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Agent Frontmatter Standard

Standard for all .claude/agents/*.md definitions in the federation.

Required frontmatter fields

FieldRequiredConvention
nameYesCharacter name, title case. Matches federation registry.
descriptionYesFormat: {rank} ({pillar}) {process}: {domain keywords}
modelYessonnet for all subagents. Never omit.

Description format

{rank} ({pillar})   {process}: {domain keywords}
  • rank: One of the 4 federation ranks — Commander, Captain, Colonel, General
  • pillar: FORGE, FOUNDATION, FLOW, FIRE, SYNTHESIS. Captains omit pillar.
  • process: Primary action verb — execute, search, route, audit, assess, plan, revert
  • domain keywords: Comma-separated domain scope

Examples:

  • Commander (FOUNDATION) execute: health, quit smoking, wellness
  • Captain route: inbox pipeline, routing, intent classification
  • Commander (SYNTHESIS) search: research, deep investigation
  • Captain audit: daily/weekly pipeline health, data ingestion

Process type assignments

ProcessMeaningAssigned to
executePerforms domain work directlyMost commanders, Jimmy Neutron
searchResearch, investigation, appraisalL, Ging, Zepile
routeClassifies and routes itemsCanary
auditPipeline health, data quality, scoutingOrochimaru
assessEvaluation, scoring, maturity reviewMeruem
planArchitecture, strategy planning(available for future agents)
revertRollback, undo operations(available for future agents)

Optional frontmatter fields (available per 04_subagents spec)

FieldConvention
toolsCommanders: Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob. Captains: add Bash, Agent. WebSearch: ging, zuko, trunks, l-research only.
permissionModeacceptEdits for all (inherits from parent).
maxTurnsCommanders: 20. Captains: 30.
memoryproject for all (builds institutional knowledge per .claude/agent-memory/[name]/).
colorBy pillar: FORGE=blue, FOUNDATION=green, FIRE=red, SYNTHESIS=purple, Captains=orange.
hooksPer-agent lifecycle hooks (SubagentStop auto-converted from Stop).
skillsPreloaded skills for the agent.

Rank hierarchy (4 ranks)

RankCountAgent files?Role
General1 (Hinata)NoOrchestrator, sole write authority
Colonel5 (pillar heads)NoPillar-level synthesis, colonel context files only
Captain4YesCross-cutting system agents
Commander~19YesDomain-specific execution

Validation rules

  1. Every .claude/agents/*.md MUST have name, description, model
  2. Description MUST preserve rank — never strip Commander/Captain
  3. Description MUST include process type after rank
  4. Agent name in description field is redundant (name field carries it) — omit
  5. No agent may use subagent_type: "general-purpose" — forbidden

Cross-links: supreme-court/runtime/domain-registry | supreme-court/format-design/naming-conventions