task-coordination-strategies Skill (wshobson) for Claude: What It Does and How to Install It

Gives Claude patterns for splitting work across an agent team: how to divide tasks, order dependencies and keep teammates busy.

Installs: 10K; on skills.sh
Stars: 42.1K; on GitHub
Files: 2; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Oct 2026; last repo commit

This skill is reference material for Claude Code's experimental Agent Teams feature. When you ask Claude to break down a complex task, design task dependencies, or rebalance work across teammates, it uses the decomposition strategies, dependency-graph patterns and task description template in SKILL.md.

It names four ways to split work (by layer, component, concern or file ownership), three dependency graph shapes, a six-part task description template, and a table of workload-imbalance signals with fixes. It bundles two reference files and no scripts, and it assumes you already have Agent Teams and its TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList and SendMessage tools available.

Good for

People running Claude Code Agent Teams on a multi-part feature
Leads who need task descriptions with clear ownership and acceptance criteria
Anyone designing a dependency graph to avoid a bottleneck
Teams monitoring workload across several agent teammates

Install task-coordination-strategies

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the task-coordination-strategies skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

/plugin marketplace add wshobson/agents
/plugin install agent-teams@claude-code-workflows

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

Requires CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1.

Pick one route. The agent-teams plugin installs 6 skills, 4 agents and 7 commands (counted from the plugin folder in the repo tree, which has no hooks or MCP config files). The skills-only routes install just this skill. All routes need the experimental Agent Teams feature turned on in Claude Code.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Decompose complex tasks, design dependency graphs, and coordinate multi-agent work with proper task descriptions and workload balancing. Use this skill when breaking down work for agent teams, managing task dependencies, or monitoring team progress.

Sections in SKILL.md

When to Use This Skill
Task Decomposition Strategies
By Layer
By Component
By Concern
By File Ownership
Dependency Graph Design
Principles
Patterns
Using blockedBy/blocks
Task Description Best Practices
Template
Objective
Owned Files
Requirements
Interface Contract

Key facts

Author: Seth Hobson, per the agent-teams plugin manifest
License: MIT
Installs on skills.sh: 10,028 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 42,081 for the whole wshobson/agents repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Last repo commit: Oct 30, 2026
What it includes: 3 files including SKILL.md: references/dependency-graphs.md and references/task-decomposition.md (no scripts)
Skill version: 1.0.2, per the SKILL.md frontmatter
Part of: The agent-teams plugin (version 1.0.4): 6 skills, 4 agents and 7 commands, counted from the plugin folder in the repo tree
Needs: Claude Code with the experimental Agent Teams feature (CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1) and its TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList and SendMessage tools

What it includes

Split work by layer, component, concern or file
Four ways to divide a task, each with a "best for" note: by architectural layer, functional component, cross-cutting concern, or file/directory ownership.
Try: “Break this feature down by file ownership for 3 implementers.”
Read · Task decomposition strategies
Independent, sequential and diamond patterns
Covers minimizing chain depth, finding the critical path, using blockedBy sparingly, and avoiding circular dependencies. The dependency-graphs.md reference adds the visual patterns and their trade-offs.
Read · Dependency graph design
Objective, owned files, requirements, interface, acceptance, scope
A six-part template for writing one task so a teammate knows exactly what to build and what is out of scope.
Write · Task description template
Wires blockedBy relationships between tasks
Shows the TaskCreate and TaskUpdate calls that create three tasks and make one wait on the other two.
Runs code · TaskCreate/TaskUpdate usage
Signals of imbalance and rebalancing steps
A table of signals (idle teammate, one stuck, all blocked, one overloaded) with the likely meaning and action, plus a 5-step rebalancing procedure using TaskList, TaskUpdate and SendMessage.
Try: “Check team status and rebalance if anyone has 3x the tasks of others.”
Read · Workload monitoring

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

The skill itself is reference text with no scripts. The plugin route it comes from adds agents and commands that can spawn and message other Claude Code teammates, so install the skills-only route if you want this skill alone.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

The plugin route adds 4 agents and 7 commands
Installing agent-teams adds 6 skills, 4 agents and 7 commands (counted from the plugin folder). The agent files list tools including Bash for all four, Write and Edit for team-implementer, and Agent, TeamCreate, TeamDelete and SendMessage for team-lead, so they can run commands, edit files and spawn teammates. Commands include /team-spawn and /team-delegate. Use the skills-only install if you want just this skill. github.com

Security advisories

No published security advisories as of Nov 2, 2026.

Technical details

Turning on read-only	Nothing to switch: the skill bundles no scripts and is reference text.
Sign-in and keys	SKILL.md names no account or key.
Scopes	Only changes how Claude plans and splits tasks for an agent team

Questions

What does the task-coordination-strategies skill do?

It gives Claude patterns for splitting a complex task across an agent team: how to divide the work, order dependencies between tasks, write clear task descriptions, and rebalance workload.

How do I install it?

Use the install box at the top of this page. The plugin route installs the whole agent-teams plugin; skills-only commands install just this skill. Either way you need Claude Code’s experimental Agent Teams feature turned on.

Do I need Agent Teams enabled to use it?

Yes. The plugin README says to set CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1 and configure a teammateMode in settings.json before using any agent-teams feature.

Does it work in Codex or the Claude app?

SKILL.md and the plugin README describe Claude Code’s own Agent Teams feature and its TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList and SendMessage tools. We saw no Codex or claude.ai route for this feature in the README.

Does it need an API key?

SKILL.md names no key. It is reference text plus two reference files, no scripts.

Is it safe?

The skill bundles no scripts and only changes how Claude plans and assigns tasks. The plugin route installs more than this skill: 4 agents (with Bash, and for team-implementer Write and Edit, in their tool lists) and 7 commands that spawn and message teammates, so use the skills-only route if you want this skill alone.

How is it different from team-composition-patterns?

The agent-teams plugin lists team-composition-patterns as a separate skill for choosing which agent types to put on a team. This one is about splitting the work and its dependencies once the team exists.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: wshobson/agents
Folder: plugins/agent-teams/skills/task-coordination-strategies

wshobson/agents skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 5

task-coordination-strategies SKILL.md · github.com
agent-teams plugin README · github.com
agent-teams plugin.json · github.com
agent-teams team-lead agent · github.com
agent-teams team-implementer agent · github.com