
Team Composition Patterns
Pick the right subagent_type—general-purpose, Explore, Plan, or agent-teams roles—before spawning teammates so work lands on the correct capability profile.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/wshobson/agents --skill team-composition-patternsWhat is this skill?
- Decision-tree flow for specialized Agent Teams roles versus general subagent types
- Side-by-side matrix: read, write, edit, bash, and team-tool access per agent type
- Explicit routing for team-lead, team-implementer, team-reviewer, and team-debugger roles
- Rules for when Explore or Plan beats general-purpose for read-only or design tasks
- Prevents over-permissioned teammates before parallel work starts
Adoption & trust: 5.9k installs on skills.sh; 36.5k GitHub stars; 2/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Agent-tooling is the first shelf where multi-agent orchestration becomes a daily decision for solo builders shipping with Claude Code-style teams. Composition patterns are canonical agent-tooling: they govern which teammate archetype reads, writes, bashes, or holds team coordination tools.
Common Questions / FAQ
Is Team Composition Patterns safe to install?
skills.sh reports 2 of 3 security scanners passed. Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Team Composition Patterns
# Agent Type Selection Guide Decision matrix for choosing the right `subagent_type` when spawning teammates. ## Decision Matrix ``` Does the teammate need a specialized Agent Teams role? ├── YES → Which role? │ ├── Team coordination → agent-teams:team-lead │ ├── Feature building → agent-teams:team-implementer │ ├── Code review → agent-teams:team-reviewer │ └── Bug investigation → agent-teams:team-debugger └── NO → Does it need to modify files? ├── YES → general-purpose └── NO → Does it need deep codebase exploration? ├── YES → Explore └── NO → Plan (for architecture/design tasks) ``` ## Agent Type Comparison | Agent Type | Can Read | Can Write | Can Edit | Can Bash | Team Tools | Specialized | | ---------------------------- | -------- | --------- | -------- | -------- | ---------- | ------------------ | | general-purpose | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | | Explore | Yes | No | No | No | No | Search/explore | | Plan | Yes | No | No | No | No | Architecture | | agent-teams:team-lead | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Team orchestration | | agent-teams:team-reviewer | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Code review | | agent-teams:team-debugger | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Bug investigation | | agent-teams:team-implementer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Feature building | ## Common Mistakes | Mistake | Why It Fails | Correct Choice | | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- | | Using `Explore` for implementation | Cannot write/edit files | `general-purpose` or `team-implementer` | | Using `Plan` for coding tasks | Cannot write/edit files | `general-purpose` or `team-implementer` | | Using `general-purpose` for reviews | No review structure/checklists | `team-reviewer` | | Using `team-implementer` for research | Has tools but wrong focus | `Explore` or `Plan` | ## When to Use Each ### general-purpose - One-off tasks that don't fit specialized roles - Tasks requiring unique tool combinations - Ad-hoc scripting or automation ### Explore - Codebase research and analysis - Finding files, patterns, or dependencies - Understanding architecture before planning ### Plan - Designing implementation approaches - Creating task decompositions - Architecture review (read-only) ### team-lead - Coordinating multiple teammates - Decomposing work and managing tasks - Synthesizing results from parallel work ### team-reviewer - Focused code review on a specific dimension - Producing structured findings with severity ratings - Following dimension-specific checklists ### team-debugger - Investigating a specific hypothesis about a bug - Gathering evidence with file:line citations - Reporting confidence levels and causal chains ### team-implementer - Building code within file ownership boundaries - Following interface contracts - Coordinating at integration points # Preset Team Definitions Detailed preset team configurations with task templates for common workflows. ## Review Team Preset **Command**: `/team-spawn review` ### Configuration - **Team Size**: 3 - **Agent Type**: `agent-teams:team-reviewer` - **Display Mode**: tmux recommended ### Members | Name | Dimension | Focus Areas | | --------------------- | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------- | | security-reviewer | Security | Input validati