Manage AI agent teams with agencycli — a CLI tool for organising AI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, etc.) into hierarchical teams (Agency → Team → Role → Project → Agent). Key capabilities: create agencies and teams, hire agents with merged context layers, assign and run tasks with priority queues, manage autonomous playbooks (wakeup.md), send async inbox messages between human and agents, configure heartbeat schedules and cron jobs, run agents inside Docker sandboxes, forward/confirm tasks via inbox, manage templates, and more. Use this skill whenever you need to: create or manage an agencycli workspace, hire/fire/sync agents, add/run/cancel tasks, check inbox confirmations, send messages, configure heartbeats or crons, start the scheduler, or work with agency templates.

2026-07-10145

task-management

chenhg5/agencycli

Create, assign, monitor, and close tasks across agents. Covers full task lifecycle — add, priority, dependencies, confirm-request, retry, cancel, bulk ops, and cross-agent search.

2026-07-09145

agency-messaging

chenhg5/agencycli

Discover all agents in the current agency and send/receive async messages between agents and the human owner via the inbox system.

2026-03-21145

name	agencycli-usage
description	Operate the agencycli tool — create agencies, teams, projects, and hire AI agents into working directories.

Skill: agencycli Usage

agencycli is the CLI tool that builds and manages this agency. Use it to manage teams, projects, agents, tasks, and inter-agent communication.

Workspace

The current agency workspace is at: $AGENCY_DIR

All commands auto-discover the workspace when run from inside it, or use --dir:

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR <command>

Discover what exists

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR list teams      # all teams
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR list projects   # all projects
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR list agents     # all agents across all projects
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR list skills     # available skills

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR show team engineering
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR show project cc-connect
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR show agent cc-connect pm
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR show agent cc-connect pm --raw  # full merged context

Tasks

Add a task for an agent

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task add \
  --project <project> --agent <agent> \
  --title "Task title" \
  --prompt "Detailed instructions..." \
  --priority <0-3>   # 0=critical 1=high 2=normal(default) 3=low

View the task queue (sorted by priority)

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task list --project <project> --agent <agent>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task list --project <project> --agent <agent> --status pending

Control tasks

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task set <task-id> [--title T] [--status S] [--priority N] \
  [--due-date YYYY-MM-DD] [--estimate-duration 30m] [--parent ID] [--label L]...
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task stats [--since today] [--project P] [--agent A] [--assignee X] \
  [--label L] [--by agent|assignee|label|label:value|label:category] [--detail] [--format json]
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task cancel <task-id>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task retry  <task-id>

# Emergency halt — cancel all pending (and optionally running) tasks
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task stop-all \
  --project <project> --all-agents
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task stop-all \
  --project <project> --agent <agent> --include-running

View token usage and cost

# One agent
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task tokens \
  --project <project> --agent <agent>

# All agents in a project
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task tokens \
  --project <project> --all-agents

# Specific task
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task tokens \
  --project <project> --agent <agent> --task <task-id>

Task done / confirm-request (called by agents inside their prompt)

# Report completion
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task done \
  --id $TASK_ID --status success --summary "Brief description of what was done"

# Report failure
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task done \
  --id $TASK_ID --status failed --error "reason"

# Request human input before proceeding (non-blocking)
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR task confirm-request \
  --id $TASK_ID \
  --summary "PR #42 ready, awaiting merge approval" \
  --action-item "Review: gh pr view 42 --repo org/repo" \
  --action-item "Approve: inbox reply <msg-id> --body 'approve'" \
  --action-item "Hold: inbox reply <msg-id> --body 'hold <reason>'"

After confirm-request, the task is archived (non-blocking). The human replies via inbox reply and the agent continues on their next wakeup.

Inbox — async messages (non-blocking)

Any participant (human or agent) can send non-blocking messages to any other participant. The recipient reads them on their next wakeup — the scheduler automatically injects unread messages at the top of the wakeup prompt.

Participant address format

Human: human
Agent: <project>/<agent> — e.g. cc-connect/pm, cc-connect/dev-claude

Send a message

# Human → agent
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
  --to <project>/<agent> \
  --subject "Subject" \
  --body "Body"

# Agent → human
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
  --from <project>/<agent> --to human \
  --subject "Subject" --body "Body"

# Agent → agent
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
  --from <project>/pm --to <project>/dev \
  --subject "Extra context for task <id>" \
  --body "Details..."

