Structured messaging protocols for agent team communication including message type selection, plan approval, shutdown procedures, and anti-patterns to avoid. Use this skill when establishing communication norms for a newly spawned team, when deciding whether to send a direct message or a broadcast,

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: Use for : Task updates, coordination, questions, integration notifications. broadcast — Use Sparingly Send to ALL teammates simultaneously: 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: 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 : Reject with feedback : 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 TeamDelete to remove team resources 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 : Always use name for messaging and task assignment. Never use agentId , role names, or unsuffixed aliases directly. If a teammate was spawned as team lead 2 , send to team lead 2 , not team lead . Troubleshooting A teammate is not responding to messages. Check the teammate's task status. If it is idle, it may have completed its task and is waiting to be assigned new work or shut down. If it is still active, it may be mid execution and will process messages once the current operation finishes. A teammate says it cannot see SendMessage. Check the teammate agent's tools: frontmatter. Agent Teams communication tools such as SendMessage , TaskList , TaskGet , and TaskUpdate must be listed explicitly when an agent uses a restricted tool allowlist. The lead is sending broadcasts for every status update. This is a common anti pattern. Broadcasts are expensive — each one sends N messages. Use direct messages ( type: "message" ) for point to point updates. Reserve broadcasts for critical shared resource changes like an updated interface contract. A teammate rejected a shutdown request unexpectedly. The teammate is still working. Check the rejection reason in the shutdown response content field, wait for the work to finish, then retry. Never force terminate a teammate that has unsaved work. A plan approval request arrived but the request id is missing. The teammate called ExitPlanMode without the required request context. Have the teammate re enter plan mode, complete exploration, and call ExitPlanMode again. The request id is generated automatically by the plan mode system. Two teammates are waiting on each other and neither is making progress. This is a deadlock: both are blocked waiting for the other to finish first. The lead should send a direct message to one teammate with a stub or partial result so it can unblock and proceed. Related Skills [team composition patterns](../team composition patterns/SKILL.md) — Select agent types and team size before establishing communication norms [parallel feature development](../parallel feature development/SKILL.md) — Use communication protocols to coordinate integration handoffs between parallel implementers

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