in first

Delegation is off by default. A grant cannot hand authority onward unless it was
issued with `delegation_policy: "attenuating"`, because the right to delegate is
itself a right somebody has to grant.

## The call

```bash theme={"system"}
curl -X POST "$ROTASCALE_URL/v1/grants/grt_01KZXYD62VG0/delegate" \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $ROTASCALE_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "agent_id": "agt_01KZXYC3VE",
    "scope": { "tool": ["payments.settle"] },
    "budget_amount_minor": 500000,
    "budget_count": 10,
    "ttl_hours": 24
  }'
```

Every field must be **narrower than or equal to** the parent. Ask for more on
any dimension and the call fails. Not a warning: the grant is not created and
the pipeline does not start.

## What you cannot do, and why the API says no

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="A larger budget than the parent">
    The obvious one. Refused.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A longer TTL than the parent">
    A child outliving its parent is an authority with nobody above it. Refused.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Scope the parent does not hold">
    You cannot grant what you were not granted. Refused.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A weaker enforcement mode">
    A child in `observe` under a parent in `enforce` would be a hole straight
    through the control. Refused.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Dropping a condition">
    If the parent requires a clean context, the child requires it too. Refused.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## The ceiling is on the tree

Give five children £5,000 each under a £25,000 parent and the tree can still
only spend £25,000, because every leaf debit lands on every ancestor.

Which produces the behaviour worth rehearsing before it surprises somebody:

> A child with room in its own allowance is refused, because an ancestor is
> exhausted.

That is `exhausted`, not `deny`, and it is correct. The child's own allowance
was never the operative limit.

## Rehearse the revocation

Do this once, in a controlled window, with somebody watching:

1. Start a delegated pipeline.
2. Revoke the parent grant mid-flight.
3. Watch what the child does next.

Whatever happens is what will happen on the bad day. Then ask the record what
was permitted between the revoke and the last child stopping, because there is
always an interval and "we revoked at 14:02" does not answer "what did it do at
14:03".

## Record the handoff even without a new grant

```python theme={"system"}
t.delegation(agent="claims-adjuster", reason="quantum assessment")
```

Useful where the child runs under the same authority: the trajectory still shows
where work changed hands.