| 1 | --- |
| 2 | name: "agent-collaboration" |
| 3 | description: "Standard collaboration patterns for all squad agents — worktree awareness, decisions, cross-agent communication" |
| 4 | domain: "team-workflow" |
| 5 | confidence: "high" |
| 6 | source: "extracted from charter boilerplate — identical content in 18+ agent charters" |
| 7 | --- |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ## Context |
| 10 | |
| 11 | 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. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | 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. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | ## Patterns |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ### Worktree Awareness |
| 18 | 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. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | ### Decision Recording |
| 21 | After making a decision that affects other team members, write it to: |
| 22 | `.squad/decisions/inbox/{your-name}-{brief-slug}.md` |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Format: |
| 25 | ``` |
| 26 | ### {date}: {decision title} |
| 27 | **By:** {Your Name} |
| 28 | **What:** {the decision} |
| 29 | **Why:** {rationale} |
| 30 | ``` |
| 31 | |
| 32 | ### Cross-Agent Communication |
| 33 | 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. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | ### Reviewer Protocol |
| 36 | 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. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | ## Anti-Patterns |
| 39 | - Don't read all agent charters — you only need your own context + decisions.md |
| 40 | - Don't write directly to `.squad/decisions.md` — always use the inbox drop-box |
| 41 | - Don't modify other agents' history.md files — that's Scribe's job |
| 42 | - Don't assume CWD is the repo root — always use TEAM ROOT |