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 communica
Install
Use withClaudeCursorCodex
The file stays in the publisher's repository. PlugMCP does not host or rewrite it.
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, when a team-lead needs to review and approve an implementer's plan before work begins, when orchestrating a graceful team shutdown after all tasks are complete, or when debugging why teammates are not coordinating correctly at integration points.
name: team-communication-protocols
description: 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, when a team-lead needs to review and approve an implementer's plan before work begins, when orchestrating a graceful team shutdown after all tasks are complete, or when debugging why teammates are not coordinating correctly at integration points.
version: 1.0.2
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"
}
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.
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 — Select agent types and team size before establishing communication norms
parallel-feature-development — Use communication protocols to coordinate integration handoffs between parallel implementers
How do I install team-communication-protocols?
Download plugins/agent-teams/skills/team-communication-protocols/SKILL.md from the publisher, or copy the path and open the repository. PlugMCP lists the skill and does not host the file.
Where does team-communication-protocols live?
The publisher keeps it at https://github.com/wshobson/agents.
Which agents can use team-communication-protocols?
Claude, Cursor, and Codex can read a SKILL.md you add from the publisher's repository.