# Group send (repeat --to for multiple recipients)
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox send \
  --from <project>/pm \
  --to <project>/dev --to <project>/qa --to human \
  --subject "Sprint kick-off" --body "..."

Read messages

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages                          # human's unread
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --recipient <project>/pm # agent's mailbox
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --from <project>/qa      # filter by sender
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --all                    # include read
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --archived               # archived only
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox messages --mark-read              # mark all read

Reply / Forward

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox reply <msg-id> --from <address> --body "..."
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox fwd   <msg-id> --to <address> --note "..."

Per-message status

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox read    <msg-id>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox archive <msg-id>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox delete  <msg-id>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR inbox rm      <msg-id>   # alias for delete

Heartbeat scheduler

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR scheduler start
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR scheduler stop
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR scheduler status

# Configure an agent's heartbeat
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR scheduler heartbeat \
  --project <project> --agent <agent> \
  --enable --interval 30m \
  --active-hours "09:00-20:00" \
  --active-days weekdays

# Set or update the wakeup routine (runs when task queue is empty)
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR scheduler heartbeat \
  --project <project> --agent <agent> \
  --wakeup-prompt-file projects/<project>/agents/<agent>/wakeup.md

When the scheduler wakes an agent:

If pending tasks exist → runs the highest-priority task
If queue is empty and a wakeup routine is set → runs wakeup.md as a synthetic task
Any unread messages for the agent are auto-prepended to the prompt

Cron jobs

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR cron add \
  --project <project> --agent <agent> \
  --title "Weekly backlog review" \
  --schedule "0 9 * * 1" \
  --prompt "Review the backlog and reprioritise for the week..."

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR cron list    --project <project> --agent <agent>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR cron disable <cron-id> --project <project> --agent <agent>

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)

OKRs support three scope levels: agency (global), project, and agent. Child OKRs can link to a parent via --parent for hierarchical alignment.

# List — filter by scope and/or quarter
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr list
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr list --quarter 2026-Q2
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr list --scope project --scope-ref my-service
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr list --scope agent --scope-ref my-service/dev

# Create — specify scope level
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr create \
  --objective "Ship v2.0" --owner human --quarter 2026-Q2
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr create \
  --objective "Reduce latency" --scope project --scope-ref my-service
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr create \
  --objective "Improve autonomy" --scope agent --scope-ref my-service/dev \
  --parent <parent-okr-id> --description "Detailed description"

# Show / Update / Delete
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr show <okr-id>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr update <okr-id> --status at_risk
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr update <okr-id> --scope project --scope-ref my-service
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr delete <okr-id>

# Key Results
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr kr add \
  --okr <okr-id> --description "Reduce p95 latency" --target 200 --unit ms
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr kr update \
  --okr <okr-id> --kr <kr-id> --current 150

# Review notes
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR okr review \
  --okr <okr-id> --note "Good progress this week" --author human

OKR scope: agency (default), project, agent. Status: on_track, in_progress, at_risk, off_track, achieved. Progress is auto-calculated from Key Results.

When completing a task, check if it advances any Key Result and update accordingly.

Milestones

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR milestone list --project <project>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR milestone create --project <project> \
  --title "Beta Release" --due-date 2026-05-01 --owner human \
  --criteria "All P0 bugs fixed" --criteria "Docs updated"
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR milestone show <ms-id> --project <project>
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR milestone update <ms-id> --project <project> \
  --progress 75 --status in_progress
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR milestone delete <ms-id> --project <project>

Milestone status: planned, in_progress, completed, cancelled.

Context sync

agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR sync                                # all agents with changed context
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR sync --project <project>           # one project
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR sync --project <project> --name <agent>  # one agent
agencycli --dir $AGENCY_DIR sync --force                        # force regenerate everything

Context Inheritance

Every hired agent automatically receives context in this order:

agency-prompt.md — global rules, values
teams/<team>/prompt.md — team-specific standards
teams/<team>/roles/<role>/prompt.md — role responsibilities
projects/<project>/prompt.md — project background and tech stack
skills — all skills listed in the team's team.yaml and role's role.yaml