nw-agent-creation-workflow

Agent Creation Workflow

Overview

Create agents through 5 phases: ANALYZE -> DESIGN -> CREATE -> VALIDATE -> REFINE. Each phase has clear inputs, outputs, and quality gates. Follow "start minimal, add based on failure."

Phase 1: ANALYZE

Goal: Understand requirements and determine agent architecture.

Inputs: User requirements, use case description, existing codebase context.

Steps:

1. Identify single clear responsibility
2. Determine new agent or modification of existing
3. Check overlap with existing agents (avoid duplication)
4. Classify agent type:
   • Specialist: Single-domain expert (most common)
   • Reviewer: Validates outputs from another agent (Reflection pattern)
   • Orchestrator: Coordinates multiple agents
5. Identify required tools (start with Read, Glob, Grep -- add only what's needed)
6. Determine if Skills needed (domain knowledge > 50 lines)

Gate: Single responsibility identified. Agent type classified. No overlap.

Output: Requirements summary with agent type, tools list, skill needs.

Phase 2: DESIGN

Goal: Design agent architecture and structure.

Inputs: Requirements summary from Phase 1.

Steps:

1. Select design pattern (load design-patterns skill)
2. Define role and goal (1-2 sentences each)
3. Identify core principles that DIVERGE from Claude defaults:
   • What must this agent do differently than Claude naturally would?
   • Domain-specific methodology steps
   • Non-obvious constraints | Project-specific conventions
4. Design workflow (3-7 phases)
5. Plan Skills extraction: domain knowledge -> separate Skill | Testing/validation -> separate Skill | Keep workflow and principles in core agent
6. Design Skill Loading Strategy (required for 3+ skills):
   • Map each skill to the workflow phase where it's needed
   • Create a loading table: Phase → Skill → Trigger condition
   • Add explicit Load: skill-name directives in each workflow phase
   • Document path: ~/.claude/skills/nw-{skill-name}/SKILL.md (installed) or nWave/skills/nw-{skill-name}/SKILL.md (repo)
   • Note: skills: in frontmatter is declarative only — Claude Code does NOT auto-load skill files. The agent must use Read tool to load them, triggered by Load: directives in workflow text.
7. Draft frontmatter:

   ---
   name: {kebab-case-id}
   description: Use for {domain}. {When to delegate.}
   model: inherit
   tools: [{minimum tools needed}]
   maxTurns: 30
   skills:
     - nw-{skill-name}
   ---