Tandem Agentic Engineering

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This is how the worker layer of tandem works. The worker is a Claude Code session that does not build alone — it assembles a team of agents, runs them in parallel, reviews concurrently, and attacks its own work before reporting up.

THE MENTAL MODEL

Old way (deprecated): a human manually pastes between a chatbot and Claude Code. Manual middleman. Slow.

Agentic way: the chatbot (director) is the strategic brain. Claude Code is an autonomous engineering team — one lead orchestrator + parallel teammates communicating peer-to-peer through a shared task list. The human stops being the middleman.

The worker's role:

Assemble the right team for the task.
Run implementers, a concurrent reviewer, and a test writer in parallel.
Attack the result with adversarial agents, then fix what they find.
Report up only when it can't improve the work further.

No manual paste-back loops between every turn. The team executes autonomously and reports up.

THE STACK (Claude Code Agent Teams)

Claude Code Agent Teams lets one session orchestrate parallel sub-agents that share a task list with file locking.

Typical roster (use what fits the task):

Orchestration:

agent-organizer — picks the right specialists, builds the team
multi-agent-coordinator — runs N agents concurrently, shared state + failure handling
workflow-orchestrator — stateful processes, transactions, error recovery
task-distributor — work queue / load balancing
context-manager — shared memory + data sync between agents

Research:

research-analyst — multi-source research -> synthesis
search-specialist — precise retrieval, query optimization
market-researcher, competitive-analyst, trend-analyst, data-researcher, project-idea-validator — domain research and brutal-honesty pressure-testing

Implementation & review (plugin agents — there are 275+ available on demand, inheriting the parent session's model): backend-architect, frontend-developer, database-architect, code-reviewer, architect-review, security-auditor, performance-engineer, test-automator, deployment-engineer, monorepo-architect, and many more.

Pre-built slash commands to lean on:

/full-stack-feature — coordinates 7+ agents end-to-end (architect -> DB -> frontend -> tests -> security -> deploy -> observability)
/full-review — runs the review agents on a branch

CRITICAL LAUNCH RULE

Launch every real session with the best model, e.g. claude --model opus.

The parent session's model is inherited by the unpinned plugin agents. If you launch on a weaker model, those agents fall through to it too. Real work = best model. Throwaway/probe sessions can override to a smaller model.

Recommended: alias claude='claude --model opus'. Never force the model globally in ~/.claude/settings.json — that drags every throwaway session onto the big model too. Per-session via the launch flag wins.

THE WORKFLOW

PHASE 0 — BRIEF + PARALLEL RESEARCH SPAWN

The brief arrives (from the director/manager) in detail.

Identify the unknowns and spawn research in the background immediately:

Spawn research-analyst in background to investigate [specific question].
Spawn search-specialist in background to find [specific external solutions/libraries].
[If competitive landscape matters: also spawn competitive-analyst.]
[If validating a new direction: also spawn project-idea-validator.]
Report back when complete.

Keep working while research runs. Don't wait.

PHASE 1 — CONCEPTUAL LOCK

Challenge the framing. Search GitHub. Surface tradeoffs.
Integrate research findings as they return.
Honest pushback only. Loop until the concept is locked — agreement on the what, why, and how at a high level.

PHASE 2 — SPEC

Write the full spec: phases, files, architecture, dependencies, tests, and the agent roster.
The roster MUST specify:
- Lead orchestrator: agent-organizer for assembly, multi-agent-coordinator for runtime
- Implementers: the specific plugin agents the task needs
- Reviewer (CONCURRENT): code-reviewer or architect-review — audits each task as completed, not after
- Research (standby): research-analyst for edge cases
- QA: test-automator — writes tests in parallel with implementation
Save the spec as .claude/specs/[feature].md in the project.

PHASE 3 — AGENT TEAM LAUNCH

Default to a slash command if one fits (/full-stack-feature, /full-review); otherwise launch a custom team:

Read .claude/specs/[feature].md.
Use agent-organizer to assemble a team with:
- Implementers: [list from spec]
- Reviewer (CONCURRENT): code-reviewer — audits each task as completed
- Research (standby): research-analyst — for edge-case investigation
- QA: test-automator — writes tests in parallel with implementation
Use multi-agent-coordinator at runtime.
All teammates inherit the parent session's model.
Report back when the task list is fully green or when blocked.
Include: lead's summary, reviewer's findings, test results, open questions.

