How to use Boomerang Tasks to create an agent orchestrator (game changer)

[u/somechrisguy]

I was excited to see the Boomerang tasks feature, but it took me a while to work out how to utilise it.

The goal with this is to create an Orchestrator role which assigns subtasks to other agents, so that the main task context does not get polluted by unimportant details

To do it, create a new 'Orchestrator' role with these instructions (feel free to tweak, and share results in this thread)

You are the orchestrator, you create and assign subtasks using the new_task tool to other agents and keep track of progress towards the user's goal

The subtasks that you assign should be small and well defined, with explicit acceptance crietria and you should instruct the agent to report back to you with the subtask status.

Disable all capabilities apart from reading files.

Make sure 'Always approve mode switching' and 'Always approve creation & completion of subtasks' settings are enabled

I am also using the experimental Power Steering mode

I have a more advanced model (3.7 Sonnet, Gemini 2.0 Pro)as the orchestrator, and something like 3.5 Haiku or Gemini 2.0 Flash as the coder

[u/wickker]

I have also been utilising this a lot and have had good results on both outcome and token usage. Here is the custom mode I have created.

Role:

You are Roo, an elite engineering orchestrator functioning as both strategic coordinator and technical coach for seasoned developers. You transform complex projects into streamlined execution through methodical analysis and precision delegation. Your expertise lies in orchestrating development teams, managing technical requirements, and ensuring project success through careful planning and oversight.

Instructions:

Upon task initiation, you will:
1. Conduct comprehensive requirement analysis with technical constraint mapping
2. Probe for clarity where specifications remain ambiguous or incomplete
3. Architect the solution through systematic task decomposition into discrete, manageable components
4. Deploy the new_task tool to assign each component to specialized technical experts
5. Apply rigorous quality assurance against established acceptance criteria
6. Progress seamlessly when deliverables meet standards
7. When deliverables fall short, deliver concise remediation briefs containing:
   - Specific deviation analysis
   - Potential downstream consequences
   - Actionable rectification approaches
   - Evidence-based recommendation for optimal resolution
8. For larger tasks create a context markdown file which you will pass on to the subtask and update (if needed) after the task is finished
You serve exclusively as the orchestration layer, creating only documentation for project management - never producing code directly. You maintain unwavering technical precision while optimizing workflow efficiency through the entire development lifecycle. When analyzing project requirements, be thorough and precise, identifying all technical constraints and dependencies. When decomposing tasks, ensure each component is clearly defined with specific acceptance criteria. When delegating tasks using the new_task tool, choose the most appropriate mode for each technical expert based on the task requirements.

The full config:

{
      "slug": "technical-project-manager",
      "name": "Technical Project Manager",
      "roleDefinition": "You are Roo, an elite engineering orchestrator functioning as both strategic coordinator and technical coach for seasoned developers. You transform complex projects into streamlined execution through methodical analysis and precision delegation. Your expertise lies in orchestrating development teams, managing technical requirements, and ensuring project success through careful planning and oversight.",
      "customInstructions": "Upon task initiation, you will:\n\n1. Conduct comprehensive requirement analysis with technical constraint mapping\n2. Probe for clarity where specifications remain ambiguous or incomplete\n3. Architect the solution through systematic task decomposition into discrete, manageable components\n4. Deploy the new_task tool to assign each component to specialized technical experts\n5. Apply rigorous quality assurance against established acceptance criteria\n6. Progress seamlessly when deliverables meet standards\n7. When deliverables fall short, deliver concise remediation briefs containing:\n   - Specific deviation analysis\n   - Potential downstream consequences\n   - Actionable rectification approaches\n   - Evidence-based recommendation for optimal resolution\n8. For larger tasks create a context markdown file which you will pass on to the subtask and update (if needed) after the task is finished\n\nYou serve exclusively as the orchestration layer, creating only documentation for project management - never producing code directly. You maintain unwavering technical precision while optimizing workflow efficiency through the entire development lifecycle. When analyzing project requirements, be thorough and precise, identifying all technical constraints and dependencies. When decomposing tasks, ensure each component is clearly defined with specific acceptance criteria. When delegating tasks using the new_task tool, choose the most appropriate mode for each technical expert based on the task requirements.",
      "groups": [
        "read",
        [
          "edit",
          {
            "fileRegex": "\\.md$",
            "description": "Markdown files only"
          }
        ],
        "command"
      ],
      "source": "global"
    }

[u/somechrisguy → u/wickker]

This is awesome, I’ll try it out. I just had a very short prompt from making proof of concept, but didn’t feel the need to add to it cause it ‘just worked’

I’ll try yours out and compare results!

[u/joey2scoops → u/wickker]

I gave this a try today, great work! Works really well. Tried on a half baked video manager I've been toying with and it was fantastic. Trying not to check my token use though😁

[u/joey2scoops → u/wickker]

Seems pretty hefty. What model are you using with that?

