Compose

MANDATORY PREPARATION

Invoke /agent-workflow, it contains workflow principles, anti-patterns, and the Context Gathering Protocol. Follow the protocol before proceeding, if no workflow context exists yet, you MUST run /teach-maestro first. Consult the agent-architecture reference in the agent-workflow skill for topology patterns and when multi-agent is justified.

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Design a multi-agent system. But first, are you sure you need one?

Step 1: Pre-Composition Check

Answer these before proceeding:

1. Has a single agent been tried and failed? (If no, try single agent first)
2. What specific limitation requires multiple agents? (If you can't name it, you don't need multi-agent)
3. Is the cost/latency increase justified? (Multi-agent = 2-10x cost and latency)

If you can't articulate a specific limitation, use /amplify on the single agent instead.

Step 2: Design the Topology

Choose the right architecture pattern (consult the agent-architecture reference in the agent-workflow skill):

For each agent in the system, define:

## Agent: [Name]
Role: [One sentence]
Responsibilities: [What it does]
Boundaries: [What it does NOT do]
Tools: [List of tools this agent has access to]
Input: [What it receives]
Output: [What it produces]

Step 3: Design Handoffs

For each agent-to-agent connection:

## Handoff: [Agent A] → [Agent B]
Trigger: [When does A hand off to B?]
Payload: [What data is passed?]
Expected response: [What does A expect back?]
Timeout: [How long to wait?]
Failure handling: [What if B fails?]

Step 4: Design the Supervisor

Every multi-agent system needs a supervisor:

• Monitors agent health and performance
• Routes tasks to appropriate agents
• Handles failures and escalation
• Enforces global constraints (budget, time, quality)

Composition Checklist