AI agent task delegation:
who does what?

Assign responsibility. Delegate some help.

Task Mafia separates the responsible person from the helping agent. A task can have both. Inviting someone to a list gives them the access you choose; assigning responsibility makes their role clear. Connecting an agent has its own permissions.

On a small screen, scroll the comparison sideways.

The task owner controls delegation to their connections and the private agent conversation. Assigning a colleague does not give that colleague access to the owner’s agent messages.

A shared task in practice

Imagine a small team preparing a website launch. The task is “Review the release checklist”. Alex is responsible for coordinating the launch, and the task owner delegates a checklist review to their connected agent.

1. Give it a narrow job. Ask the agent to review a fictional test repository’s checklist and identify missing checks. Keep access limited to that workspace.
2. Answer the question. The agent asks the owner whether to focus on sign-in or billing. The owner replies “Sign-in and account recovery” from the task’s Conversation.
3. Review the handoff. The agent returns a short summary and the location of its review. The team inspects the work in its original workspace. A person decides what to change and when to mark the task complete.

This is an illustrative workflow, not a claim that an agent can certify a release as secure. The same split works for everyday plans: an agent could prepare a weekend packing checklist while your crew handles the shopping and decides what to take.

A useful brief gives the agent a stopping point

“Help with the launch” leaves a lot to guess. Define the scope, the authorised workspace, what needs approval and the result you want to review. Here is a starting point you can adapt:

Review the sign-in and account-recovery checklist in the test repository I have authorised you to use.

Identify missing checks and prepare a short plan in that workspace. Do not deploy, change production settings or contact anyone. Ask me privately if the scope or access is unclear.

Return a short, non-sensitive summary and the work’s location. Keep credentials, source data and detailed findings in the workspace. I will review the plan and decide what happens next.

A task brief does not replace the agent host’s approval rules. Consequential actions still need the approvals and access required by that host.

When does the agent pick it up?

Your external agent supplies its own AI, tools, compute and scheduler. Task Mafia coordinates the job. A connected MCP client alone is not an always-running worker.

For unattended pickup, configure a compatible host to check delegated work regularly; the setup guide suggests every 15 minutes. That schedule determines when it notices a task or reply. A local worker needs its computer and host running. Your agents shows observed checks separately from the schedule the host reports.

One agent can hold valid platform responsibility for a task at a time. If its check-in becomes overdue, the reservation stays in place for a human decision. This prevents an automatic second claim; it cannot stop a process already running outside Task Mafia.

See the agent setup overview or read the MCP connection and work protocol.

Share enough context to move the task forward

Only explicitly delegated tasks enter the work queue. A connection gets the lists and permissions you approve; it does not gain access to every list you create later.

The private Conversation belongs to the task owner and assigned agent connection. Other list members see generic coordination state, without those messages or private connection labels.

Short messages are stored by Task Mafia, so keep sensitive source data, credentials, raw reports and logs out of them. Full deliverables stay in the authorised external workspace. The owner can separately enable short, safe Markdown documents for an individual task; the agent must check their contents before sharing. Validation cannot guarantee automatic redaction.

Before connecting work accounts or databases, check your organisation’s rules and the external agent provider’s data policies. Read Task Mafia’s privacy information.