Team Communication Protocols

When you're running a team of agents, they need clear rules about when to ping each other versus blast everyone with a broadcast. This covers the three message types (direct, broadcast, shutdown), plan approval workflows where a lead reviews before an implementer starts coding, and how to gracefully tear down a team when work wraps up. The anti-patterns table is genuinely useful: it'll save you from having agents spam broadcasts for routine updates or accidentally deadlock waiting on each other. Most helpful when you're setting up a new team and need everyone on the same page about coordination, or when debugging why two agents aren't syncing at integration points.

skills.sh installs: 10K
GitHub stars: 42.4K
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add wshobson/agents --skill team-communication-protocols --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

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"
}

SKILL.md on GitHub