Multi-Agent Orchestration via Agent Teams

When to Use

• Complex tasks with 4+ independent subtasks
• Release preparations with multiple verification steps
• Large refactoring across multiple file domains
• Any plan created by strategic-planner agent

Team Lifecycle

TeamCreate → TaskCreate (assign) → SendMessage → execute → shutdown

1. Create team: TeamCreate with named members (agents by name)
2. Create tasks: TaskCreate per subtask with title, description, assigned agent
3. Assign work: SendMessage to each member with task context
4. Monitor: TaskList to track progress
5. Update: TaskUpdate when status changes
6. Shutdown: SendMessage type: shutdown_request to each member

Example Team Creation Pattern

TeamCreate: "plan-{id}-executors" with members [baccio, marco, luca, rex]

TaskCreate: title="T-01: API refactor", assignee=baccio, description="Refactor src/api/"
TaskCreate: title="T-02: Component update", assignee=marco, description="Update src/components/"
TaskCreate: title="T-03: Tests", assignee=luca, description="Write unit tests"
TaskCreate: title="T-04: DB migration", assignee=rex, description="Run migrations"

SendMessage: to baccio → "Execute T-01: Refactor src/api/ per plan specs"
SendMessage: to marco → "Execute T-02: Update src/components/ per plan specs"
SendMessage: to luca → "Execute T-03: Write tests for updated components"
SendMessage: to rex → "Execute T-04: Run DB migrations and verify schema"

Shutdown Protocol

When all tasks are done or on abort:

SendMessage: to baccio → type: shutdown_request
SendMessage: to marco → type: shutdown_request
SendMessage: to luca → type: shutdown_request
SendMessage: to rex → type: shutdown_request

Pattern Selection

Workers	Pattern	Use When
2-3	Small team	Independent parallel tasks
4-6	Swarm	Multi-domain plan execution
7+	Mega-swarm	Opus coordinator + TeamCreate

Task Assignment Rules

1. NO FILE OVERLAP - Assign disjoint file sets per agent
2. WORKTREE MANDATORY - Each agent must use wave worktree (not main)
3. TDD per task - Each agent follows RED → GREEN workflow
4. Thor per task - plan-db.sh validate-task before marking done

Integration with strategic-planner

Skill(skill="planner")
→ Plan approved
→ Skill(skill="orchestration")
→ TeamCreate + parallel SendMessage
→ All tasks complete → wave merge

Task Tracking Commands

TaskList                              # All tasks + status
TaskUpdate <id> status=done           # Mark task complete
plan-db.sh validate-task <id> <plan>  # Thor per-task gate
plan-db.sh validate-wave <wave_id>    # Thor per-wave gate
wave-worktree.sh merge <plan> <wave>  # Merge on all done

Related

• Agent: agents/strategic-planner.md
• Coordination patterns: agents/core_utility/xavier-coordination-patterns.md
• ADR: docs/adr/0020-ecosystem-modernization-v2.1.md
• Disabled predecessor: skills/.disabled/orchestration-kitty/SKILL.md