docs: make tier-down delegation a positive default, not a tie-breaker

[cristim]

Summary

Adds a new top-level bullet to CLAUDE.md §"Subagent Strategy" that elevates the cheap-tier-first principle from a "when in doubt" tie-breaker (line 209) to an active obligation: before doing work in the main session, ask whether a Haiku/Sonnet subagent could handle it per the rubric, and if yes, spawn that subagent.

The main session's tier is typically the most expensive option available, so reserving it for work that genuinely needs it is the single biggest cost lever. The rule applies recursively to spawned subagents.

This complements PR #1 (which rewrote the rubric examples to push more work onto cheaper tiers) by making the act of delegation itself proactive rather than reactive.

Test plan

• Read CLAUDE.md §"Subagent Strategy" lines 195–212 — does the new bullet read coherently against the rubric immediately below it?
• Confirm the new bullet does not contradict the meta-principle on line 209 ("when in doubt, go one tier cheaper") — it should reinforce, not duplicate
• git diff --stat origin/main shows exactly one file changed, one insertion, no deletions

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation
  • Updated delegation guidance to prioritize cost-effective subagent allocation with clarified recursive policy application.

[coderabbitai]

Caution

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ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

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Plan: Pro

Run ID: 1dee3105-1b74-49d7-9b5d-28f15b540688

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 057c838 and d67f45c.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• CLAUDE.md

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Documentation updated to instruct Claude Code to proactively delegate work to the cheapest sufficient subagent tier (Haiku or Sonnet) before performing tasks in the main session. The delegation policy is reframed as a direct obligation rather than a fallback, and applies recursively when subagents spawn further subagents.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Delegation Policy Documentation CLAUDE.md	Updated delegation guidance to establish proactive delegation to cheapest sufficient subagent tier as primary obligation, clarifies recursive application policy.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~8 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• docs: downshift model recommendations toward cheaper tiers #1: Modifies CLAUDE.md delegation guidance and shifts model-tier preferences toward cheaper tiers, directly aligns with delegation strategy updates.

Poem

🐰 Delegate with care, I say with cheer,
To Haiku first—the cheapest tier!
No fallback now, it's duty bound,
Recursively, let savings abound! 💰✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title directly and accurately describes the main change: elevating tier-down delegation from a tie-breaker to a proactive default behavior in the documentation.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch docs/delegate-down-rule

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