squad

{what this skill teaches agents}

{what this skill teaches agents}

{what this skill teaches agents}

{what this skill teaches agents}

Checklist and patterns for wiring new CLI commands into cli-entry.ts

Team initialization flow (Phase 1 proposal + Phase 2 creation)

Squad's command catalog and interactive menu. Invoke via /squad (slash command) or natural language ("squad commands", "what can squad do", "show me squad options"). Presents categorized operations (Install & Upgrade, Team Management, Issues & PRs, Plugins & Skills, Model & Cost, Sessions & State) as an interactive picker. Routes to the right squad CLI command or the Squad coordinator agent.

The complete two-phase Init Mode protocol the Squad coordinator runs when no team exists yet in the current repo. Phase 1 = propose the team (no files created, wait for user confirm). Phase 2 = create .squad/ scaffolding, casting state, .gitattributes for merge drivers, and the always-on built-ins (Scribe, Ralph, Rai, Fact Checker). Loaded on demand when the coordinator detects no .squad/team.md exists.

Selecting WHO handles work is the Routing table; selecting HOW they handle it (Direct, Lightweight, Standard, Full) is Response Mode. This skill contains the complete decision table, exemplar prompts for each mode, the Lightweight spawn template, and the upgrade rules. Squad coordinator loads this on demand once routing has identified the agent — to pick the right ceremony level for the task.

The complete file-by-file source-of-truth hierarchy for Squad: which files are authoritative, which are derived/append-only, who may write each one, who may read each one, and the precedence rules when they conflict. Squad coordinator loads this on demand when it needs to resolve a write conflict, decide where a piece of state belongs, or answer a 'who owns this file' question.

{what this skill teaches agents}

User-level AI agents that travel with you across projects

Internals of how @bradygaster/squad-cli stamps its version, how `squad upgrade` works (what it preserves vs overwrites), and how to probe the npm registry for the latest version from a coordinator prompt.

Three-tier agent memory model (hot/cold/wiki) for context reduction per spawn

Categorized catalog of common Squad operations. Coordinator reads this file and presents it as an interactive menu when the user asks for available commands or help.

Coordinating work across multiple Squad instances — discovery, delegation, and disambiguation when the user says 'squad' (the product) vs casual English 'group of agents'.

Protocol for sending queries, delegating tasks, and sharing context between independent Squad instances across different repositories

Pre-release validation, npm publish procedures, and post-publish verification

How to actually use Squad — Squad is a custom Copilot agent (invoked via the task tool with agent_type='Squad'), not a skill. This file explains the right invocation paths for setting up a team, listing squad commands, and initializing Squad in a new project.

Review and validate claims using counter-hypothesis testing. Use when verifying technical content, checking references, validating API endpoints, or performing quality assurance on deliverables.

End-to-end validation of coordinator and agent template changes

Enables squad agents on different machines to share work via git-based task queuing

Determines which LLM model to use for each agent spawn

Context hygiene — compress, prune, archive .squad/ state

Cuts GitHub API calls by separating lightweight list scanning from full hydration

Step-by-step release checklist for Squad — prevents v0.8.22 and v0.9.4-style disasters

Zero-dependency bootstrap files that must never import npm packages or SDK code

Complete issue → PR → merge lifecycle with readiness checks

PAO workflow for scanning, drafting, and presenting community responses with human review gate

Safely manage multiple GitHub identities (EMU + personal) in agent workflows

Tone enforcement patterns for external-facing community responses

Teaches agents to reply to PR review comment threads after fixing issues, making resolutions traceable

Capture Playwright screenshots and embed them in GitHub PR descriptions

Semver versioning rules for Squad SDK and CLI — prevents prerelease version incidents

Squad branching model: dev-first workflow with insiders preview channel

Cross-platform path handling and command patterns

How to review PRs for architectural quality — module boundaries, dependency direction, export surface, pattern consistency

Reviewer rejection workflow and strict lockout semantics

How to review PRs for security — credentials, injection, workflow permissions, supply chain, git operation safety

Learning capture system that extracts HIGH/MED/LOW confidence patterns from conversations to prevent repeating mistakes. Use after user corrections ("no", "wrong"), praise ("perfect", "exactly"), or when discovering edge cases. Complements .squad/agents/{agent}/history.md and .squad/decisions.md.