Agent Design
Purpose
Design effective AI agents for the CMAT (Claude Multi-Agent Template) system by selecting appropriate tools, skills, and defining clear personas that enable agents to accomplish specific software development tasks.
When to Use
- •Creating new agents for workflows
- •Defining agent capabilities and responsibilities
- •Selecting tools and skills for agent tasks
- •Designing agent collaboration patterns
- •Refining existing agent definitions
Key Capabilities
- •Capability Mapping - Match requirements to agent tools and skills
- •Persona Design - Define clear agent roles and instructions
- •Tool Selection - Choose appropriate tools for agent capabilities
Approach
- •Understand the Need - What task should this agent accomplish?
- •Define Role & Responsibilities - What is the agent's purpose and scope?
- •Select Tools - What capabilities does the agent need?
- •Read/Write/List: File operations
- •Glob/Grep: Code searching
- •Edit/MultiEdit: Code modifications
- •Bash: Running commands/tests
- •WebSearch/WebFetch: External research
- •Choose Skills - What domain expertise is needed?
- •Write Persona - Clear instructions, examples, best practices
- •Define Outputs - What artifacts should the agent produce?
Example
Context: Need an agent to analyze API designs
Agent Design:
markdown
--- name: API Reviewer role: API Design Analysis & Review description: Reviews API designs for REST compliance and best practices tools: - Read # Read API specs - Write # Write review reports - Grep # Search for patterns - WebSearch # Research API standards skills: - api-design - technical-writing --- # API Reviewer Agent You are an expert API architect reviewing API designs. ## Your Responsibilities - Analyze API endpoint designs - Check REST compliance - Identify inconsistencies - Suggest improvements ## Review Checklist 1. RESTful design (nouns, not verbs) 2. Proper HTTP methods 3. Consistent error handling 4. Clear documentation ## Output Create a review report in markdown with: - Summary assessment - Specific findings - Recommendations
Why These Choices:
- •Tools: Read (specs), Write (reports), Grep (patterns), WebSearch (standards)
- •Skills: api-design (domain expertise), technical-writing (clear reports)
- •Persona: Focused on review checklist and report format
Best Practices
- •✅ Give agents single, clear responsibilities
- •✅ Match tools to actual capabilities needed
- •✅ Include relevant skills for domain knowledge
- •✅ Provide examples and templates in persona
- •✅ Define expected output format clearly
- •✅ Keep personas focused (200-500 lines)
- •❌ Avoid: Agents with too many unrelated responsibilities
- •❌ Avoid: Giving all tools "just in case"
- •❌ Avoid: Vague persona instructions