Agent Team Kit — SKILL.md

A framework for self-sustaining AI agent teams.

Quick Start

1. Copy the Process Files

# From your workspace root
cp -r skills/agent-team-kit/templates/process ./process

This creates:

• process/INTAKE.md — The 5-phase work loop
• process/ROLES.md — Role definitions
• process/OPPORTUNITIES.md — Raw ideas/discoveries
• process/BACKLOG.md — Triaged work queue
• process/STATUS.md — Who's working on what

2. Add Heartbeat Config

Merge templates/HEARTBEAT.md into your existing HEARTBEAT.md:

cat skills/agent-team-kit/templates/HEARTBEAT.md >> HEARTBEAT.md

Or copy it directly if you don't have one yet.

3. Customize Roles

Edit process/ROLES.md to match your team:

• Rename roles to fit your domain
• Add/remove specialized execution roles
• Update the human lead section with your name

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The Intake Loop

DISCOVER → TRIAGE → READY → EXECUTE → FEEDBACK
    ↑                                      ↓
    └──────────────────────────────────────┘

1. Discover — Find opportunities (Scout role)
2. Triage — Decide what's ready (Rhythm role)
3. Ready — Self-service queue (any agent)
4. Execute — Do the work (assigned agent)
5. Feedback — Learn and spawn new ideas (completing agent)

---

Core Roles

Role	Mission	Owns
Scout 🔍	Find opportunities	OPPORTUNITIES.md, discovery
Rhythm 🥁	Keep work flowing	BACKLOG.md, triage
Harmony 🤝	Keep team healthy	Unblocking, retros
[Human]	Strategic direction	Hard calls, spawning

Execution roles (spawn as needed):

• Link 🔗 — Builder
• Pixel 🎨 — Designer
• Sage 🦉 — Architect
• Echo 📢 — Voice
• Spark ✨ — Creative

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Key Principles

Self-Service

If it's in Ready, any agent can pick it up. No approval needed.

Clear Ownership

Every phase has ONE owner. No ambiguity.

Always Log

Ideas, discoveries, completions — if you don't log it, it didn't happen.

Spawn, Don't Solo

Main agent coordinates. Sub-agents execute. Don't do everything yourself.

---

File Structure

process/
├── INTAKE.md         # How the loop works (reference)
├── ROLES.md          # Who does what
├── OPPORTUNITIES.md  # Raw discoveries (anyone adds)
├── BACKLOG.md        # Triaged work (Rhythm maintains)
└── STATUS.md         # Current activity (self-updated)

HEARTBEAT.md          # Proactive check triggers

---

Heartbeat Integration

Add to your heartbeat checks:

### Team Health (run hourly)
- [ ] OPPORTUNITIES.md stale? → Spawn Scout
- [ ] Ready queue empty? → Alert Rhythm  
- [ ] Active work stuck >2h? → Nudge owner
- [ ] Any unresolved blockers? → Harmony

The heartbeat keeps the loop spinning even when the human isn't watching.

---

Customization

Adding a New Role

1. Define in ROLES.md:

   • Mission (one sentence)
   • Owns (what they're responsible for)
   • Cadence (how often they work)
   • Outputs (what they produce)

2. Update the ownership matrix

3. Add spawn criteria in INTAKE.md if needed

Changing the Loop

The 5-phase loop is flexible. Adapt it:

• Add validation gates between phases
• Split EXECUTE into parallel tracks
• Add approval checkpoints (if your domain requires it)

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Anti-Patterns

❌ Human manually adds every task → Use triage role instead
❌ Waiting for permission to pick up work → Ready = fair game
❌ One agent does everything → Spawn specialists
❌ Ideas stay in heads → Log to OPPORTUNITIES.md
❌ Heartbeat just returns OK → Actually check the loop

---

Metrics (Optional)

Track team health:

• Cycle time — OPPORTUNITIES → DONE
• Queue depth — Items in Ready (healthy: 5-15)
• Stale items — Days since last triage
• Spawn rate — Sub-agents created per day

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The system runs itself. Your job is to trust it.