team-composition-patterns

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Translated

Design optimal agent team compositions with sizing heuristics, preset configurations, and agent type selection. Use this skill when deciding team size, selecting agent types, or configuring team presets for multi-agent workflows.

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Sourcewshobson/agents

Added on2026-02-07

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npx skill4agent add wshobson/agents team-composition-patterns

SKILL.md Content

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Team Composition Patterns

Best practices for composing multi-agent teams, selecting team sizes, choosing agent types, and configuring display modes for Claude Code's Agent Teams feature.

When to Use This Skill

Deciding how many teammates to spawn for a task
Choosing between preset team configurations
Selecting the right agent type (subagent_type) for each role
Configuring teammate display modes (tmux, iTerm2, in-process)
Building custom team compositions for non-standard workflows

Team Sizing Heuristics

Complexity	Team Size	When to Use
Simple	1-2	Single-dimension review, isolated bug, small feature
Moderate	2-3	Multi-file changes, 2-3 concerns, medium features
Complex	3-4	Cross-cutting concerns, large features, deep debugging
Very Complex	4-5	Full-stack features, comprehensive reviews, systemic issues

Rule of thumb: Start with the smallest team that covers all required dimensions. Adding teammates increases coordination overhead.

Preset Team Compositions

Review Team

Size: 3 reviewers
Agents: 3x
```
team-reviewer
```
Default dimensions: security, performance, architecture
Use when: Code changes need multi-dimensional quality assessment

Debug Team

Size: 3 investigators
Agents: 3x
```
team-debugger
```
Default hypotheses: 3 competing hypotheses
Use when: Bug has multiple plausible root causes

Feature Team

Size: 3 (1 lead + 2 implementers)
Agents: 1x
```
team-lead
```
+ 2x
```
team-implementer
```
Use when: Feature can be decomposed into parallel work streams

Fullstack Team

Size: 4 (1 lead + 3 implementers)

Agents: 1x

team-lead

+ 1x frontend

team-implementer

+ 1x backend

team-implementer

+ 1x test

team-implementer

Use when: Feature spans frontend, backend, and test layers

Research Team

Size: 3 researchers
Agents: 3x
```
general-purpose
```
Default areas: Each assigned a different research question, module, or topic
Capabilities: Codebase search (Grep, Glob, Read), web search (WebSearch, WebFetch)
Use when: Need to understand a codebase, research libraries, compare approaches, or gather information from code and web sources in parallel

Security Team

Size: 4 reviewers
Agents: 4x
```
team-reviewer
```
Default dimensions: OWASP/vulnerabilities, auth/access control, dependencies/supply chain, secrets/configuration
Use when: Comprehensive security audit covering multiple attack surfaces

Migration Team

Size: 4 (1 lead + 2 implementers + 1 reviewer)
Agents: 1x
```
team-lead
```
+ 2x
```
team-implementer
```
+ 1x
```
team-reviewer
```
Use when: Large codebase migration (framework upgrade, language port, API version bump) requiring parallel work with correctness verification

Agent Type Selection

When spawning teammates with the Task tool, choose

subagent_type

based on what tools the teammate needs:

Agent Type	Tools Available	Use For
`general-purpose`	All tools (Read, Write, Edit, Bash, etc.)	Implementation, debugging, any task requiring file changes
`Explore`	Read-only tools (Read, Grep, Glob)	Research, code exploration, analysis
`Plan`	Read-only tools	Architecture planning, task decomposition
`agent-teams:team-reviewer`	All tools	Code review with structured findings
`agent-teams:team-debugger`	All tools	Hypothesis-driven investigation
`agent-teams:team-implementer`	All tools	Building features within file ownership boundaries
`agent-teams:team-lead`	All tools	Team orchestration and coordination

Key distinction: Read-only agents (Explore, Plan) cannot modify files. Never assign implementation tasks to read-only agents.

Display Mode Configuration

Configure in

~/.claude/settings.json

:

json

{
  "teammateMode": "tmux"
}

Mode	Behavior	Best For
`"tmux"`	Each teammate in a tmux pane	Development workflows, monitoring multiple agents
`"iterm2"`	Each teammate in an iTerm2 tab	macOS users who prefer iTerm2
`"in-process"`	All teammates in same process	Simple tasks, CI/CD environments

Custom Team Guidelines

When building custom teams:

Every team needs a coordinator — Either designate a
```
team-lead
```
or have the user coordinate directly
Match roles to agent types — Use specialized agents (reviewer, debugger, implementer) when available
Avoid duplicate roles — Two agents doing the same thing wastes resources
Define boundaries upfront — Each teammate needs clear ownership of files or responsibilities
Keep it small — 2-4 teammates is the sweet spot; 5+ requires significant coordination overhead