Getting it into your agent
One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.
npx agentmods add skills/basher83/agent-auditor/multi-agent-compositionnpx skills add basher83/agent-auditor --skill multi-agent-compositiongit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/basher83/agent-auditorWhat it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5 | $0.00113 | $0.01954 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00056 | $0.00977 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00023 | $0.00391 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00011 | $0.00195 |
Grade A, and why
multi-agent-composition scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 212 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Multi-Agent Composition
Master Claude Code's components, patterns, and principles to build effective agentic systems.
When to Use This Knowledge
Use this knowledge when:
- Learning Claude Code - Understanding what each component does
- Making architectural decisions - Choosing Skills vs Sub-Agents vs MCP vs Slash Commands
- Building custom solutions - Creating specialized agents or orchestration systems
- Scaling agentic workflows - Moving from single agents to multi-agent orchestration
- Debugging issues - Understanding why components behave certain ways
- Adding observability - Implementing hooks for monitoring and control
Quick Reference
The Core 4 Framework
Every agent is built on these four elements:
- Context - What information does the agent have?
- Model - What capabilities does the model provide?
- Prompt - What instruction are you giving?
- Tools - What actions can the agent take?
"Everything comes down to just four pieces. If you understand these, you will win."
Component Overview
| Component | Trigger | Use When | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skills | Agent-invoked | Repeat problems needing management | Domain-specific workflows |
| Sub-Agents | Tool-invoked | Parallelization & context isolation | Scale & batch operations |
| MCP Servers | As needed | External data/services | Integration with external systems |
| Slash Commands | Manual/tool | One-off tasks | Simple repeatable prompts |
| Hooks | Lifecycle events | Observability & control | Monitoring & blocking |
Composition Hierarchy
Skills (Top Layer)
├─→ Can use: Sub-Agents, Slash Commands, MCP Servers, Other Skills
└─→ Purpose: Orchestrate primitives for repeatable workflows
Sub-Agents (Execution Layer)
├─→ Can use: Slash Commands, Skills
└─→ Cannot nest other Sub-Agents
Slash Commands (Primitive Layer)
└─→ The fundamental building block
MCP Servers (Integration Layer)
└─→ Connect external systems
What ships with it
11 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
- anti-patterns/common-mistakes.md 13 KB
- examples/case-studies.md 30 KB
- examples/progression-example.md 7.7 KB
- patterns/context-in-composition.md 4.3 KB
- patterns/context-management.md 17 KB
- patterns/decision-framework.md 15 KB
- patterns/hooks-in-composition.md 24 KB
- patterns/orchestrator-pattern.md 18 KB
- reference/architecture.md 18 KB
- reference/core-4-framework.md 13 KB
- workflows/decision-tree.md 20 KB
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 2d ago First seen · 212 lines · 113 tokens per session scan A eb50270e4c8f
multi-agent-composition is a skill published in the GitHub repository basher83/agent-auditor (5 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 113 tokens to every session and 1,954 once invoked, about $0.0006 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.
Other skills, from other repositories
systematic-debugging
Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes.
brainstorming
You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation.
auto-perf-optimize
Run agent-driven VS Code performance or memory investigations. Use when asked to launch Code OSS, automate a VS Code scenario, run the Chat memory smoke runner, capture renderer heap snapshots, take workflow screenshots, compare run summaries, or drive a repeatable scenario before heap-snapshot analysis.
chat-perf
Run chat perf benchmarks and memory leak checks against the local dev build or any published VS Code version. Use when investigating chat rendering regressions, validating perf-sensitive changes to chat UI, or checking for memory leaks in the chat response pipeline.
chat-pet-sprite-creation
Use when creating or changing VS Code chat pet sprite art, sprite sheets, state animations, eye treatments, Stable/Insiders variants, or pet transitions under src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/browser/widget/media/chatPet.
cpu-profile-analysis
Analyze V8/Chrome CPU profiles (.cpuprofile) and DevTools trace files (Trace-.json). Use when: profiling performance, investigating slow functions, comparing code paths, finding bottlenecks, analyzing timeToRequest, understanding call trees from sampling profiler data, analyzing layout/paint/rendering, investigating…