holocron/plugins/kyberforge/skills/agent-author

agent-author

Creates and improves agent definition files for Claude Code and GitHub Copilot CLI.

What it does

Scaffolds and fills in agent definition files at plugin/APM, project, or user scope. Project and user scope always generate a Claude Code + Copilot CLI file pair (.md + .agent.md) in one pass. Plugin/APM scope generates a single vendor-neutral .apm/agents/<name>.agent.md file instead — no separate Claude Code / Copilot split, since apm compile has no per-target field integrator (see ADR-0016). Also applies improvement signals — grill output, inline feedback, session context — to existing agent files. Bumps the version after every change: the resolved package's apm.yml at plugin/APM scope (minor for new agents, patch for improvements); project/user scope has no manifest to bump.

Before you start

Have ready: the agent's name (kebab-case), the root directory (plugin root, project root, or ~), a one-sentence purpose, and the triggering condition (when should the runtime delegate to this agent?).

Usage

/agent-author

Manual scaffold (human workflow):

bash scripts/new-agent.sh <agent-name> <root>

# Examples:
bash scripts/new-agent.sh code-reviewer packages/my-package/   # plugin/APM scope if packages/my-package/apm.yml has a type: field
bash scripts/new-agent.sh deploy-assistant .
bash scripts/new-agent.sh security-reviewer ~

Files

File	Purpose
SKILL.md	Skill instructions for agents — gotchas, the create/improve dispatch table, the scope dispatch table, the shared gates, and validation/close
scripts/new-agent.sh	Scaffolds agent definition file(s) from templates — a single .apm/agents/<name>.agent.md at plugin/APM scope, or a Claude Code + Copilot CLI pair at project/user scope
references/create.md	Create flow: prerequisites, scaffold and scope walk-up, what to fill in, package-root sources.md
references/improve.md	Improve flow: signal verification, root-cause grouping, generalizing, delegation over growth, ADR-0020 retrofit
references/contract.md	Description and body contract: three-part description shape, 250/400 tiers, delegation rule in place of a body word gate, invocation axis
references/plugin-scope.md	Plugin/APM scope field rules for the single vendor-neutral file, plus its pre-audit checklist
references/project-user-scope.md	Project/user scope field rules for the Claude Code + Copilot pair, both Copilot formats, plus its pre-audit checklist
references/deployment-modes.md	Scope hierarchy and precedence, scoped identifiers, cache isolation, path conventions
references/scripts.md	Conventions for new-agent.sh and the templates it copies: contract, template variables, file placement, error messages
references/sources.md	Research provenance — sources that informed this skill
assets/templates/claude-code.md	Annotated Claude Code agent definition template (project/user scope)
assets/templates/copilot.agent.md.template	Annotated Copilot CLI agent definition template (project/user scope)
assets/templates/apm-agent.md	Annotated vendor-neutral APM agent definition template (plugin/APM scope)
tests/new-agent.bats	(source-only) bats tests for scripts/new-agent.sh
assets/README.md	Directory meta-documentation for assets/
references/README.md	Directory meta-documentation for references/
scripts/README.md	Directory meta-documentation for scripts/
tests/README.md	(source-only) bats dependency instructions and run command

Rows marked (source-only) exist in the authoring source (.apm/skills/agent-author/) but are not present in an installed plugin: scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh strips <category>/<name>/tests when it generates the flat mirror, because these are dev-time fixtures no plugin host needs to discover (ADR-0017). Run them from a repo checkout, not from an install. The assets/templates/ rows above are unaffected — the exclusion is depth-scoped to <category>/<name>/tests, so template trees that themselves contain a tests/ directory ship intact.