team-composition-patterns

Best practices for composing multi-agent teams, selecting team sizes, choosing agent types, and configuring display modes for Claude Code's Agent Teams feature. Rule of thumb : Start with the smallest team that covers all required dimensions. Adding teammates increases coordination overhead. When spawning teammates with the Task tool, choose subagent_type based on what tools the teammate needs: Key distinction : Read-only agents (Explore, Plan) cannot modify files. Never assign implementation tasks to read-only agents. Configure in ~/.claude/settings.json : When building custom teams: - Deciding how many teammates to spawn for a task - Choosing between preset team configurations - Selecting the right agent type (subagent_type) for each role - Configuring teammate display modes (tmux, iTerm2, in-process) - Building custom team compositions for non-standard workflows - Size : 3 reviewers - Agents : 3x team-reviewer - Default dimensions : security, performance, architecture - Use when : Code changes need multi-dimensional quality assessment - Size : 3 investigators - Agents : 3x team-debugger - Default hypotheses : 3 competing hypotheses - Use when : Bug has multiple plausible root causes - Size : 3 (1 lead + 2 implementers) - Agents : 1x team-lead + 2x team-implementer - Use when : Feature can be decomposed into parallel work streams - Size : 4 (1 lead + 3 implementers) - Agents...