team-composition-patterns

Team Composition Patterns

Best practices for composing multi-agent teams, selecting team sizes, choosing agent types, and configuring display modes for Claude Code's Agent Teams feature.

When to Use This Skill

• Deciding how many teammates to spawn for a task

• Choosing between preset team configurations

• Selecting the right agent type (subagent_type) for each role

• Configuring teammate display modes (tmux, iTerm2, in-process)

• Building custom team compositions for non-standard workflows

Team Sizing Heuristics

Complexity Team Size When to Use

Simple 1-2 Single-dimension review, isolated bug, small feature

Moderate 2-3 Multi-file changes, 2-3 concerns, medium features

Complex 3-4 Cross-cutting concerns, large features, deep debugging

Very Complex 4-5 Full-stack features, comprehensive reviews, systemic issues

Rule of thumb: Start with the smallest team that covers all required dimensions. Adding teammates increases coordination overhead.

Preset Team Compositions

Review Team

• Size: 3 reviewers

• Agents: 3x team-reviewer

• Default dimensions: security, performance, architecture

• Use when: Code changes need multi-dimensional quality assessment

Debug Team

• Size: 3 investigators

• Agents: 3x team-debugger

• Default hypotheses: 3 competing hypotheses

• Use when: Bug has multiple plausible root causes

Feature Team

• Size: 3 (1 lead + 2 implementers)

• Agents: 1x team-lead + 2x team-implementer

• Use when: Feature can be decomposed into parallel work streams

Fullstack Team

• Size: 4 (1 lead + 3 implementers)

• Agents: 1x team-lead + 1x frontend team-implementer + 1x backend team-implementer + 1x test team-implementer

• Use when: Feature spans frontend, backend, and test layers

Research Team

• Size: 3 researchers

• Agents: 3x general-purpose

• Default areas: Each assigned a different research question, module, or topic

• Capabilities: Codebase search (Grep, Glob, Read), web search (WebSearch, WebFetch)

• Use when: Need to understand a codebase, research libraries, compare approaches, or gather information from code and web sources in parallel

Security Team

• Size: 4 reviewers

• Agents: 4x team-reviewer

• Default dimensions: OWASP/vulnerabilities, auth/access control, dependencies/supply chain, secrets/configuration

• Use when: Comprehensive security audit covering multiple attack surfaces

Migration Team

• Size: 4 (1 lead + 2 implementers + 1 reviewer)

• Agents: 1x team-lead + 2x team-implementer + 1x team-reviewer

• Use when: Large codebase migration (framework upgrade, language port, API version bump) requiring parallel work with correctness verification

Agent Type Selection

When spawning teammates with the Task tool, choose subagent_type based on what tools the teammate needs:

Agent Type Tools Available Use For

general-purpose All tools (Read, Write, Edit, Bash, etc.) Implementation, debugging, any task requiring file changes

Explore Read-only tools (Read, Grep, Glob) Research, code exploration, analysis

Plan Read-only tools Architecture planning, task decomposition

agent-teams:team-reviewer All tools Code review with structured findings

agent-teams:team-debugger All tools Hypothesis-driven investigation

agent-teams:team-implementer All tools Building features within file ownership boundaries

agent-teams:team-lead All tools Team orchestration and coordination

Key distinction: Read-only agents (Explore, Plan) cannot modify files. Never assign implementation tasks to read-only agents.

Display Mode Configuration

Configure in ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "teammateMode": "tmux"
}

Mode Behavior Best For

"tmux" Each teammate in a tmux pane Development workflows, monitoring multiple agents

"iterm2" Each teammate in an iTerm2 tab macOS users who prefer iTerm2

"in-process" All teammates in same process Simple tasks, CI/CD environments

Custom Team Guidelines

When building custom teams:

• Every team needs a coordinator — Either designate a team-lead or have the user coordinate directly

• Match roles to agent types — Use specialized agents (reviewer, debugger, implementer) when available

• Avoid duplicate roles — Two agents doing the same thing wastes resources

• Define boundaries upfront — Each teammate needs clear ownership of files or responsibilities

• Keep it small — 2-4 teammates is the sweet spot; 5+ requires significant coordination overhead

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