The team works autonomously, communicating via the shared task list with file locking.

PHASE 4 — THE INTERNAL PERFECTION LOOP (before reporting up)

When the agents finish, the worker does NOT accept it as done. It runs this loop:
- a. Self-review + enforce: review the output; send sloppy or incomplete work back to redo against the spec.
- b. Devil's advocate pass: spawn adversarial agents whose only job is to attack the work — "this breaks under X," "this is mediocre, here's what excellent looks like." Use multiple angles: security, performance, UX, edge cases, simplicity.
- c. Test relentlessly: run the full suite, write new tests for every weakness the devil's advocates found, run again.
- d. Improve beyond the ask: what would make this exceptional, not just correct? Add it (within scope).
- e. Loop a->d until the worker can't find a single thing to improve. Minimum 3 internal loops.
Only then report up to the manager with: the diff, the devil's-advocate findings already fixed, and test results.

PHASE 5 — REPRODUCE -> FIX -> VERIFY

Reproduce: run the failing test/command, confirm the bug is real.
Fix: route a targeted fix to a specific teammate through the existing task list, not a fresh session.
Verify: re-run the same test, then the full suite. Confirm nothing else broke.

DESIGN RULES (UI must look human-made, not "AI ugly")

Bad AI design is a failure condition, not an acceptable default.

Design UI like a human, from real references. Before building any user-facing UI, pull real, human-made design references and apply the principles (spacing, hierarchy, type scale, restraint), not a copy. Banned "AI ugly" tells: generic centered-everything layouts, purple/blue gradient slop, emoji-as-icons, inconsistent spacing, three different fonts, default-framework look with no taste, cramped or floating elements, fake-depth drop shadows everywhere. The reviewer/devil's-advocate pass includes a design critique — if it looks AI-made, it goes back.
Generated media must look obviously real. If the product needs generated images/video, the hard bar is that it looks like a real photo/real footage a human shot. AI tells (warped hands, plastic skin, melted text, uncanny faces, that "AI sheen") = rejected and regenerated. The devil's-advocate pass checks media too: "would a normal person clock this as AI?" If yes, redo it.

RULES — HOLD EVERY LAYER ACCOUNTABLE

No agent team launch without a spec. No "just figure it out."
Launch with the best model for real work.
Always spawn parallel research in Phase 0 if any unknown exists.
Reviewer runs CONCURRENTLY with implementers. Never sequential.
Lead orchestrator must report up. No silent execution.
Reproduce -> Fix -> Verify still applies. Agent teams don't replace bug discipline.
Spec file per feature in .claude/specs/[feature].md.
No solo runs for real features. If it deserves a spec, it deserves a team.
Never force the model globally in settings.json. Per-session launch flag only.
Run the perfection loop before reporting up. One build pass is not done.

ACCOUNTABILITY TRIGGERS

Someone does this	You say this
Launches without the best model for real work	"🦔 Relaunch with `claude --model opus` so the unpinned agents inherit it."
Tries to launch a team without a spec	"🦔 Stop. Spec first."
Skips the parallel research spawn	"🦔 Spawn research first — these are unknowns: [X, Y]."
Reports implementer output without the reviewer's report	"🦔 Where's the reviewer's report? Both before I audit."
Tries to skip the audit	"🦔 Full report. I'm not approving blind."
Tries to fix bugs without reproducing	"🦔 Reproduce first. Run the failing case. Then route the fix."
Treats Claude Code as one agent for a real feature	"🦔 agent-organizer + team. No solo runs."
Reports "done" after one build pass	"🦔 Not done. Run the perfection loop: devil's advocates, redo, retest. Min 3 loops."
Ships UI that looks AI-made	"🦔 Reject. It must look human-designed."
Asks you to just agree	"🦔 I don't agree yet. Here's why: ..."

WHEN NOT TO USE THIS

Skip the full agentic workflow for one-line fixes, typos, renames, trivial config changes, or throwaway experiments. For those, instruct Claude Code directly — no spec, no team. Reproduce -> Fix -> Verify still applies to any bug.

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SKILL.mdskills/tandem-agentic-engineering/SKILL.md