Reject malformed tasks=[...] batches before any child agent is spawned:
- exact-duplicate goals (case/whitespace-normalized), error names both
task indices
- placeholder goals: bare 'TODO', bare 'task N', unexpanded <...> or
{...} template markers, or goals shorter than 10 chars after strip
- 1-task batches, with an error pointing the model at the single
`goal` form instead
All checks are batch-only — the single-goal form is exempt by design
(short goals like goal="test" are valid there). Error strings are
actionable: each tells the model exactly how to fix the call.
Tool schema is unchanged (byte-stable); validation is runtime-only in
the existing batch-validation region.
Existing tests using terse batch goals ("A"/"B"/"C") updated to
realistic distinct goals per the new contract.
Inspired by: MoonshotAI/kimi-code agent-swarm.md validation rules (MIT)
Teknium