One-Shot Task Runner

Run a single arbitrary task using any configured AI provider — no pipeline, no reviews, no orchestration.

Usage: /dev-buddy-once use <provider> [model <model>] <task description>

Examples:

/dev-buddy-once use minimax M2.5 model to help me design a new UI
/dev-buddy-once use codex o3 model to refactor the auth module
/dev-buddy-once use anthropic-subscription sonnet model to explain the codebase
/dev-buddy-once use minimax to analyze performance bottlenecks

---

Step 1: Parse Arguments

Extract three pieces from the user's message:

• Provider name — the preset name (e.g., "minimax", "codex", "anthropic-subscription")
• Model — the model identifier (e.g., "M2.5", "o3", "sonnet")
• Task — everything else (the actual work to do)

The user's message follows the skill trigger. Common patterns:

• use <provider> <model> model to <task>
• use <provider> model <model> to <task>
• use <provider> to <task> (model omitted — will default)

---

Step 2: Resolve Preset

List available presets:

bun -e "
import { readPresets } from '${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/preset-utils.ts';
const presets = readPresets();
console.log(JSON.stringify(Object.entries(presets.presets).map(([k,v]) => ({
  name: k, type: v.type, models: v.models || ['haiku','sonnet','opus']
}))));
"

Match the provider name deterministically:

1. Exact match (case-insensitive) → use it
2. Unique prefix match (case-insensitive) → use it (e.g., "mini" matches "MiniMax-API" if no other preset starts with "mini")
3. Multiple matches → use AskUserQuestion listing the matches, ask user to pick
4. No matches → report error with available preset names

Validate model:

• If user specified a model, check it exists in the preset's models[] list
• If user did NOT specify a model:
  • Subscription presets: default to sonnet
  • API/CLI presets: default to preset.models[0]
• For subscription presets (no models[]), valid models are: haiku, sonnet, opus

---

Step 3: Route by Provider Type

Read the matched preset's type field and route accordingly:

Subscription (type: "subscription")

Use the Task tool directly — no external process needed:

Task(
  subagent_type: "general-purpose",
  model: "<model>",
  prompt: "<task>"
)

The subagent works in the project directory with full tool access. Report its output to the user when it completes.

API (type: "api")

Run the one-shot runner script:

bun "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/one-shot-runner.ts" \
  --type api \
  --preset "<exact_preset_name>" \
  --model "<model>" \
  --cwd "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}" \
  --task-stdin <<'TASK_EOF'
<task_text>
TASK_EOF

Uses --task-stdin with heredoc to avoid OS argv size limits and ps exposure.

Derive timeout: Read ~/.vcp/ai-presets.json → find the preset by name → read timeout_ms (default: 300000 if not set or lookup fails).

IMPORTANT: The Bash tool has a hard max timeout of 600,000ms (10 min). API tasks can run much longer (e.g., 30 min). Always use run_in_background: true to prevent the Bash tool from killing the process prematurely.

After launching:

1. Save the returned task_id from the Bash tool. If run_in_background does not return a task_id, report a dispatch failure to the user — do not retry in foreground mode.
2. CRITICAL — Poll with the correct timeout (NOT the default 30s):

   TaskOutput(task_id: "<task_id>", block: true, timeout: min(timeout_ms + 120000, 600000))
   

   For a 5-min preset (default 300000ms), this = min(420000, 600000) = 420000ms (7 min). The default TaskOutput timeout is only 30s — far too short for API tasks that typically take 2-5 min.
3. If TaskOutput returns but the task is still running (not complete), repeat TaskOutput with timeout: 600000 until done.

The script:

1. Spawns api-task-runner.ts with the preset, model, and task (via stdin)
2. The task runner creates a V2 Agent SDK session, runs the task, and exits
3. Outputs a JSON event to stdout

CLI (type: "cli")

Prerequisite: The CLI preset must have a one_shot_args_template configured. This template uses only {model}, {prompt}, and {reasoning_effort} placeholders (no {output_file} or {schema_path} — those are pipeline-only).

