Creating Agents

Create DevForgeAI-aware Claude Code subagents through guided specification with framework compliance validation.

Output: .claude/agents/{name}.md (subagent file) + optional reference file Invoked by: /create-agent command Delegates to: agent-generator subagent v2.0

Execution Model

This skill expands inline. After invocation, execute Phase 00 Initialization immediately. Do not wait passively, ask permission, or offer execution options.

Self-Check (if ANY box is true = VIOLATION):

• ] Stopping to ask about token budget
• ] Stopping to offer execution options
• ] Waiting passively for user to say "go"
• ] Asking "should I execute this?"
• ] Skipping a phase because it "seems simple"
• ] Skipping reference loading because "already covered"
• ] Generating agent file without completing Phase 05 validation

IF any box checked: EXECUTION MODEL VIOLATION. Go directly to Phase 00 Initialization now.

Anti-Skip Enforcement Contract

This skill enforces 4 independent anti-skip layers. ALL FOUR must fail for a step to be skipped:

1. Per-phase reference loading - Each phase loads its reference file fresh via Read(). NOT consolidated. Prevents "already covered" rationalization.
2. Checkpoint-based state tracking - Phase completion verified by checking checkpoint JSON data keys and current_phase field.
3. Artifact verification - Checkpoint JSON existence checked via Glob(), generated files verified on disk.
4. Step registry with data key completion - Each phase has minimum step counts and required data keys. Phase exit criteria checked before proceeding.

Execute-Verify-Record Pattern: Every mandatory step in every phase file has three parts:

• EXECUTE: The exact Read, Write, AskUserQuestion, or Task call to perform
• VERIFY: How to confirm the action happened (file exists, data key populated, response non-empty)
• RECORD: Update checkpoint JSON with captured data

Token Optimization Bias is PROHIBITED. Do not skip, compress, or shortcut any step. Every phase step exists because a previous failure proved it necessary.

Parameter Extraction

Extract from conversation context:

| Parameter | Source | Default | |-----------|--------|---------| | $NAME | First argument after /create-agent | null (will ask in Phase 02) | | $MODE | --template=, --domain=, --spec=, or guided | "guided" | | $TEMPLATE | Value from --template= flag | null | | $DOMAIN | Value from --domain= flag | null | | $SPEC_FILE | Value from --spec= flag | null | | $RESUME_ID | --resume AGENT-NNN argument | null (new session) |

Phase 00: Initialization INLINE - Bootstraps State]

This phase runs inline because it creates the state that all other phases depend on.

Step 0.1: Parse Arguments

IF conversation contains "--resume AGENT-":
  Extract AGENT_ID from argument
  MODE = "resume"
ELSE:
  MODE = "new"
  Extract $NAME, $MODE, $TEMPLATE, $DOMAIN, $SPEC_FILE from conversation markers

Step 0.2: Handle Resume Mode

IF MODE == "resume":
  checkpoint_path = "devforgeai/workflows/agent-creation/${AGENT_ID}.checkpoint.json"
  Glob(pattern=checkpoint_path)

  IF found:
    Read(file_path=checkpoint_path)
    Restore session state from checkpoint
    CURRENT_PHASE = checkpoint.progress.current_phase
    Display: "Resuming ${AGENT_ID} from Phase ${CURRENT_PHASE}"
    GOTO Phase Orchestration Loop at CURRENT_PHASE
  ELSE:
    Display: "No checkpoint found for ${AGENT_ID}."
    AskUserQuestion:
      Question: "No checkpoint found. What would you like to do?"
      Header: "Resume"
      Options:
        - label: "Start a new agent creation"
          description: "Begin fresh session"
        - label: "Cancel"
          description: "Exit without action"
    IF "Start new": MODE = "new", continue below
    IF "Cancel": EXIT skill

Step 0.3: Generate Session ID (New Session)

IF MODE == "new":
  # Scan for highest existing ID
  Glob(pattern="devforgeai/workflows/agent-creation/AGENT-*.checkpoint.json")

  # Extract highest NNN, increment
  AGENT_ID = "AGENT-{NNN+1}" (zero-padded to 3 digits minimum)

  # Ensure output directory exists
  Glob(pattern="devforgeai/workflows/agent-creation/.gitkeep")
  IF not found: Create directory structure

Step 0.4: Create Initial Checkpoint

checkpoint = {
  "checkpoint_version": "1.0",
  "session_id": AGENT_ID,
  "created_at": "current timestamp",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "progress": {
    "current_phase": 0,
    "phases_completed": [],
    "completion_percentage": 0
  },
  "parameters": {
    "agent_name": $NAME,
    "creation_mode": $MODE,
    "domain": $DOMAIN,
    "template_name": $TEMPLATE,
    "spec_file": $SPEC_FILE
  },
  "framework_context": {
    "references_loaded": [],
    "context_files_required": []
  },
  "specification": {
    "name": null,
    "purpose": null,
    "domain": null,
    "tools": [],
    "model": null,
    "responsibilities": [],
    "integration_skills": [],
    "context_files": []
  },
  "generation": {
    "generated_files": {},
    "validation_results": null,
    "reference_file_needed": false
  },
  "phases": {
    "01": { "status": "pending", "steps_completed": [] },
    "02": { "status": "pending", "steps_completed": [], "questions_answered": 0 },
    "03": { "status": "pending", "steps_completed": [] },
    "04": { "status": "pending", "steps_completed": [] },
    "05": { "status": "pending", "steps_completed": [] },
    "06": { "status": "pending", "steps_completed": [] }
  }
}

Write(file_path="devforgeai/workflows/agent-creation/${AGENT_ID}.checkpoint.json", content=checkpoint)

VERIFY: Glob(pattern="devforgeai/workflows/agent-creation/${AGENT_ID}.checkpoint.json") IF not found: HALT -- "Initial checkpoint was NOT created."

