Custom Agent Usage

Skill Paths

Workspace skills: .github/skills/
Global skills: C:/Users/LOQ/.agents/skills/

Activation Conditions

Activate this skill when:

Discovering available custom agents from the local Claude or VS Code Insiders agent directories
Understanding .agent.md file structure and frontmatter
Checking if an agent can be invoked as a subagent
Learning which agentName to use for delegation
Understanding agent tools and capabilities

Custom Agent Discovery

Custom agents for this environment are discovered from these directories:

Claude agents: C:\Users\LOQ\.claude\agents
VS Code Insiders prompts: C:\Users\LOQ\AppData\Roaming\Code - Insiders\User\prompts

Notes:

Filter to *.agent.md when discovering subagents.
The VS Code Insiders prompts directory can also contain .prompt.md and .instructions.md files that are not subagents.

To discover agents:

Search for *.agent.md files in the configured Claude and VS Code Insiders directories.
Read frontmatter of each agent file to understand capabilities.
Ignore .prompt.md and .instructions.md files when the goal is subagent delegation.

Agent Frontmatter

Key frontmatter fields in .agent.md:

Field	Purpose	Required?
`name`	Display name used in `agentName` parameter	Recommended
`description`	What the agent specializes in	Recommended
`tools`	Tools available to the agent	Optional
`disable-model-invocation`	If false, agent can be invoked as subagent	Required

Invocability Check

CRITICAL: Only agents with disable-model-invocation: false in frontmatter can be invoked as subagents.

Check frontmatter:

---
name: "Code Explainer"
description: For analyzing and documenting existing code
disable-model-invocation: false  # Must be false for subagent delegation
tools: [Read, Search]
---

Using Custom Agents

Step 1: Discover Available Agents

Search the real agent directories and keep only *.agent.md files:

Get-ChildItem `
  'C:\Users\LOQ\.claude\agents', `
  'C:\Users\LOQ\AppData\Roaming\Code - Insiders\User\prompts' `
  -Filter *.agent.md `
  -File

Or use the helper script:

node .\scripts\agent-finder.js

Step 2: Check Invocability

Verify disable-model-invocation: false is set.

Step 3: Get Agent Name

Use the name field from frontmatter exactly as is.

If frontmatter has name field value, use that value in quotes.
If name is not specified, use the filename without the .agent.md extension.

Step 4: Delegate Task

runSubagent({
  agentName: "Playwright Tester Mode",  // Must match 'name' from frontmatter exactly
  description: "Test checkout flow",
  prompt: "Perform exploratory testing on the checkout flow: product selection -> cart -> payment confirmation. Generate comprehensive Playwright tests covering success scenarios, validation errors, edge cases (empty cart, payment failures), and accessibility."
})

Workflow Example

// Step 1: Main agent analyzes task and identifies need for testing
// "I need comprehensive testing for the checkout flow"

// Step 2: Discover custom testing agent
// Found: C:\Users\LOQ\.claude\agents\playwright-tester.agent.md
// disable-model-invocation: false and name: "Playwright Tester Mode"

// Step 3: Delegate to custom agent
runSubagent({
  agentName: "Playwright Tester Mode",
  description: "Test checkout flow",
  prompt: "Perform exploratory testing on the checkout flow: product selection -> cart -> payment confirmation. Generate comprehensive Playwright tests covering success scenarios, validation errors, edge cases (empty cart, payment failures), and accessibility."
})

// Step 4: Review test output and integrate into test suite

Examples & Scripts

Agent Discovery Workflow - Examples of finding and using custom agents
Agent Finder Script - Node.js script to discover and inspect custom agents

Related Skills

Skill	Relationship
agent-task-mapping	Map tasks to agents after discovering available agents
subagent-delegation	Delegation patterns after validating agent invocability

custom-agent-usage