If the preset does not have one_shot_args_template, report the error to the user and suggest configuring it via /dev-buddy-config or /dev-buddy-manage-presets.

Run the one-shot runner script:

bun "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/one-shot-runner.ts" \
  --type cli \
  --preset "<exact_preset_name>" \
  --model "<model>" \
  --cwd "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}" \
  --task-stdin <<'TASK_EOF'
<task_text>
TASK_EOF

Derive timeout: Read ~/.vcp/ai-presets.json → find the preset by name → read timeout_ms (default: 1200000 for CLI if not set or lookup fails — matches the script's 20-minute default).

IMPORTANT: The Bash tool has a hard max timeout of 600,000ms (10 min). CLI tasks can run much longer (e.g., Codex with 20-min timeout). Always use run_in_background: true to prevent the Bash tool from killing the process prematurely.

After launching:

1. Save the returned task_id from the Bash tool. If run_in_background does not return a task_id, report a dispatch failure to the user — do not retry in foreground mode.
2. CRITICAL — Poll with the correct timeout (NOT the default 30s):

   TaskOutput(task_id: "<task_id>", block: true, timeout: min(timeout_ms + 120000, 600000))
   

   For a 20-min CLI preset (default 1200000ms), this = min(1320000, 600000) = 600000ms (10 min). The default TaskOutput timeout is only 30s — far too short for CLI tasks that typically take 5-20 min.
3. If TaskOutput returns but the task is still running (not complete), repeat TaskOutput with timeout: 600000 until done.

The CLI tool runs directly in the project directory (e.g., Codex exec --full-auto). Its output streams to the terminal.

---

Step 4: Report Results

After the task completes, read the script's stdout JSON output:

Success (exit code 0)

{"event": "complete", "provider": "minimax", "model": "M2.5", "result": "..."}

Report: provider, model used, and a summary of what was accomplished.

Validation Error (exit code 1)

{"event": "error", "phase": "validation", "error": "..."}

Report the validation error (wrong model, missing preset, bad template).

Execution Error (exit code 2)

{"event": "error", "phase": "api_execution|cli_execution", "error": "..."}

Report what went wrong (session failure, CLI not installed, auth error).

Timeout (exit code 3)

{"event": "error", "phase": "api_execution|cli_execution", "error": "..."}

Report that the task timed out. Suggest increasing timeout_ms on the preset via /dev-buddy-manage-presets.

---

Error Handling

Scenario	Action
Preset not found	List available presets, suggest /dev-buddy-manage-presets list
Model not in preset	List preset's available models
Multiple preset matches	AskUserQuestion with matching names
CLI preset missing one_shot_args_template	Report error, suggest /dev-buddy-config or /dev-buddy-manage-presets to add it
CLI tool not installed	Report error, suggest installing the tool
API task runner fails	Report error from script output
Task times out	Report timeout, suggest increasing timeout_ms

---

Anti-Patterns

• Do NOT run a full pipeline — this is a single one-shot task
• Do NOT create pipeline tasks (TaskCreate/TaskUpdate) — no orchestration needed
• Do NOT skip the preset resolution step — always validate provider and model first
• Do NOT guess the preset type — always read it from the presets file
• For subscription: do NOT run the one-shot-runner.ts script — use Task tool directly
• Do NOT fall back to foreground Bash when background TaskOutput returns empty — the task is likely still running. Increase the TaskOutput timeout instead.
• Do NOT retry the same API/CLI task in foreground mode — the Bash tool's 2-minute default timeout is always shorter than the typical task duration (2-5 min for API, 5-20 min for CLI). Foreground mode will always kill the process prematurely.
• Do NOT use the default TaskOutput timeout (30s) for API/CLI tasks — always pass the computed timeout as specified in the polling instructions above.