Agent Skills: Team Communication Protocols

Team Communication Protocols

Protocols for effective communication between agent teammates, including message type selection, plan approval workflows, shutdown procedures, and common anti-patterns to avoid.

When to Use This Skill

• Establishing communication norms for a new team
• Choosing between message types (message, broadcast, shutdown_request)
• Handling plan approval workflows
• Managing graceful team shutdown
• Discovering teammate identities and capabilities

Message Type Selection

message (Direct Message) — Default Choice

Send to a single specific teammate:

{
  "type": "message",
  "recipient": "implementer-1",
  "content": "Your API endpoint is ready. You can now build the frontend form.",
  "summary": "API endpoint ready for frontend"
}

Use for: Task updates, coordination, questions, integration notifications.

broadcast — Use Sparingly

Send to ALL teammates simultaneously:

{
  "type": "broadcast",
  "content": "Critical: shared types file has been updated. Pull latest before continuing.",
  "summary": "Shared types updated"
}

Use ONLY for: Critical blockers affecting everyone, major changes to shared resources.

Why sparingly?: Each broadcast sends N separate messages (one per teammate), consuming API resources proportional to team size.

shutdown_request — Graceful Termination

Request a teammate to shut down:

{
  "type": "shutdown_request",
  "recipient": "reviewer-1",
  "content": "Review complete, shutting down team."
}

The teammate responds with shutdown_response (approve or reject with reason).

Communication Anti-Patterns

| Anti-Pattern | Problem | Better Approach | | --------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | | Broadcasting routine updates | Wastes resources, noise | Direct message to affected teammate | | Sending JSON status messages | Not designed for structured data | Use TaskUpdate to update task status | | Not communicating at integration points | Teammates build against stale interfaces | Message when your interface is ready | | Micromanaging via messages | Overwhelms teammates, slows work | Check in at milestones, not every step | | Using UUIDs instead of names | Hard to read, error-prone | Always use teammate names | | Ignoring idle teammates | Wasted capacity | Assign new work or shut down |

Plan Approval Workflow

When a teammate is spawned with plan_mode_required:

1. Teammate creates a plan using read-only exploration tools
2. Teammate calls ExitPlanMode which sends a plan_approval_request to the lead
3. Lead reviews the plan
4. Lead responds with plan_approval_response:

Approve:

{
  "type": "plan_approval_response",
  "request_id": "abc-123",
  "recipient": "implementer-1",
  "approve": true
}

Reject with feedback:

{
  "type": "plan_approval_response",
  "request_id": "abc-123",
  "recipient": "implementer-1",
  "approve": false,
  "content": "Please add error handling for the API calls"
}

Shutdown Protocol

Graceful Shutdown Sequence

1. Lead sends shutdown_request to each teammate
2. Teammate receives request as a JSON message with type: "shutdown_request"
3. Teammate responds with shutdown_response:
   • approve: true — Teammate saves state and exits
   • approve: false + reason — Teammate continues working
4. Lead handles rejections — Wait for teammate to finish, then retry
5. After all teammates shut down — Call Teammate cleanup

Handling Rejections

If a teammate rejects shutdown:

• Check their reason (usually "still working on task")
• Wait for their current task to complete
• Retry shutdown request
• If urgent, user can force shutdown

Teammate Discovery

Find team members by reading the config file:

Location: ~/.claude/teams/{team-name}/config.json

Structure:

{
  "members": [
    {
      "name": "security-reviewer",
      "agentId": "uuid-here",
      "agentType": "team-reviewer"
    },
    {
      "name": "perf-reviewer",
      "agentId": "uuid-here",
      "agentType": "team-reviewer"
    }
  ]
}

Always use name for messaging and task assignment. Never use agentId directly.