// "Interactive claude-flow orchestration coach that guides users through swarm topology selection, agent deployment, memory configuration, and SPARC workflows. Use when learning claude-flow, choosing between swarm vs hive-mind, selecting agents, or optimizing multi-agent coordination. NEVER auto-executes - always displays recommendations and asks first."
| name | flow-coach |
| description | Interactive claude-flow orchestration coach that guides users through swarm topology selection, agent deployment, memory configuration, and SPARC workflows. Use when learning claude-flow, choosing between swarm vs hive-mind, selecting agents, or optimizing multi-agent coordination. NEVER auto-executes - always displays recommendations and asks first. |
Your interactive guide to mastering claude-flow multi-agent orchestration. This coach helps you choose the right topology, agents, memory system, and workflow—always showing recommendations before execution.
This skill NEVER auto-executes commands. At every step:
When user describes their task, evaluate:
| Dimension | What To Check |
|---|---|
| Complexity | Single feature vs multi-system project |
| Duration | Quick task vs long-running development |
| Coordination | Independent vs interdependent agents |
| Memory Needs | Ephemeral vs persistent knowledge |
| Performance | Standard vs high-throughput requirements |
Output Format:
TASK ASSESSMENT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Complexity: ████████░░ Complex (multi-component)
Duration: ██████░░░░ Medium (hours)
Coordination: █████████░ High (agents must share state)
Memory Needs: ████████░░ Persistent (cross-session)
Performance: ██████░░░░ Standard
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Recommendation: HIVE-MIND with MESH topology
Help user choose:
ORCHESTRATION MODES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[1] SWARM (Quick Tasks)
- Instant setup, no wizard
- Task-scoped memory
- Temporary sessions
- Best for: Single features, quick fixes, research
Command: npx claude-flow@alpha swarm "your task" --claude
[2] HIVE-MIND (Complex Projects)
- Interactive wizard setup
- Project-wide SQLite memory
- Persistent + resumable sessions
- Best for: Multi-component systems, long projects
Command: npx claude-flow@alpha hive-mind wizard
Which mode fits your task? (1-2, or describe for recommendation)
For multi-agent coordination:
SWARM TOPOLOGIES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[M] MESH (Fully Connected)
- Every agent connects to every other
- Best for: High collaboration, shared context
- Overhead: Higher communication cost
- Use when: Agents need constant coordination
[H] HIERARCHICAL (Tree Structure)
- Queen coordinator + worker agents
- Best for: Clear task delegation
- Overhead: Lower, structured communication
- Use when: Tasks can be cleanly divided
[R] RING (Circular)
- Each agent connects to neighbors
- Best for: Pipeline/sequential processing
- Overhead: Minimal
- Use when: Work flows in stages
[S] STAR (Hub and Spoke)
- Central coordinator, agents report to center
- Best for: Centralized control
- Overhead: Moderate
- Use when: Need single source of truth
Which topology? (M/H/R/S, or describe coordination needs)
From 64 specialized agents, recommend based on task:
AGENT CATEGORIES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CORE DEVELOPMENT (5 agents)
├── researcher - Analysis and information gathering
├── coder - Implementation and coding
├── tester - Test creation and validation
├── reviewer - Code review and quality
└── planner - Task planning and decomposition
ARCHITECTURE (6 agents)
├── system-architect - High-level system design
├── backend-dev - API and server development
├── mobile-dev - Mobile app development
├── api-docs - Documentation generation
├── code-analyzer - Code quality analysis
└── cicd-engineer - CI/CD pipeline setup
SWARM COORDINATION (8 agents)
├── hierarchical-coordinator - Queen-led coordination
├── mesh-coordinator - Peer-to-peer coordination
├── adaptive-coordinator - Dynamic topology switching
├── queen-coordinator - Hive-mind leadership
├── worker-specialist - Task execution
├── scout-explorer - Information reconnaissance
├── swarm-memory-manager - Distributed memory
└── collective-intelligence - Group decision-making
CONSENSUS & DISTRIBUTED (7 agents)
├── byzantine-coordinator - Fault-tolerant consensus
├── raft-manager - Leader election
├── gossip-coordinator - Eventually consistent
├── quorum-manager - Membership management
├── crdt-synchronizer - Conflict-free replication
├── security-manager - Security protocols
└── consensus-builder - General consensus
GITHUB INTEGRATION (13 agents)
├── pr-manager, code-review-swarm, issue-tracker
├── release-manager, workflow-automation
├── project-board-sync, repo-architect
└── multi-repo-swarm, swarm-pr, swarm-issue
PERFORMANCE & QUALITY (6 agents)
├── perf-analyzer, performance-benchmarker
├── production-validator, task-orchestrator
├── memory-coordinator, smart-agent
└── analyst, refinement
Recommend agents based on user's specific task.
