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Manus-style context engineering for Claude Code Agent Teams. Coordinate multiple Claude instances with shared planning files.

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Planning with Teams

License: MIT Claude Code Plugin Agent Teams Version Opus 4.6 skillcheck passed

Manus-style context engineering for Claude Code Agent Teams.

Coordinate multiple Claude Code instances with shared planning files, structured task assignment, and persistent working memory. The first skill to apply proven context engineering methodology to multi-agent workflows.

Based on planning-with-files methodology


⚠️ IMPORTANT: Agent Teams Must Be Enabled

Click to expand - You MUST enable Agent Teams before using this skill

Why This Matters

Without Agent Teams enabled, this skill will fall back to using Task subagents. While subagents work, they cannot use the native Agent Teams features:

  • ❌ No peer-to-peer messaging between teammates
  • ❌ No Teammate, SendMessage, TaskCreate tools
  • ❌ Limited to Task tool (standard subagents)

How to Enable

Option 1: Settings.json (Recommended)

Add this to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS": "1"
  }
}

Option 2: Environment Variable

Add to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):

export CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1

Verify It's Enabled

After enabling, restart Claude Code and check that the skill uses "Agent Teams" mode instead of "Task subagents" mode in the team plan.


Why This Exists

Claude Code's Agent Teams feature lets you coordinate multiple Claude instances working in parallel. But without proper coordination:

  • Teammates forget the overall goal
  • Findings get siloed in individual contexts
  • Work gets duplicated or conflicts
  • Token costs skyrocket with no benefit

Planning with Teams solves this by applying Manus principles to multi-agent coordination:

Single Agent:     Context Window = RAM (volatile)
                  Filesystem = Disk (persistent)

Agent Team:       Each Agent = Separate RAM (isolated)
                  Shared Files = Shared Disk (accessible to ALL)

→ Shared planning files become the team's "collective memory"

Features

  • 100% Native Agent Teams — Uses Anthropic's built-in Teammate, SendMessage, TaskCreate tools
  • Shared Planning Filesteam_plan.md, team_findings.md, team_progress.md
  • Manus Methodology — Re-read before decide, log errors, 3-Strike Protocol
  • Clear Ownership — File ownership prevents conflicts
  • Hooks Integration — Automatic status checks on session end
  • Cross-Platform Scripts — Bash, PowerShell, and Python utilities

Quick Start

1. Enable Agent Teams

# In your shell
export CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1

# Or in settings.json
{
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS": "1"
  }
}

2. Install the Plugin

# Add marketplace
/plugin marketplace add OthmanAdi/planning-with-teams

# Install plugin
/plugin install planning-with-teams

Or clone manually:

git clone https://github.com/OthmanAdi/planning-with-teams.git ~/.claude/plugins/planning-with-teams

3. Use It

/team

Or describe your task:

Create an agent team to review PR #142 for security, performance, and test coverage.
Use planning-with-teams for coordination.

How It Works

The Coordination Pattern

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    TEAM LEAD                             │
│         └─ Creates team_plan.md                         │
│         └─ Assigns phases to teammates                   │
│         └─ Synthesizes team_findings.md                  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  TEAMMATE 1        TEAMMATE 2        TEAMMATE 3         │
│  (Phase 1)         (Phase 2)         (Phase 3)          │
│       │                 │                 │              │
│       └─────────────────┴─────────────────┘              │
│                         │                                │
│               SHARED PLANNING FILES                      │
│       team_plan.md | team_findings.md | team_progress    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The Three Shared Files

File Purpose Who Updates
team_plan.md Shared roadmap, phases, status Lead + all teammates
team_findings.md Discoveries, errors, decisions All teammates
team_progress.md Session log, activity tracking All teammates

Each Teammate Follows Manus Rules

  1. Read team_plan.md before major decisions — Re-orients to team goal
  2. Write findings immediately — Don't wait, context is volatile
  3. Apply 3-Strike Error Protocol — Log failures, don't repeat
  4. Message lead when phase complete — Coordination

Commands

Command Autocomplete Description
/planning-with-teams:plan Type /plan Start team planning (v1.1.0+)
/planning-with-teams:status Type /status Show team progress at a glance (v1.1.0+)
/planning-with-teams:team Type /team Guided team setup
/planning-with-teams:spawn-team Type /spawn Quick spawn team for a task
/planning-with-teams:team-status Get comprehensive status report

New in v1.1.0: /plan and /status commands for consistency with planning-with-files.


When to Use Agent Teams

Use teams for:

  • Parallel code review (security + performance + tests)
  • Research with competing hypotheses
  • Feature development (frontend + backend + tests)
  • Large refactoring (multiple modules)
  • Debugging with multiple theories

Don't use teams for:

  • Simple single-file edits
  • Sequential dependent work
  • Tasks under 5 tool calls
  • Same-file modifications (conflict risk)

Examples

Parallel Code Review

Create an agent team to review PR #142:

Teammate 1 (security-reviewer):
- Focus on security vulnerabilities
- Write to team_findings.md under "## Security Findings"

Teammate 2 (perf-reviewer):
- Focus on performance impact
- Write to team_findings.md under "## Performance Findings"

Teammate 3 (test-reviewer):
- Focus on test coverage
- Write to team_findings.md under "## Test Coverage"

Debugging with Competing Hypotheses

Create an agent team to investigate the connection dropout bug:

Spawn 4 investigators with different hypotheses:
1. WebSocket handling issue
2. Timeout/keepalive misconfiguration
3. State management corruption
4. Memory leak

Have them document evidence FOR and AGAINST in team_findings.md,
challenge each other's findings, and converge on root cause.

See examples.md for more.


Token Economics

Mode Cost When to Use
Single agent 1x Simple tasks
Subagents 1.5-2x Focused delegation
Agent Teams 3-5x Complex parallel work

Agent Teams are expensive. Use them when parallel exploration genuinely adds value.


Requirements

  • Claude Code 2.1.32+
  • CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1
  • For split-pane mode: tmux or iTerm2

Documentation


Related Projects


License

MIT License - see LICENSE


Author

Ahmad Othman Ammar Adi