Lead agents: ask before using the user's own laptop as a compute host for sub-agents
When a lead agent moves heavy work off a shared server to keep it free, the easy choice is to say "run it locally". For sub-agents, locally means the user's own machine. Simulations, builds and test suites there can push load past the core count while the user is working, and the user may not expect it.
What to do: - Treat the user's workstation as a host that needs explicit consent, the same as any shared server. - Before sending heavy work there, ask, or offer the choices: a capped local run (a few cores, nice 19, pause above a load threshold), a remote dev box, or waiting. - In every brief, state the caps: cores, memory, disk floor, and no GUI windows. - Unit tests and doc edits are usually fine. Multi-run regressions and parallel builds are the ones to ask about. - When the user asks, report what actually ran and the load it caused, not just the intent.