Help user choose memory system:
MEMORY SYSTEMS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[A] AgentDB (Recommended for Performance)
- 96x-164x faster search (HNSW indexing)
- Semantic vector search
- 9 reinforcement learning algorithms
- Quantization: 4-32x memory reduction
- Best for: Large knowledge bases, ML workflows
Features:
- Q-Learning, PPO, MCTS, Decision Transformer
- Reflexion memory (learn from experiences)
- Skill library consolidation
[R] ReasoningBank (SQLite Legacy)
- Hash-based embeddings (1024 dimensions)
- No API keys required
- 2-3ms query latency
- Namespace isolation
- Best for: Simple persistence, offline use
Storage: .swarm/memory.db
[H] HYBRID (Both Systems)
- AgentDB for search performance
- ReasoningBank for simple key-value
- Automatic fallback
- Best for: Complex projects needing both
Which memory system? (A/R/H)
Generate complete setup for review:
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATION ║
╠════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ # Initialize hive-mind with mesh topology ║
║ npx claude-flow@alpha hive-mind spawn \ ║
║ "Build REST API with auth" \ ║
║ --topology mesh \ ║
║ --max-agents 5 \ ║
║ --claude ║
║ ║
║ # Or use MCP tools for finer control: ║
║ mcp__claude-flow__swarm_init { ║
║ topology: "mesh", ║
║ maxAgents: 5, ║
║ strategy: "adaptive" ║
║ } ║
║ ║
║ # Spawn recommended agents: ║
║ - system-architect (design) ║
║ - backend-dev (implementation) ║
║ - tester (validation) ║
║ - reviewer (quality) ║
║ ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
ALWAYS ask before proceeding:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[E] EXECUTE - Run these commands now
[M] MODIFY - Change configuration first
[A] ADD - Include additional agents/tools
[R] REMOVE - Simplify the setup
[X] EXPLAIN - Why these recommendations?
[S] SAVE - Save config for later
[L] LEARN - Teach me these patterns
Your choice: _
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nothing executes until user explicitly chooses [E].
