create-team

name	create-team
locale	caveman-ultra
source_locale	en
source_commit	82c77053
translator	Julius Brussee homage — caveman
translation_date	2026-04-19
description	Create a new team composition file following the agent-almanac team template and registry conventions. Covers team purpose definition, member selection, coordination pattern choice, task decomposition design, machine-readable configuration block, registry integration, and README automation. Use when defining a multi-agent workflow, composing agents for a complex review process, or creating a coordinated group for recurring collaborative tasks.
license	MIT
allowed-tools	Read Write Edit Bash Grep Glob Agent SendMessage TaskCreate
metadata	{"author":"Philipp Thoss","version":"1.0","domain":"general","complexity":"intermediate","language":"multi","tags":"meta, team, creation, composition, coordination"}

Create a New Team

Multi-agent team → coord 2+ agents for multi-perspective tasks. Integrates w/ teams registry, activatable in Claude Code by name.

Use When

• Task needs multi perspectives (code review + sec audit + arch)
• Recurring collab workflow w/ consistent roles
• Existing ad-hoc composition → formalize
• Complex proc → phases / specialties
• Sprint / pipeline / parallel work

In

• Required: Team name (kebab-case, data-pipeline-review)
• Required: Purpose (1 paragraph)
• Required: Lead agent (in agents/_registry.yml)
• Optional: Coord pattern (def: hub-and-spoke). One of: hub-and-spoke, sequential, parallel, timeboxed, adaptive
• Optional: Members (def: 3-4; rec: 2-5)
• Optional: Src material

Do

Step 1: Purpose

Answer:

1. What outcome delivered? (report, deploy, sprint)
2. Why not 1 agent? ≥2 specialties
3. When activate? Triggers

Write 1 paragraph → human/agent reads → decide activation.

Got: Clear paragraph + ≥2 specialties.

If err: Can't ID 2 specialties → no team needed. Use 1 agent w/ multi skills.

Step 2: Lead

Orchestrator. Choose from registry:

• Domain expertise → primary output
• Decompose reqs → subtasks
• Synthesize results → deliverable

# List all available agents
grep "^  - id:" agents/_registry.yml

Lead = also member (lead always member).

Got: Lead chosen + in registry.

If err: No fit → create via create-agent first. Don't create team w/ non-existent lead.

Step 3: Members

2-5 members (incl lead), non-overlap responsibilities. Each:

• id: Agent name
• role: Short title ("Quality Reviewer", "Security Auditor", "Architecture Reviewer")
• responsibilities: 1 sentence, unique

# Verify each candidate agent exists
grep "id: agent-name-here" agents/_registry.yml

Validate no overlap: same primary resp = merge / sharpen.

Got: 2-5 members, unique roles, in registry.

If err: Agent missing → create first. Overlap → rewrite / remove 1.

Step 4: Coord Pattern

Pattern	Use When	Example
hub-and-spoke	Lead distrib + collect + synth. Review/audit.	r-package-review, gxp-compliance-validation, ml-data-science-review
sequential	Each builds on prior. Pipelines/staged.	fullstack-web-dev, tending
parallel	All sim, independent subtasks. No deps.	devops-platform-engineering
timeboxed	Fixed iters. Sprint w/ backlog.	scrum-team
adaptive	Self-org. Unknown/variable.	opaque-team

Decision:

• Lead sees all results pre-output → hub-and-spoke
• B needs A's out → sequential
• All work w/o seeing others → parallel
• Iters w/ planning → timeboxed
• Unpredictable struct → adaptive

Got: Pattern + rationale.

If err: Doubt → hub-and-spoke (most common, works for review/analysis).

Step 5: Task Decomposition

Phases:

1. Setup: Lead analyzes req + creates tasks
2. Execution: Each member's work (par/seq/sprint)
3. Synthesis: Collect + deliverable

Per member: 3-5 concrete tasks (typical req). In "Task Decomposition" prose + CONFIG tasks list.

Got: Phase-structured decomp + concrete tasks per member, matches coord pattern.

If err: Vague ("reviews things") → specific ("reviews code style vs tidyverse guide, checks coverage, evaluates err msg quality").

Step 6: Team File

cp teams/_template.md teams/<team-name>.md

Fill in order:

1. YAML frontmatter: name, description, lead, version ("1.0.0"), author, created, updated, tags, coordination, members[] (id, role, responsibilities)
2. Title: # Team Name (readable, title case)
3. Intro: 1 paragraph
4. Purpose: Why exist + specialties
5. Team Composition: Table (Member, Agent, Role, Focus)
6. Coordination Pattern: Prose + ASCII diagram
7. Task Decomposition: Phased + tasks per member
8. Configuration: CONFIG block (Step 7)
9. Usage Scenarios: 2-3 + example prompts
10. Limitations: 3-5
11. See Also: Links to members + related

Got: Complete file, no placeholders.

