| name | basecoat |
| title | Base Coat Router & Agent Discovery |
| description | Single entry point for 28+ agents across 6 disciplines—discover or delegate across Development, Architecture, Quality, DevOps, Process, and Meta |
| compatibility | ["agent:*"] |
| metadata | {"domain":"framework","maturity":"production","audience":["all"]} |
| allowed-tools | ["bash","curl","git"] |
Base Coat Router
The front door to the entire Base Coat framework. This skill routes requests to the right agent across 6 disciplines: Development, Architecture, Quality, DevOps, Process, and Meta.
Two modes of operation:
- Discovery — browse, search, and learn about available agents
- Delegation — route a prompt directly to the right agent
Usage Modes
Discovery Mode
Use discovery when you want to explore what's available or need help picking the right agent.
| Command | What It Does |
|---|
/basecoat | Full categorized agent catalog |
/basecoat development | Show only Development agents |
/basecoat quality | Show only Quality agents |
/basecoat help [agent-name] | Detailed usage card for one agent |
/basecoat find "[search term]" | Fuzzy search across agent keywords |
When showing discovery results, format them by category:
🔨 Development
| Agent | Description | Invoke With |
|---|
| @backend-dev | APIs, services, business logic | /basecoat backend [prompt] |
| @frontend-dev | UI, components, accessibility | /basecoat frontend [prompt] |
| @middleware-dev | API gateways, integration, events | /basecoat middleware [prompt] |
| @data-tier | Schema, migrations, queries | /basecoat data [prompt] |
🏗️ Architecture
| Agent | Description | Invoke With |
|---|
| @solution-architect | System design, trade-offs, ADRs | /basecoat architect [prompt] |
| @api-designer | OpenAPI specs, API contracts | /basecoat api-design [prompt] |
| @ux-designer | Wireframes, accessibility, UX flows | /basecoat ux [prompt] |
🔍 Quality
| Agent | Description | Invoke With |
|---|
| @code-review | Code review, pull-request feedback | /basecoat review [prompt] |
| @security-analyst | Vulnerability scanning, threat models | /basecoat security [prompt] |
| @performance-analyst | Profiling, bottleneck analysis | /basecoat perf [prompt] |
| @config-auditor | Config hygiene, secrets audit | /basecoat config [prompt] |
| @manual-test-strategy | Test plans, manual test cases | /basecoat manual-test [prompt] |
| @exploratory-charter | Exploratory testing charters | /basecoat exploratory [prompt] |
| @strategy-to-automation | Convert test strategy to automation | /basecoat automate-tests [prompt] |
🚀 DevOps
| Agent | Description | Invoke With |
|---|
| @devops-engineer | CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure | /basecoat devops [prompt] |
| @release-manager | Versioning, changelogs, releases | /basecoat release [prompt] |
| @rollout-basecoat | Enterprise onboarding, rollout plans | /basecoat rollout [prompt] |
📋 Process
| Agent | Description | Invoke With |
|---|
| @sprint-planner | Sprint planning, wave breakdown | /basecoat sprint [prompt] |
| @product-manager | Requirements, user stories, PRDs | /basecoat product [prompt] |
| @issue-triage | Issue classification, labeling | /basecoat triage [prompt] |
| @retro-facilitator | Retrospective facilitation | /basecoat retro [prompt] |
| @project-onboarding | Project setup, getting-started guides | /basecoat onboarding [prompt] |
🧰 Meta
| Agent | Description | Invoke With |
|---|
| @agent-designer | Design new agents | /basecoat agent [prompt] |
| @prompt-engineer | System prompts, prompt tuning | /basecoat prompt [prompt] |
| @mcp-developer | MCP tool servers | /basecoat mcp [prompt] |
| @tech-writer | Docs, runbooks, ADRs | /basecoat docs [prompt] |
| @new-customization | Create new skills/customizations | /basecoat customization [prompt] |
| @merge-coordinator | Parallel merge conflict resolution | /basecoat merge [prompt] |
Delegation Mode
When a discipline keyword and prompt are provided, the router delegates directly:
/basecoat backend build a REST API for user management
→ Delegates to @backend-dev with prompt "build a REST API for user management"
/basecoat review check auth module for SQL injection
→ Delegates to @security-analyst
/basecoat sprint plan sprint 12 from open issues
→ Delegates to @sprint-planner
Keyword-to-Agent Routing Table
Use this table to match user input to the correct agent.