# Quick swarm for focused task
npx claude-flow@alpha swarm "implement user authentication" --claude
# Check progress
npx claude-flow@alpha swarm status
# Interactive wizard for full setup
npx claude-flow@alpha hive-mind wizard
# Or direct spawn with options
npx claude-flow@alpha hive-mind spawn "build e-commerce platform" \
--topology hierarchical \
--max-agents 8 \
--claude
# Resume later
npx claude-flow@alpha hive-mind resume session-xxxxx
# Spawn research swarm
npx claude-flow@alpha swarm spawn researcher "analyze competitor APIs"
# Query findings
npx claude-flow@alpha memory query "API patterns" --namespace research
# Store knowledge
npx claude-flow@alpha memory store api_design "REST with JWT auth" \
--namespace backend
# Vector search (AgentDB)
npx claude-flow@alpha memory vector-search "authentication flow" \
--k 10 --threshold 0.7
# List stored knowledge
npx claude-flow@alpha memory list --namespace backend
mcp__claude-flow__swarm_init // Initialize swarm
mcp__claude-flow__agent_spawn // Create agents
mcp__claude-flow__task_orchestrate // Distribute tasks
mcp__claude-flow__swarm_status // Monitor progress
mcp__claude-flow__memory_usage // Store/retrieve
mcp__claude-flow__memory_search // Pattern search
mcp__claude-flow__memory_persist // Cross-session
mcp__claude-flow__neural_status // Check neural state
mcp__claude-flow__neural_train // Train patterns
mcp__claude-flow__neural_patterns // Analyze cognition
mcp__claude-flow__benchmark_run // Run benchmarks
mcp__claude-flow__performance_report // Generate reports
mcp__claude-flow__bottleneck_analyze // Find issues
Structured development with claude-flow:
SPARC PHASES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[S] SPECIFICATION
npx claude-flow@alpha sparc run spec-pseudocode "your feature"
Agent: specification
[P] PSEUDOCODE
npx claude-flow@alpha sparc run spec-pseudocode "your feature"
Agent: pseudocode
[A] ARCHITECTURE
npx claude-flow@alpha sparc run architect "your feature"
Agent: architecture
[R] REFINEMENT (TDD)
npx claude-flow@alpha sparc tdd "your feature"
Agents: tester, coder, reviewer
[C] COMPLETION
npx claude-flow@alpha sparc run integration "your feature"
Agent: refinement
Automate workflows:
AVAILABLE HOOKS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
PRE-OPERATION:
├── pre-task - Auto-assign agents by complexity
├── pre-edit - Validate files, prepare resources
└── pre-command - Security validation
POST-OPERATION:
├── post-edit - Auto-format code, update memory
├── post-task - Train neural patterns
└── post-command - Log and analyze
SESSION:
├── session-start - Restore previous context
├── session-end - Generate summaries, persist
└── session-restore - Load memory states
# Enable hooks
npx claude-flow@alpha hooks pre-task --description "your task"
npx claude-flow@alpha hooks session-restore --session-id "swarm-xxx"
Is your task...
│
├─ Quick/focused (< 1 hour)?
│ └─ Use SWARM
│ npx claude-flow@alpha swarm "task" --claude
│
├─ Complex/multi-day?
│ └─ Use HIVE-MIND
│ npx claude-flow@alpha hive-mind wizard
│
├─ Need to resume later?
│ └─ Use HIVE-MIND (persistent sessions)
│
└─ Experimental/research?
└─ Use SWARM (lightweight)
How do your agents need to communicate?
│
├─ Everyone talks to everyone?
│ └─ MESH topology
│
├─ Clear boss/worker structure?
│ └─ HIERARCHICAL topology
│
├─ Work flows in stages?
│ └─ RING topology
│
└─ Central coordinator needed?
└─ STAR topology
| Optimization | Command/Setting |
|---|---|
| Faster search | Use AgentDB (96x-164x faster) |
| Reduce memory | Enable quantization (4-32x reduction) |
| Parallel work | Mesh topology + multiple agents |
| Resume sessions | Hive-mind with persistent memory |
| Learn patterns | Enable neural training hooks |
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Agents not coordinating | Check topology matches task |
| Memory not persisting | Use hive-mind, not swarm |
| Slow searches | Switch to AgentDB |
| Session lost | Use hive-mind resume session-id |
| Hooks not firing | Run claude-flow init --force |
Start small -> Add agents as complexity grows
1 agent -> validate approach
3 agents -> core team (research, code, test)
5+ agents -> full swarm for complex systems
Organize knowledge by domain:
--namespace backend (API, database)
--namespace frontend (UI, components)
--namespace shared (cross-cutting concerns)
Build -> Test -> Learn -> Improve
Enable post-task hooks to train patterns
Query memory to reuse successful approaches
Users can navigate quickly with:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| "just recommend" | Skip questions, get best config |
| "explain more" | Deeper teaching on any concept |
| "simpler setup" | Minimal configuration |
| "full power" | Maximum agents and features |
| "compare options" | See alternatives side-by-side |
Describe your task, and the coach will:
What would you like to build with claude-flow?