Team Builder

Interactive menu for browsing and composing agent teams on demand. Works with flat or domain-subdirectory agent collections.

When to Use

You have multiple agent personas (markdown files) and want to pick which ones to use for a task
You want to compose an ad-hoc team from different domains (e.g., Security + SEO + Architecture)
You want to browse what agents are available before deciding

Prerequisites

Agent files must be markdown files containing a persona prompt (identity, rules, workflow, deliverables). The first # Heading is used as the agent name and the first paragraph as the description.

Both flat and subdirectory layouts are supported:

Subdirectory layout — domain is inferred from the folder name:

agents/
├── engineering/
│   ├── security-engineer.md
│   └── software-architect.md
├── marketing/
│   └── seo-specialist.md
└── sales/
    └── discovery-coach.md

Flat layout — domain inferred from shared filename prefixes. A prefix counts as a domain when 2+ files share it. Files with unique prefixes go to "General". Note: the algorithm splits at the first -, so multi-word domains (e.g., product-management) should use the subdirectory layout instead:

agents/
├── engineering-security-engineer.md
├── engineering-software-architect.md
├── marketing-seo-specialist.md
├── marketing-content-strategist.md
├── sales-discovery-coach.md
└── sales-outbound-strategist.md

Configuration

Agent directories are probed in order and results are merged:

./agents/**/*.md + ./agents/*.md — project-local agents (both depths)
~/.claude/agents/**/*.md + ~/.claude/agents/*.md — global agents (both depths)

Results from all locations are merged and deduplicated by agent name. Project-local agents take precedence over global agents with the same name. A custom path can be used instead if the user specifies one.

How It Works

Step 1: Discover Available Agents

Glob agent directories using the probe order above. Exclude README files. For each file found:

Subdirectory layout: extract the domain from the parent folder name
Flat layout: collect all filename prefixes (text before the first -). A prefix qualifies as a domain only if it appears in 2 or more filenames (e.g., engineering-security-engineer.md and engineering-software-architect.md both start with engineering → Engineering domain). Files with unique prefixes (e.g., code-reviewer.md, tdd-guide.md) are grouped under "General"
Extract the agent name from the first # Heading. If no heading is found, derive the name from the filename (strip .md, replace hyphens with spaces, title-case)
Extract a one-line summary from the first paragraph after the heading

If no agent files are found after probing all locations, inform the user: "No agent files found. Checked: [list paths probed]. Expected: markdown files in one of those directories." Then stop.

Step 2: Present Domain Menu

Available agent domains:
1. Engineering — Software Architect, Security Engineer
2. Marketing — SEO Specialist
3. Sales — Discovery Coach, Outbound Strategist

Pick domains or name specific agents (e.g., "1,3" or "security + seo"):

Skip domains with zero agents (empty directories)
Show agent count per domain

Step 3: Handle Selection

Accept flexible input:

Numbers: "1,3" selects all agents from Engineering and Sales
Names: "security + seo" fuzzy-matches against discovered agents
"all from engineering" selects every agent in that domain

If more than 5 agents are selected, list them alphabetically and ask the user to narrow down: "You selected N agents (max 5). Pick which to keep, or say 'first 5' to use the first five alphabetically."

Confirm selection:

Selected: Security Engineer + SEO Specialist
What should they work on? (describe the task):

Step 4: Spawn Agents in Parallel

Read each selected agent's markdown file
Prompt for the task description if not already provided
Spawn all agents in parallel using the Agent tool:
- subagent_type: "general-purpose"
- prompt: "{agent file content}\n\nTask: {task description}"
- Each agent runs independently — no inter-agent communication needed
If an agent fails (error, timeout, or empty output), note the failure inline (e.g., "Security Engineer: failed — [reason]") and continue with results from agents that succeeded

Step 5: Synthesize Results

Collect all outputs and present a unified report:

Results grouped by agent
Synthesis section highlighting:
- Agreements across agents
- Conflicts or tensions between recommendations
- Recommended next steps

If only 1 agent was selected, skip synthesis and present the output directly.

Rules

Dynamic discovery only. Never hardcode agent lists. New files in the directory auto-appear in the menu.
Max 5 agents per team. More than 5 produces diminishing returns and excessive token usage. Enforce at selection time.
Parallel dispatch. All agents run simultaneously — use the Agent tool's parallel invocation pattern.
Parallel Agent calls, not TeamCreate. This skill uses parallel Agent tool calls for independent work. TeamCreate (a Claude Code tool for multi-agent dialogue) is only needed when agents must debate or respond to each other.

Examples

User: team builder

Claude:
Available agent domains:
1. Engineering (2) — Software Architect, Security Engineer
2. Marketing (1) — SEO Specialist
3. Sales (4) — Discovery Coach, Outbound Strategist, Proposal Strategist, Sales Engineer
4. Support (1) — Executive Summary

Pick domains or name specific agents:

User: security + seo

Claude:
Selected: Security Engineer + SEO Specialist
What should they work on?

User: Review my Next.js e-commerce site before launch

[Both agents spawn in parallel, each applying their specialty to the codebase]

Claude:
## Security Engineer Findings
- [findings...]

## SEO Specialist Findings
- [findings...]

## Synthesis
Both agents agree on: [...]
Tension: Security recommends CSP that blocks inline styles, SEO needs inline schema markup. Resolution: [...]
Next steps: [...]

team-builder