agent-development

# Agent Development for Claude Code Plugins

## Overview

Agents are autonomous subprocesses that handle complex, multi-step tasks independently. Understanding agent structure, triggering conditions, and system prompt design enables creating powerful autonomous capabilities.

**Key concepts:**
- Agents are FOR autonomous work, commands are FOR user-initiated actions
- Markdown file format with YAML frontmatter
- Triggering via description field with examples
- System prompt defines agent behavior
- Model and color customization

## Agent File Structure

### Complete Format

```markdown
---
name: agent-identifier
description: Use this agent when [triggering conditions]. Examples:

<example>
Context: [Situation description]
user: "[User request]"
assistant: "[How assistant should respond and use this agent]"
<commentary>
[Why this agent should be triggered]
</commentary>
</example>

<example>
[Additional example...]
</example>

model: inherit
color: blue
tools: ["Read", "Write", "Grep"]
---

You are [agent role description]...

**Your Core Responsibilities:**
1. [Responsibility 1]
2. [Responsibility 2]

**Analysis Process:**
[Step-by-step workflow]

**Output Format:**
[What to return]
```

## Frontmatter Fields

### name (required)

Agent identifier used for namespacing and invocation.

**Format:** lowercase, numbers, hyphens only
**Length:** 3-50 characters
**Pattern:** Must start and end with alphanumeric

**Good examples:**
- `code-reviewer`
- `test-generator`
- `api-docs-writer`
- `security-analyzer`

**Bad examples:**
- `helper` (too generic)
- `-agent-` (starts/ends with hyphen)
- `my_agent` (underscores not allowed)
- `ag` (too short, < 3 chars)

### description (required)

Defines when Claude should trigger this agent. **This is the most critical field.**

**Must include:**
1. Triggering conditions ("Use this agent when...")
2. Multiple `<example>` blocks showing usage
3. Context, user request, and assistant response in each example
4. `<commentary>` explainin