| Keyword(s) | Agent | Category |
|---|
| backend, api, server | @backend-dev | 🔨 Development |
| frontend, ui, web | @frontend-dev | 🔨 Development |
| middleware, integration, gateway | @middleware-dev | 🔨 Development |
| data, database, db | @data-tier | 🔨 Development |
| architect, design, system | @solution-architect | 🏗️ Architecture |
| api-design, openapi, swagger | @api-designer | 🏗️ Architecture |
| ux, accessibility, wireframe | @ux-designer | 🏗️ Architecture |
| review, cr, pull-request | @code-review | 🔍 Quality |
| security, vulnerability, threat | @security-analyst | 🔍 Quality |
| perf, performance, profiling | @performance-analyst | 🔍 Quality |
| config, secrets, audit | @config-auditor | 🔍 Quality |
| manual-test, test-strategy | @manual-test-strategy | 🔍 Quality |
| exploratory, charter | @exploratory-charter | 🔍 Quality |
| automate-tests, test-automation | @strategy-to-automation | 🔍 Quality |
| devops, cicd, deploy, pipeline | @devops-engineer | 🚀 DevOps |
| release, version, changelog | @release-manager | 🚀 DevOps |
| rollout, onboard-enterprise | @rollout-basecoat | 🚀 DevOps |
| sprint, plan, wave | @sprint-planner | 📋 Process |
| product, requirements, stories | @product-manager | 📋 Process |
| triage, classify, label | @issue-triage | 📋 Process |
| retro, retrospective | @retro-facilitator | 📋 Process |
| onboarding, setup, getting-started | @project-onboarding | 📋 Process |
| agent, create-agent | @agent-designer | 🧰 Meta |
| prompt, system-prompt | @prompt-engineer | 🧰 Meta |
| mcp, tools, tool-server | @mcp-developer | 🧰 Meta |
| docs, document, runbook | @tech-writer | 🧰 Meta |
| customization, create-skill | @new-customization | 🧰 Meta |
| merge, conflict, parallel-merge | @merge-coordinator | 🧰 Meta |
Delegation Instructions
When routing a /basecoat [keyword] [prompt] request:
- Match the first token after
/basecoat against the keyword column in the routing table above.
- Ambiguous match? If multiple agents could fit, show the top 2–3 candidates with a one-line description and ask the user to pick.
- Load the agent — open the matched agent's instruction file and its paired skill from the
skills/ directory.
- Pass the prompt — forward everything after the keyword as the user's prompt to the loaded agent.
- No match? Fall back to the full discovery menu with a note:
I couldn't match "xyz" to a specific agent. Here's the full catalog — pick the one that fits:
Metadata Reference
The file basecoat-metadata.json at the repository root contains the machine-readable registry of all 28 agents. It includes:
- Agent names, descriptions, and file paths
- Category groupings
- Keywords and aliases for routing
- Paired skill references
The router can reference this file for programmatic matching when keyword lookup alone is insufficient.
Examples
# ── Discovery ──────────────────────────────────────────────
/basecoat → Full agent catalog by category
/basecoat architecture → Architecture agents only
/basecoat help code-review → Detailed usage card for @code-review
/basecoat find "deploy" → Finds @devops-engineer, @release-manager
# ── Delegation ─────────────────────────────────────────────
/basecoat backend build a REST API for orders
/basecoat security run threat model for auth service
/basecoat sprint plan sprint 5 from open issues
/basecoat docs write a runbook for deployment
/basecoat agent design a new linting agent
/basecoat perf profile the checkout flow for latency
