team — long-lived provider teammates

Run a third-party provider model as a real Claude Code teammate in a tmux pane: same tool stack and team coordination as a native teammate, LLM backend swapped to the provider. Your main session's own auth stays untouched.

Wrong lane? A fire-and-forget one-shot or flat batch → /cc-fleet:subagent; a scripted multi-phase run → /cc-fleet:workflow; full arbitration in cc-fleet-shared/routing.md.

When this skill cites cc-fleet-shared/<file>.md, OPEN it with the Read tool at ../cc-fleet-shared/<file>.md relative to this SKILL.md — the cited content is load-bearing, not optional background.

Precondition — agent-teams must be ON: check your own tool list for SendMessage / TeamCreate; absent → do NOT spawn (an unmessageable pane bills the provider with no work) — enablement + fallback in cc-fleet-shared/routing.md.

Core loop

Steps 1, 3, 6 are native tools; steps 2, 5, 6a are cc-fleet via Bash with --json.

1. TeamCreate({team_name: "<team>"})
   ← native, FIRST — the main session becomes the lead

2. cc-fleet spawn [<provider>] --as <name> --team <team> [--model <slot|id>] --json
   ← Bash; check ok:true, grab .pane_id / .agent_id
   The provider arg is OPTIONAL — omitted, the default provider applies
   (see "The provider ask ladder"). Full flag table: cc-fleet-shared/cli-reference.md.

3. SendMessage({to: "<name>", message: "<task>. When done, send your result
   back with SendMessage."})
   ← native; always tell it to report — see "Getting a result back"

4. (optional) repeat 2+3 to fan out more workers in parallel

5. wait for idle notifications — WITH a timeout. A teammate on a failed
   provider API (429 / out-of-balance / 401) wedges in a retry loop and never
   goes idle, so "just wait" blocks forever. Poll cc-fleet ps --json --check
   and dispatch on error_class — see "Watching for stuck teammates".

6. report to the user, then ASK before tearing down. On confirm, BOTH, in order:
   a. cc-fleet teardown <team> --json   ← Bash FIRST: kills provider panes + reaps procs
   b. TeamDelete()                      ← native SECOND: removes the team/tasks dirs

On a spawn failure (ok:false), dispatch on error_code — table + self-heal flow in cc-fleet-shared/troubleshooting.md.

Teardown order — two hard rules (apply to wedged and probe teams too):

1. cc-fleet teardown FIRST, TeamDelete() SECOND — teardown reads the team's config.json (the swarm socket lives there), which TeamDelete() deletes; and TeamDelete() alone never touches tmux, so a provider pane/process would be orphaned and keep billing.
2. ASK before tearing down — a teammate is reusable (SendMessage it the next task) and the user may want its pane. Skip the ask only if the user already said "clean up when done" or it's a throwaway probe team.

Example: one worker on a refactor

TeamCreate({team_name: "refactor-api"})                                       # native
cc-fleet spawn --as worker-1 --team refactor-api --model strong --json        # default provider
# → {"ok":true,"agent_id":"worker-1@refactor-api","name":"worker-1","pane_id":"%42", ...}
SendMessage({to: "worker-1", message: "Refactor src/api/handlers.go: split each handler into its own file under src/api/handlers/. Keep tests passing. Report your result via SendMessage when done."})
# … wait with timeout + ps --check …
# report; tear down only after the user confirms:
cc-fleet teardown refactor-api --json    # Bash, FIRST
TeamDelete()                             # native

Example: three workers in parallel

TeamCreate({team_name: "translate-docs"})
cc-fleet spawn kimi --as zh-1   --team translate-docs --json                  # leaf: omit --model
cc-fleet spawn kimi --as zh-2   --team translate-docs --json
cc-fleet spawn deepseek --as polish --team translate-docs --model strong --json   # synthesis: strong
SendMessage({to: "zh-1",   message: "Translate docs/intro.md to zh-CN beside it. SendMessage me when done."})
SendMessage({to: "zh-2",   message: "Translate docs/api.md to zh-CN beside it. SendMessage me when done."})
SendMessage({to: "polish", message: "When zh-1 and zh-2 finish, copy-edit their outputs for tone consistency. SendMessage me the result."})
# … notifications per worker; report first, tear down on confirm:
cc-fleet teardown translate-docs --json   # FIRST: kills all three panes + procs
TeamDelete()

The provider ask ladder (ask at most once per task)

1. The user named a provider or model → use it.
2. Else run cc-fleet default --json: if it returns a provider (source "configured" or "auto"), use it and STATE it in your kickoff line (e.g. "using glm (default)").
3. Else (several providers, none default) ask the user ONCE which to use — list the enabled providers from cc-fleet list --json (name + default_model + the one-line note in cc-fleet-shared/providers.md). After they pick, run cc-fleet default <chosen> so you never ask again. (cc-fleet default <p> is user-layer; only run it to FILL a blank default, never with --force.)
4. A mid-task provider failure (insufficient balance / rate limit / auth) → STOP, tell the user what happened, propose the next provider, and WAIT for their confirmation. Never switch providers silently.

Model tier within a provider: fan-out / leaf work → omit --model (or --model fast); judge / synthesis / sustained work → --model strong. The provider's roster decides the actual model — see cc-fleet-shared/providers.md.

