Agent Teams

Experimental: Agent teams require the --enable-teams flag and may change between Claude Code versions.

When to Use This Skill

Use agent teams when...	Use subagents instead when...
Multiple agents need to work in parallel	Tasks are sequential and interdependent
Ongoing communication between agents is needed	One focused task produces one result
Background tasks need progress reporting	Agent output feeds directly into next step
Complex workflows benefit from task coordination	Simple, bounded, isolated execution
Independent changes to the same codebase (with worktrees)	Context sharing is fine and efficient

Core Concepts

Team Architecture

Lead Agent (orchestrator)
    ├── TeamCreate — creates team + shared task list
    ├── Agent tool — spawns teammate agents
    ├── SendMessage — communicates with teammates
    ├── TaskUpdate — assigns tasks to teammates
    └── Teammates (run in parallel)
            ├── Read team config from ~/.claude/teams/<name>/config.json
            ├── TaskList/TaskUpdate — claim and complete tasks
            └── SendMessage — report back to lead

Native Team Tools

Tool	Purpose
TeamCreate	Create team and shared task list directory
TeamDelete	Clean up team when all work is complete
SendMessage	Send DMs, broadcasts, shutdown requests, plan approvals
TaskOutput	Get output from a background agent
TaskStop	Stop a running background agent

Team Setup Workflow

1. Create the Team

TeamCreate({
  team_name: "my-project",
  description: "Working on feature X"
})

This creates:

• ~/.claude/teams/<team-name>/ — team config directory
• ~/.claude/tasks/<team-name>/ — shared task list directory

2. Create Initial Tasks

TaskCreate({
  team_name: "my-project",
  title: "Implement security review",
  description: "Audit auth module for vulnerabilities",
  status: "pending"
})

3. Spawn Teammates

Use the Agent tool to spawn each teammate with the team context:

Agent tool with:
  subagent_type: "agents-plugin:security-audit"
  team_name: "my-project"
  name: "security-reviewer"
  prompt: "Join team my-project and work on security review task..."

4. Assign Tasks

TaskUpdate({
  team_name: "my-project",
  task_id: "task-1",
  owner: "security-reviewer",
  status: "in_progress"
})

5. Receive Results

Teammates send messages automatically — they are delivered to the lead's inbox between turns. No polling needed.

Task Management

Task States

State	Meaning
pending	Not yet started
in_progress	Assigned and active (one at a time per teammate)
completed	Finished successfully
blocked	Waiting on another task

Task Priority

Teammates should claim tasks in ID order (lowest first) — earlier tasks often set up context for later ones.

TaskList Usage

Teammates should check TaskList after completing each task to find available work:

TaskList({ team_name: "my-project" })
→ Returns all tasks with status, owner, and blocked-by info

Claim an unassigned task:

TaskUpdate({ team_name: "my-project", task_id: "N", owner: "my-name" })

Communication (SendMessage)

Message Types

Type	Use When
message	Direct message to a specific teammate
broadcast	Critical team-wide announcement (use sparingly — expensive)
shutdown_request	Ask a teammate to gracefully exit
shutdown_response	Approve or reject a shutdown request
plan_approval_response	Approve or reject a teammate's plan

DM Example

SendMessage({
  type: "message",
  recipient: "security-reviewer",  // Use NAME, not agent ID
  content: "Please also check the payment module",
  summary: "Adding payment module to scope"
})

Broadcast (use sparingly)

SendMessage({
  type: "broadcast",
  content: "Stop all work — critical blocker found in auth module",
  summary: "Critical blocker: halt work"
})

Broadcasting sends a separate delivery to every teammate. With N teammates, that's N API round-trips. Reserve for genuine team-wide blockers.

Teammate Behavior

Discovering Team Members

Read the team config to find other members:

Read ~/.claude/teams/<team-name>/config.json
→ members array with name, agentId, agentType

Always use the name field (not agentId) for recipient in SendMessage.

Idle State

Teammates go idle after every turn — this is normal. Idle ≠ unavailable. Sending a message to an idle teammate wakes them.

Key Teammate Rules

• Mark exactly ONE task in_progress at a time
• Use TaskUpdate (not SendMessage) to report task completion
• System sends idle notifications automatically — no need for status JSON messages
• All communication requires SendMessage — plain text output is NOT visible to the team lead

Shutdown Procedures

Graceful Shutdown (Lead → Teammates)

SendMessage({
  type: "shutdown_request",
  recipient: "security-reviewer",
  content: "All tasks complete, wrapping up"
})

Teammate Approves Shutdown

SendMessage({
  type: "shutdown_response",
  request_id: "<id from shutdown_request JSON>",
  approve: true
})

Cleanup (Lead)

After all teammates shut down:

TeamDelete()
→ Removes ~/.claude/teams/<name>/ and ~/.claude/tasks/<name>/

TeamDelete fails if teammates are still active.