If err: Compare existing (teams/r-package-review.md). Search placeholders ("your-team-name", "another-agent") → unfilled.

Step 7: CONFIG Block

Between <!-- CONFIG:START --> + <!-- CONFIG:END --> → YAML for tooling:

<!-- CONFIG:START -->
```yaml
team:
  name: <team-name>
  lead: <lead-agent-id>
  coordination: <pattern>
  members:
    - agent: <agent-id>
      role: <role-title>
      subagent_type: <agent-id>  # Claude Code subagent type for spawning
    # ... repeat for each member
  tasks:
    - name: <task-name>
      assignee: <agent-id>
      description: <one-line description>
    # ... repeat for each task
    - name: synthesize-report  # final task if hub-and-spoke
      assignee: <lead-agent-id>
      description: <synthesis description>
      blocked_by: [<prior-task-names>]  # for dependency ordering
```
<!-- CONFIG:END -->

subagent_type → Claude Code types. For .claude/agents/, use agent id. blocked_by = task deps (synth blocked by all reviews).

Got: Valid YAML, agents = frontmatter members, deps = valid DAG (no cycles).

If err: Validate syntax. Every assignee = agent in members. blocked_by refs earlier task names only.

Step 8: Registry

Edit teams/_registry.yml:

- id: <team-name>
  path: <team-name>.md
  lead: <lead-agent-id>
  members: [<agent-id-1>, <agent-id-2>, ...]
  coordination: <pattern>
  description: <one-line description matching frontmatter>

Increment total_teams (8 → 9 after adding 1).

# Verify the entry was added
grep "id: <team-name>" teams/_registry.yml

Got: Entry in registry, count +1.

If err: Name exists → diff name / update. Verify YAML indent matches.

Step 9: README Automation

Regen:

npm run update-readmes

Updates dynamic sections in teams/README.md + files w/ <!-- AUTO:START --> markers referencing team data.

Got: Exit 0, teams/README.md has new team.

If err: npm run check-readmes → out-of-sync files. Script fail → verify package.json in root + js-yaml installed (npm install).

Step 10: Verify Activation

Test in Claude Code:

User: Use the <team-name> team to <typical task description>

Claude reads teams/<team-name>.md, extracts CONFIG, orchestrates:

1. TeamCreate w/ name + desc
2. Spawn teammates via Agent tool (subagent_type from CONFIG)
3. TaskCreate w/ blocked_by deps from CONFIG
4. Lead coords per pattern

Note: Teams not auto-discovered from .claude/teams/. Claude reads def directly from teams/ on request.

Got: Claude reads file, TeamCreate works, spawns correct agents, follows pattern.

If err: Verify file at teams/<team-name>.md (not subdir). All member agents exist in agents/. CONFIG YAML valid + subagent_type per member. Listed in teams/_registry.yml.

Step 11: Scaffold Translations

Required for all teams. Human + AI authors. Do not skip → backlog.

4 locales post-commit:

for locale in de zh-CN ja es; do
  npm run translate:scaffold -- teams <team-name> "$locale"
done

Translate prose (code + IDs EN). Regen:

npm run translation:status

Got: 4 files at i18n/{de,zh-CN,ja,es}/teams/<team-name>.md, source_commit = HEAD. npm run validate:translations → 0 stale.

If err: Scaffold fail → team in teams/_registry.yml. Status stale → run npm run translation:status explicit.

Check

• File at teams/<team-name>.md
• YAML parses
• Required: name, description, lead, version, author, coordination, members[]
• Each member: id, role, responsibilities
• Sections: Purpose, Team Composition, Coordination Pattern, Task Decomposition, Configuration, Usage Scenarios, Limitations, See Also
• CONFIG block between markers
• CONFIG YAML valid
• All member ids in agents/_registry.yml
• Lead in members list
• No 2 members w/ same primary resp
• In teams/_registry.yml w/ correct path/lead/members/coord
• total_teams +1
• npm run update-readmes no err

Traps

• Too many members: >5 → hard coord. Split team / reduce to essentials.
• Overlap resp: 2 "review code quality" → findings conflict, lead wastes time dedup. Distinct focus.
• Wrong coord: hub-and-spoke when need each other's out (should be seq) / seq when can work indep (should be par). Review Step 4.
• Missing CONFIG: Not optional decoration. Machine-readable spec for TeamCreate / spawn / tasks. Without → only ad-hoc prose interp (less reliable).
• Lead not in members: Lead must appear as member w/ own role + resp. Coord-only lead wastes slot. Give concrete review/synth resp.

→

• create-skill — parallel SKILL.md meta-pattern
• create-agent — create members
• commit-changes — commit team + registry