Getting a teammate's result back

A teammate reports by calling SendMessage to the lead; the harness delivers it to you. Mode-independent — split pane or swarm pane, the pane is where it runs, never how you talk to it. Two provider-specific notes:

1. Tell it to report. End every task message with "When done, send your final result back to me with SendMessage." Weaker provider models often finish and go idle WITHOUT calling SendMessage — the answer sits in their pane.

1. Idle but no result → ask once more, then read the pane. Re-SendMessage: "You appear done — reply with your result via SendMessage." If the second ask still yields nothing, read the pane directly — don't bother the user:

   cc-fleet ps --json          # → the teammate's tmux_socket + pane_id
   tmux -L <tmux_socket> capture-pane -t <pane_id> -p | tail -40

Safe: the provider API key is never in the pane (resolved via apiKeyHelper, never printed). tmux_socket is empty for in-tmux teammates (plain tmux capture-pane) and cc-fleet-swarm-<team> for swarm teammates.

Watching for stuck teammates

The one runtime difference from a native teammate. A provider teammate's brain is the provider API: on 429 / out-of-balance / 401 its claude process retries in a loop and never goes idle, never messages you — either would need the very LLM that's down. The error shows only in its tmux pane, never in your inbox. So you must poll.

1. Set a timeout. A provider API error surfaces on the first LLM call — check ~60–90s after dispatch, then every ~2–3 min while a task legitimately runs. An idle notification cancels the wait.

1. Poll health, don't sleep blindly: cc-fleet ps --json --check. --check scans each pane and adds status (ok | error | unknown) plus error_class + detail on error — only the class, never raw pane text. Note the key: this runtime-wedge detection dispatches on `error_class` (lower_snake), a DIFFERENT key from the `error_code` (UPPER_SNAKE) that up-front spawn/subagent failure envelopes carry — don't switch on the wrong one. Dispatch:

• ok — keep waiting (within your ceiling).
• unknown — pane couldn't be captured (teammate exited / tmux down). Confirm with cc-fleet ps --json; treat a vanished teammate as failed.
• error — act now, per error_class:

1. `unknown` or not specific enough → `capture-pane` and read it yourself (same command + key-safety note as above). ps --check is the first probe; the raw pane is a fine fallback.

Acting on a wedged teammate

Tear down just the wedged worker (siblings keep running) by pane id: cc-fleet teardown <pane_id> --json, or the whole team with cc-fleet teardown <team> --json (then TeamDelete() if done). Then surface it and propose the fallback — another provider (re-spawn + re-SendMessage after the user confirms) or native Agent({subagent_type: "general-purpose", model: "sonnet", prompt: "<task>"}). Never leave a teammate wedged and keep waiting.

Where a teammate runs (in-tmux split vs out-of-tmux swarm)

Either way you drive it with native SendMessage and it reports via SendMessage.

• In tmux → the teammate splits a pane in your visible window; hide/show available (below).
• Not in tmux → spawn auto-builds a detached cc-fleet-swarm-<team> tmux server and runs the teammate there — silent unless you tmux -L cc-fleet-swarm-<team> attach. (A reusable, SendMessage-able teammate is an interactive process polling its inbox — needs a TTY; the truly-headless path is /cc-fleet:subagent.)

Hiding / showing a pane (in-tmux only)

Declutter the layout without killing the process:

cc-fleet hide <target> --json    # pane → detached "claude-hidden" session; keeps running
cc-fleet show <target> --json    # pane → back to its origin window, re-tiled

<target> = pane id %42 · team/member · name@team · bare team (every member with a pane). Origin is recorded at hide time.

• hide does NOT kill — inbox/SendMessage still work, teardown still cleans it.
• Swarm teammates are unsupported — error_code: "SWARM_UNSUPPORTED" is a terminal no-op, not a tmux failure; attach to view instead.
• Dispatch on error_code, not prose: SWARM_UNSUPPORTED / TEAM_NOT_FOUND / MEMBER_NOT_FOUND / PANE_NOT_FOUND / NOT_HIDDEN / NO_ORIGIN / TMUX_FAILED / BAD_ARGS (malformed target) / CONFIG_WRITE_FAILED (the pane moved but the config write failed — tmux and config are now DIVERGENT; follow the envelope's suggestion to reconcile, never blindly re-run) / INTERNAL (lock/parse failure). Hiding an already-hidden pane is idempotent ok.

Agents Board (human-facing): bare cc-fleet → Tab to a live board of every teammate across all teams (ps --check health, HIDDEN column, h/s hide/show). You use cc-fleet ps --json --check programmatically, not the TUI.

Anti-patterns

• Spawning a teammate for a single-file edit / quick question — main session; the overhead isn't worth it (cc-fleet-shared/routing.md).
• Typing into a provider pane instead of `SendMessage` — task delivery is always SendMessage. (Reading a pane for a result is fine.)
• Skipping `TeamCreate` before spawn → NO_LEAD_SESSION / TEAM_NOT_FOUND. Native TeamCreate first.
• Waiting open-endedly on a teammate — it can wedge and never go idle; always timeout + ps --check.
• Switching providers silently after a failure — provider ask ladder, step 4: stop, tell, propose, wait for confirm.
• Auto-tearing down on task completion — the teammate is reusable; ask first.
• `rm -rf ~/.claude/teams/...` to tear down — skips pane/proc cleanup. cc-fleet teardown FIRST, then TeamDelete().
• Putting the provider API key in argv / env — cc-fleet uses apiKeyHelper; keys never enter env / ps aux / history.
• Looping on errors without dispatching `.error_code` — every --json failure carries a code (cc-fleet-shared/troubleshooting.md).