Lead Preflight Checklist

Before drafting the PRP and launching agents, run these checks:

Check	Command	Why
Next ADR/PRD/PRP sequence number	ls docs/blueprint/adrs/ | sort -V | tail -1	Prevents numbering collisions when agents write docs in parallel
Filename conflicts	git ls-files | grep <filename>	Agent scope tables can't guard against a stale mental model of the tree
Hardware pin budget (embedded)	Read pin_config.h or equivalent	Prevents pin assignments overlapping across Phase 1 agents

A 30-second sweep prevents multi-edit renaming work after agents return.

Out-of-Scope Discovery Protocol

Include this protocol in every agent's prompt when that agent has an exclusive write scope:

### Out-of-scope discovery protocol

If you discover that a file outside your declared write scope needs to change
for your deliverables to work:

1. **STOP immediately.** Do not read, investigate, or edit the out-of-scope file.
2. In your final summary, include a section titled `Out-of-scope dependencies` that lists:
   - The file(s) that need changes
   - What changes are needed (one line each)
   - Which of your deliverables is blocked without those changes
3. Exit. The lead will triage and either expand your scope, reassign to another agent,
   or handle it directly.

This prevents the "investigate out of scope → exhaust budget → truncated summary" failure mode. The lead can then address the dependency before the next phase or assign a follow-up issue.

Common Patterns

Parallel Code Review

TeamCreate: "code-review"
Tasks: security-audit, performance-review, correctness-check
Teammates: security-agent, performance-agent, correctness-agent (all parallel)
Lead: collects results, synthesizes findings

Parallel Implementation with Worktrees

TeamCreate: "feature-impl"
Tasks: backend-api, frontend-ui, tests
Teammates: each spawned with isolation: "worktree"
Lead: delegates git push (sub-agents must not push independently in sandbox)

Multi-Phase Architecture Refactor

Phase 1 (3 parallel):  Framework upgrade + new module scaffolding + ADR draft
Phase 2 (1 serialized): Reactive executor — depends on Phase 1 contracts
Phase 3 (1 serialized): Wire-up + legacy deletion — exclusive main.c owner
Phase 4 (2 parallel):  Host tests + documentation finalization

Key rules:
- One owner per file across ALL phases (exclusive write scope per agent)
- "Agent writes, lead commits" — keep branch coherent between phases
- Phase boundaries = commit points (clean checkpoint semantics)
- Phase 3 deletion runs AFTER Phases 1–2 finalize their contracts

Real-world outcome: +1850/−1826 lines, zero file-scope collisions across 6 agents, tests exposed a bug on first build. See also: the Out-of-Scope Discovery Protocol above — include it in every focused-scope agent prompt.

Blocked Task Resolution

If a task is blocked on another, set the blocked_by field in TaskCreate. Teammates check TaskList and skip blocked tasks until the blocking task is completed.

Team Roles

Role	Behavior	When to Use
Lead	Orchestrates, assigns tasks, receives results	Always — coordinates the team
Teammate	Parallel execution with messaging	Ongoing collaboration, progress reporting
Subagent	Focused, isolated, returns single result	Simple bounded tasks, no coordination needed

Sandbox Considerations

In web sessions (CLAUDE_CODE_REMOTE=true):

• Sub-agents (teammates) may encounter TLS errors on git push — delegate all push/PR operations to the lead
• Each teammate runs in its own process context
• Worktree isolation is recommended for independent filesystem changes

Agentic Optimizations

Context	Approach
Quick parallel review	Spawn 2–4 teammates, broadcast task assignments
Large codebase split	Assign directory subsets as separate tasks
Long-running work	Background teammates, poll via TaskList
Minimize API cost	Prefer message over broadcast
Fast shutdown	Send shutdown_request to each teammate, then TeamDelete

Quick Reference

Workflow Checklist

• TeamCreate with team name and description
• TaskCreate for each work unit
• Spawn teammates via Agent tool with team_name and name
• TaskUpdate to assign tasks to teammates (or let teammates self-assign)
• Receive messages automatically; respond via SendMessage
• SendMessage shutdown_request to each teammate when done
• TeamDelete after all teammates shut down

Key Paths

Path	Contents
~/.claude/teams/<name>/config.json	Team members (name, agentId, agentType)
~/.claude/tasks/<name>/	Shared task list directory

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Correct Approach
Using agentId as recipient	Use name field from config.json
Sending broadcast for every update	Use message for single-recipient comms
Polling for messages	Messages delivered automatically — just wait
Sending JSON status messages	Use TaskUpdate for status, plain text for messages
Sub-agent pushes to remote	Delegate push to lead orchestrator
TeamDelete before shutdown	Shutdown all teammates first

Related Rules

• .claude/rules/agent-development.md — agent file structure, model selection, worktree isolation
• .claude/rules/agentic-permissions.md — granular tool permission patterns
• .claude/rules/sandbox-guidance.md — web sandbox constraints and push delegation