Agent Types

Choose the right agent type for each role in your team. Agent types determine what tools are available and what the agent is optimized for.

Related skills:

•Orchestrating - Primitives overview and quick reference
•Team Management - Spawning agents into teams
•Orchestration Patterns - Patterns that combine different agent types

Agent Type Selection Guide

Need	Agent Type	Why
Search/read code	Explore	Read-only, fast, cheap (haiku)
Architecture design	Plan	Read-only, thoughtful analysis
Run commands/git	Bash	Shell access only
Multi-step implementation	general-purpose	Full tool access
Claude Code questions	claude-code-guide	Docs and web access
Security review	sdlc:security-reviewer	Vulnerability assessment, secure coding
Code quality review	sdlc:quality-enforcer	Formatting, linting, code style
Code simplification	code-simplifier:code-simplifier	Clarity, consistency, minimalism
Architecture analysis	refactor:architect	Design review, optimization planning
Best practices research	adr:adr-researcher	Codebase analysis + web research
Deep code exploration	feature-dev:code-explorer	Trace execution paths, map architecture
Code review	feature-dev:code-reviewer	Bugs, logic errors, conventions
Chunk-level file analysis	swarm:rlm-chunk-analyzer	Haiku, fast, structured JSON output
Synthesize chunk findings	swarm:rlm-synthesizer	Sonnet, aggregation and deduplication

Key rule: Match the agent's tool access to the task requirements. Read-only agents (Explore, Plan) cannot edit or write files. Never assign them implementation work.

Built-in Agent Types

These are always available without plugins:

Bash

javascript

Task({
  subagent_type: "Bash",
  description: "Run git commands",
  prompt: "Check git status and show recent commits"
})

•Tools: Bash only
•Model: Inherits from parent
•Best for: Git operations, command execution, system tasks

Explore

javascript

Task({
  subagent_type: "Explore",
  description: "Find API endpoints",
  prompt: "Find all API endpoints in this codebase. Be very thorough.",
  model: "haiku"  // Fast and cheap
})

•Tools: All read-only tools (no Edit, Write, NotebookEdit, Task)
•Model: Haiku (optimized for speed)
•Best for: Codebase exploration, file searches, code understanding
•Thoroughness levels: "quick", "medium", "very thorough"

Plan

javascript

Task({
  subagent_type: "Plan",
  description: "Design auth system",
  prompt: "Create an implementation plan for adding OAuth2 authentication"
})

•Tools: All read-only tools
•Model: Inherits from parent
•Best for: Architecture planning, implementation strategies

general-purpose

javascript

Task({
  subagent_type: "general-purpose",
  description: "Research and implement",
  prompt: "Research React Query best practices and implement caching for the user API"
})

•Tools: All tools (*)
•Model: Inherits from parent
•Best for: Multi-step tasks, research + action combinations

claude-code-guide

javascript

Task({
  subagent_type: "claude-code-guide",
  description: "Help with Claude Code",
  prompt: "How do I configure MCP servers?"
})

•Tools: Read-only + WebFetch + WebSearch
•Best for: Questions about Claude Code, Agent SDK, Anthropic API

statusline-setup

javascript

Task({
  subagent_type: "statusline-setup",
  description: "Configure status line",
  prompt: "Set up a status line showing git branch and node version"
})

•Tools: Read, Edit only
•Model: Sonnet
•Best for: Configuring Claude Code status line

Plugin Agent Types

Installed plugins provide specialized agent types grouped by function.

Review Agents

javascript

// Security review
Task({
  subagent_type: "sdlc:security-reviewer",
  description: "Security audit",
  prompt: "Audit this PR for security vulnerabilities"
})

// Code quality
Task({
  subagent_type: "sdlc:quality-enforcer",
  description: "Quality check",
  prompt: "Check formatting, linting, and code style"
})

// Code review (bugs, logic, conventions)
Task({
  subagent_type: "feature-dev:code-reviewer",
  description: "Code review",
  prompt: "Review this code for bugs, logic errors, and adherence to project conventions"
})

// Code simplification
Task({
  subagent_type: "code-simplifier:code-simplifier",
  description: "Simplicity check",
  prompt: "Check if this implementation can be simplified"
})

// Architecture review
Task({
  subagent_type: "refactor:architect",
  description: "Architecture review",
  prompt: "Review the system architecture of the authentication module"
})

// General code review against plan and standards
Task({
  subagent_type: "superpowers:code-reviewer",
  description: "Plan compliance review",
  prompt: "Review implementation against the original plan and coding standards"
})

