agent-collaboration

Standard collaboration patterns for all squad agents — worktree awareness, decisions, cross-agent communication

1,828 stars

Best use case

agent-collaboration is best used when you need a repeatable AI agent workflow instead of a one-off prompt.

Standard collaboration patterns for all squad agents — worktree awareness, decisions, cross-agent communication

Teams using agent-collaboration should expect a more consistent output, faster repeated execution, less prompt rewriting.

When to use this skill

  • You want a reusable workflow that can be run more than once with consistent structure.

When not to use this skill

  • You only need a quick one-off answer and do not need a reusable workflow.
  • You cannot install or maintain the underlying files, dependencies, or repository context.

Installation

Claude Code / Cursor / Codex

$curl -o ~/.claude/skills/agent-collaboration/SKILL.md --create-dirs "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bradygaster/squad/main/.copilot/skills/agent-collaboration/SKILL.md"

Manual Installation

  1. Download SKILL.md from GitHub
  2. Place it in .claude/skills/agent-collaboration/SKILL.md inside your project
  3. Restart your AI agent — it will auto-discover the skill

How agent-collaboration Compares

Feature / Agentagent-collaborationStandard Approach
Platform SupportNot specifiedLimited / Varies
Context Awareness High Baseline
Installation ComplexityUnknownN/A

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this skill do?

Standard collaboration patterns for all squad agents — worktree awareness, decisions, cross-agent communication

Where can I find the source code?

You can find the source code on GitHub using the link provided at the top of the page.

Related Guides

SKILL.md Source

## Context

Every agent on the team follows identical collaboration patterns for worktree awareness, decision recording, and cross-agent communication. These were previously duplicated in every charter's Collaboration section (~300 bytes × 18 agents = ~5.4KB of redundant context). Now centralized here.

The coordinator's spawn prompt already instructs agents to read decisions.md and their history.md. This skill adds the patterns for WRITING decisions and requesting help.

## Patterns

### Worktree Awareness
Use the `TEAM ROOT` path provided in your spawn prompt. All `.squad/` paths are relative to this root. If TEAM ROOT is not provided (rare), run `git rev-parse --show-toplevel` as fallback. Never assume CWD is the repo root.

### Decision Recording
After making a decision that affects other team members, write it to:
`.squad/decisions/inbox/{your-name}-{brief-slug}.md`

Format:
```
### {date}: {decision title}
**By:** {Your Name}
**What:** {the decision}
**Why:** {rationale}
```

### Cross-Agent Communication
If you need another team member's input, say so in your response. The coordinator will bring them in. Don't try to do work outside your domain.

### Reviewer Protocol
If you have reviewer authority and reject work: the original author is locked out from revising that artifact. A different agent must own the revision. State who should revise in your rejection response.

## Anti-Patterns
- Don't read all agent charters — you only need your own context + decisions.md
- Don't write directly to `.squad/decisions.md` — always use the inbox drop-box
- Don't modify other agents' history.md files — that's Scribe's job
- Don't assume CWD is the repo root — always use TEAM ROOT

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