Step 0.5: Display Session Banner

Display:
"━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  DevForgeAI Agent Creation
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Session: ${AGENT_ID}
Mode: ${MODE}
Agent Name: ${NAME || 'To be determined in Phase 2'}

Phases: 6 (Context > Requirements > Specification > Generation > Validation > Handoff)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"

Set CURRENT_PHASE = 1.

Phase Orchestration Loop

FOR phase_num in range(CURRENT_PHASE, 7):  # Phases 01-06

    1. LOAD: Read(file_path="src/claude/skills/spec-driven-agents/phases/{phase_files[phase_num]}")
       Load the phase file FRESH. Do NOT rely on memory of previous reads.

    2. REFERENCE: Read the phase's reference file as specified in the phase Contract section.
       Each phase references a file in src/claude/skills/spec-driven-agents/references/.

    3. EXECUTE: Follow EVERY step in the phase file using EXECUTE-VERIFY-RECORD triplets.
       - Each step's EXECUTE tells you exactly what action to perform
       - Each step's VERIFY tells you how to confirm the action happened
       - Each step's RECORD tells you how to update the checkpoint

    4. EXIT CRITERIA: Verify ALL phase exit criteria are met before proceeding.
       IF any required data key is null or empty: HALT.

    5. CHECKPOINT: Update checkpoint JSON with phase completion.
       Write updated checkpoint to disk.

    6. CONTEXT CHECK: If estimated context > 70%, offer save-and-resume via AskUserQuestion.
       IF user chooses "Save and resume later":
         Write final checkpoint, display resume command, EXIT skill.

Phase Table

| Phase | Name | File | Min Steps | Required Data | |-------|------|------|-----------|---------------| | 00 | Initialization | (inline above) | 5 | session_id, checkpoint on disk | | 01 | Framework Context Loading | phases/phase-01-framework-context.md | 3 | references_loaded>=3] | | 02 | Requirements Gathering | phases/phase-02-requirements-gathering.md | 5 | agent_name, purpose, domain, tools, model | | 03 | Specification Assembly | phases/phase-03-specification-assembly.md | 3 | spec_file on disk | | 04 | Agent Generation | phases/phase-04-agent-generation.md | 2 | generated_file on disk | | 05 | Validation | phases/phase-05-validation.md | 3 | validation_status, 12-point results | | 06 | Result Processing | phases/phase-06-result-handoff.md | 3 | output displayed, checkpoint deleted |

Required Subagents

| Phase | Subagent | Enforcement | |-------|----------|-------------| | 04 | agent-generator | BLOCKING (must invoke via Task, cannot generate inline) |

State Persistence

• Checkpoint: devforgeai/workflows/agent-creation/${AGENT_ID}.checkpoint.json
• Output: .claude/agents/{name}.md (generated subagent)
• Reference (if needed): .claude/agents/{name}/references/{name}-patterns.md
• Templates: src/claude/skills/spec-driven-agents/assets/templates/ (loaded via Read, not duplicated)

Workflow Completion Validation

IF phases_completed < 6: HALT "WORKFLOW INCOMPLETE - {completed_count}/6 phases"
IF generated_file not on disk (Glob returns empty): HALT "Subagent file not generated"
IF validation_status != "PASS" and validation_status != "PASS WITH WARNINGS": HALT "Validation not passed"
IF checkpoint still exists: Delete checkpoint (session complete)

Error Handling

Load error recovery patterns from: src/claude/skills/spec-driven-agents/references/error-handling.md

Graceful Degradation Priority:

1. User specification data (highest - never lose)
2. Framework context
3. Validation results
4. Reference file generation (lowest - can skip with user approval)

Success Criteria

• All 6 phases executed (no skipping)
• Subagent file exists on disk with all 10 required sections
• 12-point validation passed (or PASS WITH WARNINGS acknowledged)
• Checkpoint deleted after successful completion
• Next steps displayed to user
• Integration points documented

Templates

Available in src/claude/skills/spec-driven-agents/assets/templates/:

| Template | Domain | Purpose | |----------|--------|---------| | code-reviewer-template.md | QA | Code quality, security, best practices review | | test-automator-template.md | QA | TDD test generation (unit, integration, E2E) | | documentation-writer-template.md | Documentation | Technical docs, API specs, user guides | | deployment-coordinator-template.md | Deployment | Infrastructure, CI/CD, release management | | requirements-analyst-template.md | Architecture | User story creation, acceptance criteria | | skill-template.md | Meta | Skill creation template | | command-template-lean-orchestration.md | Meta | Command refactoring subagents |

Integration with DevForgeAI

This skill is invoked by:

• /create-agent command (primary entry point)
• Direct invocation: Skill(command="spec-driven-agents")

This skill invokes:

• agent-generator subagent v2.0 (Phase 04, for actual generation)

Created subagents work with:

• All DevForgeAI skills (spec-driven-dev, spec-driven-qa, spec-driven-architecture, etc.)
• Claude Code workflows (official pattern compliance)