Teams Cheatsheet
Quick reference for how SNIPER v3 assembles agent teams. In v3, there are no standalone team YAML files. Instead, protocols define which agents are spawned for each phase. The lead-orchestrator reads the protocol definition and spawns agents accordingly.
For a deeper explanation of how agents collaborate, see Teams. For the overall framework design, see Architecture.
The 13 Agents
Every agent team in SNIPER v3 is composed from this fixed roster of 13 agents.
| Agent | Model | Role | Writes To |
|---|---|---|---|
lead-orchestrator | Opus | Coordinates teams, delegates work, manages gates | .sniper/ only |
analyst | Sonnet | Research, codebase analysis, spec production | docs/, .sniper/ |
architect | Opus | Architecture design, decision records, API contracts | docs/ |
product-manager | Sonnet | PRD writing, story creation with EARS criteria | docs/ |
backend-dev | Sonnet | Server-side implementation (worktree-isolated) | project source |
frontend-dev | Sonnet | Client-side implementation (worktree-isolated) | project source |
fullstack-dev | Sonnet | Full-stack implementation (worktree-isolated) | project source |
qa-engineer | Sonnet | Test writing, coverage analysis, acceptance validation | test files only |
code-reviewer | Opus | Multi-faceted review, risk scoring, spec reconciliation | docs/ |
gate-reviewer | Haiku | Automated checklist execution at phase boundaries | .sniper/gates/ |
retro-analyst | Sonnet | Post-protocol retrospective and learning capture | .sniper/ |
doc-writer | Sonnet | Incremental documentation updates | CLAUDE.md, README.md, docs/ |
memory-curator | Sonnet | Curates project memory (conventions, anti-patterns) | .sniper/memory/ |
Protocol Phase Map
Each protocol defines a sequence of phases. Each phase lists which agents are spawned and whether they run as a single agent or a team.
full -- Complete Project Lifecycle
7 phases -- discover, define, design, solve, implement, review, retro -- auto-retro: yes
| Phase | Agents | Strategy | Gate | Human Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | analyst | single | discover | No |
| define | product-manager | single | define | Yes |
| design | architect | single | design | Yes |
| solve | product-manager | single | solve | Yes |
| implement | fullstack-dev, qa-engineer | team | implement | No |
| review | code-reviewer | single | review | Yes |
| retro | retro-analyst | single | — | No |
Outputs: docs/discovery-brief.md, docs/codebase-overview.md, docs/prd.md, docs/architecture.md, docs/stories/, source code, test files, docs/review-report.md
feature -- Incremental Feature
6 phases -- define, design, solve, implement, review, retro -- auto-retro: yes
| Phase | Agents | Strategy | Gate | Human Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| define | product-manager | single | define | Yes |
| design | architect | single | design | Yes |
| solve | product-manager | single | solve | Yes |
| implement | fullstack-dev, qa-engineer | team | implement | No |
| review | code-reviewer | single | review | Yes |
| retro | retro-analyst | single | — | No |
Outputs: docs/prd.md, docs/architecture.md, docs/stories/, source code, test files, docs/review-report.md
patch -- Quick Fix
2 phases -- implement, review -- auto-retro: no
| Phase | Agents | Strategy | Gate | Human Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| implement | fullstack-dev | single | implement | No |
| review | code-reviewer | single | review | Yes |
No plan approval. The developer goes straight to coding.
Outputs: source code, test files, docs/review-report.md
ingest -- Codebase Ingestion
3 phases -- scan, document, extract -- auto-retro: no
| Phase | Agents | Strategy | Gate | Human Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| scan | analyst | single | ingest-scan | No |
| document | analyst | single | ingest-document | No |
| extract | analyst | single | ingest-extract | No |
Single-agent protocol. The analyst runs all three phases sequentially.
Outputs: docs/codebase-overview.md, docs/spec.md, .sniper/conventions.yaml
refactor -- Code Improvement
4 phases -- analyze, implement, review, retro -- auto-retro: yes
| Phase | Agents | Strategy | Gate | Human Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| analyze | analyst | single | refactor-analyze | No |
| implement | fullstack-dev | single | implement | No |
| review | code-reviewer | single | review | Yes |
All single-agent phases. Each phase hands off to the next agent in sequence.
Outputs: docs/spec.md, source code, test files, docs/review-report.md
explore -- Exploratory Analysis
1 phase -- discover -- auto-retro: no
| Phase | Agents | Strategy | Gate | Human Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | analyst | single | discover | No |
Lightest protocol. Single analyst explores and documents.
Outputs: docs/spec.md, docs/codebase-overview.md
hotfix -- Critical Fix
1 phase -- implement -- auto-retro: no
| Phase | Agents | Strategy | Gate | Human Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| implement | fullstack-dev | single | implement (non-blocking) | No |
Fastest path to production. No plan approval, non-blocking gate, no review phase.
Outputs: source code, test files
Agent Usage Across Protocols
Which agents appear in which protocols at a glance.
| Agent | full | feature | patch | ingest | refactor | explore | hotfix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
analyst | discover | -- | -- | scan, document, extract | analyze | discover | -- |
architect | design | design | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
product-manager | define, solve | define, solve | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
fullstack-dev | implement | implement | implement | -- | implement | -- | implement |
qa-engineer | implement | implement | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
code-reviewer | review | review | review | -- | review | -- | -- |
Always present but not listed in protocol phases: lead-orchestrator (coordinates all protocols), gate-reviewer (runs automatically at phase boundaries), retro-analyst (runs after protocols with auto_retro: true).
Spawn Strategies
Protocols specify how agents are launched for each phase:
| Strategy | Meaning |
|---|---|
single | One agent runs the phase alone. No TeamCreate needed. |
team | Multiple agents are spawned via TeamCreate and coordinate through tasks. |
Gate Flow
At every phase boundary, the gate-reviewer executes the phase checklist automatically:
- Lead-orchestrator completes a phase
- Gate-reviewer runs all checks from the phase checklist
- If all blocking checks pass, the protocol advances
- If any blocking check fails, the lead-orchestrator reassigns failed checks to the appropriate agent
When review.multi_model is enabled in config, the gate-reviewer runs checks with multiple models and applies consensus logic (unanimous or majority-wins).