// SDLC compliance audit
Task({
  subagent_type: "sdlc:compliance-auditor",
  description: "Compliance audit",
  prompt: "Audit this project against all SDLC standards"
})

All review agents:

•sdlc:security-reviewer - Vulnerability assessment, supply chain security, secure coding
•sdlc:quality-enforcer - Formatting, linting, error handling, documentation standards
•sdlc:compliance-auditor - Full SDLC compliance audit
•feature-dev:code-reviewer - Bugs, logic errors, security, code quality, conventions
•code-simplifier:code-simplifier - Clarity, consistency, minimalism
•refactor:architect - Architectural analysis, optimization planning
•superpowers:code-reviewer - Review against plan and coding standards
•human-voice:voice-reviewer - Content voice and tone review

Research Agents

javascript

// Best practices and architectural research
Task({
  subagent_type: "adr:adr-researcher",
  description: "Research auth best practices",
  prompt: "Research current best practices for JWT authentication"
})

// Deep codebase exploration
Task({
  subagent_type: "feature-dev:code-explorer",
  description: "Analyze auth module",
  prompt: "Trace execution paths and map the architecture of the authentication module"
})

// Feature architecture design
Task({
  subagent_type: "feature-dev:code-architect",
  description: "Design feature architecture",
  prompt: "Design the architecture for adding OAuth2 authentication based on existing patterns"
})

// Memory/knowledge search
Task({
  subagent_type: "mnemonic:mnemonic-search-subcall",
  description: "Search prior knowledge",
  prompt: "Search for prior decisions and learnings about authentication"
})

All research agents:

•adr:adr-researcher - Codebase analysis + web search for best practices
•feature-dev:code-explorer - Trace execution paths, map architecture, understand dependencies
•feature-dev:code-architect - Design feature architectures based on existing patterns
•mnemonic:mnemonic-search-subcall - Iterative search across stored knowledge

Refactoring Agents

javascript

// Architecture analysis and planning
Task({
  subagent_type: "refactor:architect",
  description: "Plan refactoring",
  prompt: "Analyze code architecture and create a prioritized optimization plan"
})

// Implementation
Task({
  subagent_type: "refactor:code",
  description: "Implement refactoring",
  prompt: "Implement the architectural optimizations while preserving functionality"
})

// Test coverage
Task({
  subagent_type: "refactor:test",
  description: "Refactoring test coverage",
  prompt: "Analyze coverage, add missing tests, ensure all tests pass"
})

CI/CD and Infrastructure Agents

javascript

// CI pipeline design
Task({
  subagent_type: "sdlc:ci-architect",
  description: "Design CI pipeline",
  prompt: "Configure GitHub Actions workflow for this project"
})

Bug Reproduction and Testing

javascript

// Bug reproduction (full tool access)
Task({
  subagent_type: "general-purpose",
  description: "Validate bug",
  prompt: "Reproduce and validate this reported bug: [description]"
})

// Test generation
Task({
  subagent_type: "auto-harness:test-generator",
  description: "Generate tests",
  prompt: "Generate comprehensive test definitions for this component"
})

RLM Agents

javascript

// Chunk analysis (fast, cheap) - RLM plugin agent
Task({
  subagent_type: "swarm:rlm-chunk-analyzer",
  description: "Analyze log chunk",
  prompt: "Read /path/to/file.log lines 1-200 and analyze for errors. Return JSON findings."
})

// Synthesis (higher quality) - RLM plugin agent
Task({
  subagent_type: "swarm:rlm-synthesizer",
  description: "Synthesize findings",
  prompt: "Synthesize these chunk findings into a coherent report: [findings JSON]"
})

RLM agents (defined by this plugin):

•swarm:rlm-chunk-analyzer — Haiku model, reads file chunks via Read with offset/limit, returns structured JSON findings
•swarm:rlm-synthesizer — Sonnet model, aggregates findings from multiple chunk analyses into coherent reports

Agent Type Naming Convention

Plugin agents use the format: {plugin}:{agent-name} or {plugin}:{category}:{agent-name}

Examples:

•sdlc:security-reviewer
•feature-dev:code-reviewer
•refactor:architect
•code-simplifier:code-simplifier

Built-in agents use simple names: Bash, Explore, Plan, general-purpose, claude-code-guide, statusline-setup.

Swarm plugin agents follow the same convention:

•swarm:rlm-chunk-analyzer
•swarm:rlm-synthesizer