Design optimal agent team compositions with sizing heuristics, preset configurations, and agent type selection. Use this skill when deciding how many agents to spawn for a task, when choosing between a review team versus a feature team versus a debug team, when selecting the correct subagent_type for each role to ensure agents have the tools they need, when configuring display modes (tmux, iTerm2, in-process) for a CI or local environment, or when building a custom team composition for a non-standard workflow such as a migration or security audit.
Best practices for composing multi-agent teams, selecting team sizes, choosing agent types, and configuring display modes for Claude Code's Agent Teams feature.
| 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.
team-reviewerteam-debuggerteam-lead + 2x team-implementerteam-lead + 1x frontend team-implementer + 1x backend team-implementer + 1x test team-implementergeneral-purposeteam-reviewerteam-lead + 2x team-implementer + 1x team-reviewerWhen spawning teammates with the Agent 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.
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 |
When building custom teams:
team-lead or have the user coordinate directlyA teammate was spawned as Explore but needs to write files.
Explore and Plan are read-only agents. Change the subagent_type to general-purpose or an appropriate specialized agent type. Never assign implementation tasks to read-only agents.
The team is growing too large and coordination is slowing everything down. Each additional teammate adds communication overhead. Consolidate roles: can one agent cover two dimensions? A 4-person team doing 6 independent tasks is usually better served by 3 agents covering 2 tasks each.
tmux mode is not showing panes.
Ensure tmux is installed and a session is already running before spawning teammates. The in-process mode works without tmux and is suitable for CI or scripted environments.
Two reviewers are flagging the same issues. The review dimensions overlap. Redefine each reviewer's focus area: one on correctness/logic, one on security, one on performance/scalability. Overlapping coverage wastes tokens and produces duplicate findings.
A team-lead is spawning teammates but they are not receiving tasks.
Verify that the lead is using the Agent tool to spawn teammates and passing complete context in the prompt. Teammates start fresh with no prior conversation history — they need all relevant information in their initial prompt.