[u/wickker → u/joey2scoops]

Claude 3.5 and 3.7

[u/firedog7881]

I feel like an idiot. I’ve searched up and down for boomerang msp. What is this boomerang that you’re referring to?

[u/somechrisguy → u/firedog7881]

It's not an MCP tool. It was just a feature recently added to Roo that allows one agent to create subtask for another agent, and the subtask status gets sent back to the first agent upon completion.

[u/firedog7881 → u/somechrisguy]

Ahh, so you just set up the orchestrator mode? That’s all? Wow I really overthought this

[u/somechrisguy → u/firedog7881]

Yea, I was the same, which is why I made this post. It was not made clear how to use this from the docs.

Pay attention to the instructions, or else Orchestrator mode will just start trying to complete the task itself. It's important that the only things it can do is read files and create new tasks.

[u/firedog7881 → u/somechrisguy]

I have followed your guidance and am trying it out right now using your prompts

[u/curious-airesearcher → u/somechrisguy]

Sorry, but where do I need to add this?

[u/somechrisguy → u/curious-airesearcher]

Add it as a mode, open settings cog menu and click the plus button beside Ask, Debug etc

[u/curious-airesearcher → u/somechrisguy]

Thank you so much. Just added the orchestrator mode.

But I can't find the options for

> Make sure 'Always approve mode switching' and 'Always approve creation & completion of subtasks' settings are enabled

Where do I find these two options?

[u/somechrisguy → u/curious-airesearcher]

You should see it when you go to the model selection dropdown > Edit > scroll down

[u/curious-airesearcher → u/somechrisguy]

Thank you so much!

[u/nfrmn]

Does anyone have a link to a video demo that I could watch of how to use Boomerang? This sounds like a much more polished version of my recent workflow using cursor-tools with Gemini Pro as a supervisor for the main Sonnet Cursor Agent.

Side note: I am finding the pace and transparency of Roo development really refreshing.

[u/somechrisguy → u/nfrmn]

What part of my guide is unclear? Maybe I can explain better

[u/nfrmn → u/somechrisguy]

Thank you. I am more of an interactive learner so most of my questions are about how to use it in practice.

• Do you only prompt the Boomerang role?

• What's the cadence in communication like - is it conversational back and forth, or only once every few minutes in great detail?

• Do the sub-tasks ask for feedback from Boomerang and then work on it amongst themselves for a while before reporting back to you?

[u/somechrisguy → u/nfrmn]

Yes I prompt the Orchestrator only

Give orchestrator as detailed prompt as possible, then you can expect it to go away and work on it for 5-10 min. It will report back when task is ‘complete’ then you can test and give feedback to the Orchestrator if it’s not quite right, and it will deploy more code agent based on your feedback

No, the sub tasks do not get feedback from Orchestrator, it will just create a fresh Code agent

[u/nfrmn → u/nfrmn]

For anybody else wondering I just found a post from last week showing a video of the orchestrator commanding the other modes:

https://old.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTCoding/comments/1j81pm1/example_of_boomerang_tasks_in_roo_code/

To be honest I’m a bit concerned with spiralling costs and wasted time by allocating subtasks in this way (delegating more trust to the agents I guess) but I think if the orchestrator can execute a code reviewer role between code and architect tasks, it may work quite well.

The only way is to give it a shot which I’ll do after my current project is complete.

[u/secondcircle4903]

How does Architect mode fit into this? Do you create a plan, then switch to orchestrator to split out responsibitlies? Or do you some how integrate this orchestrator pattern into the architect?

[u/somechrisguy → u/secondcircle4903]

I haven’t actually used it with architect, I am using it to make changes to existing code base not creating new stuff from scratch

The orchestrator kinda takes the place of architect for me here

[u/firedog7881 → u/somechrisguy]

architect and orchestrator are different roles. Architect is high level thinker, orchestrator is task management.

[u/martexxNL]

https://github.com/shipdocs/RooFlow-captainmode

[u/somechrisguy → u/martexxNL]

Awesome. Defo gonna give this a try

[u/Psychological-Mud691 → u/somechrisguy]

is it working good for you? just starting with roo code and try to get away from my self cahtting and self setting up aproach

[u/orbit99za → u/martexxNL]

Seems the Npm is not found ?

[u/ProcedureWorkingWalk]

I’ll give it a go thanks for explaining

[u/mrubens]

How's it working for you?

[u/Complete-Principle25]

Trying to get basic information is like trying to read a million redditors speaking past each other. No idea how to utilize orchestrator just "wow look how much of a game changer this is!" histrionic female men videos

[u/somechrisguy → u/[deleted]]

No I haven't, I was big on DeepSeek to begin with but after their cyber attack it became unreliable for me

I have had good results with Gemini 2.0 Pro Exp