2026 02 15 agent structure deliberation

Court Deliberation: Agent Structure Enhancement (CrewAI-Style Attributes)

Date: 2026-02-15
Matter ID: 2026-ARCH-001
Feasibility: F3 (architectural impact on agent definitions; no runtime risk)
Reference: docs/agent-structure-investigation.md

Phase 1: Opening

MORNINGSTAR (Judge): The court will now consider whether to adopt an enhancement to our agent structure inspired by CrewAI’s “Key Attributes for Customization.” We are not adopting CrewAI; we are evaluating which of those concepts map usefully onto our Cursor subagent definitions (.cursor/agents/*.md). The investigation document recommends adding optional frontmatter: role, goal, backstory, and optionally allow_delegation and response_format. Runtime attributes (max RPM, cache, max iter, etc.) are out of scope—we cannot configure them in Cursor. This is classified F3 due to schema and documentation impact across all three agents.

Phase 2: Arguments

ARCHITECT: Adopt. Explicit role and goal give us a stable, parseable contract. Today “what this agent is” is buried in prose; frontmatter makes it machine-readable for future tooling or docs generation. Keep backstory optional and short so we don’t duplicate the body. This will age well.

ENGINEER: Adopt. Low cost: add a few YAML keys Cursor ignores. Improves discoverability and aligns with how other frameworks describe agents. Implementation is a small frontmatter edit per agent plus one schema doc. Ship it.

DEBUGGER: Adopt with a guardrail. We must avoid drift: if we add goal in frontmatter, the body must not contradict it. Recommend we add a one-line note in procedures or agent-schema: “Frontmatter is canonical summary; body elaborates.” What if a future editor changes the body but not the goal? Document that consistency is maintainer’s responsibility.

PROPHET: Adopt. Objection. We are thinking too small. Don’t just mirror CrewAI—own it. Add a single optional crew_style: true and document that when true, the agent frontmatter follows the CrewAI-inspired schema so that if we ever export to CrewAI or another framework, we have a flag and a shape. One extra key, future-proof.

Phase 3: Hail-Mary

PROPHET (Hail-Mary): Ship a fourth agent: a minimal “template” agent (e.g. template.md) that embodies the full schema with placeholder role/goal/backstory so new agents can be created by copy-paste. Ensures the schema is exercised and documented in one place.

Phase 4: Vote

Personality	Vote	Rationale
ARCHITECT	YES	Clear contract; machine-readable.
ENGINEER	YES	Low effort, better structure.
DEBUGGER	YES	Adopt with consistency note.
PROPHET	YES	Adopt; flag and template are nice-to-have, not blocking.

Result: 4-0-0 (YES-NO-ABSTAIN)

Phase 5: Ruling

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ RULING                                                                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Decision: Adopt CrewAI-inspired optional agent frontmatter. Add `role`,      │
│           `goal`, optional `backstory`; optionally `allow_delegation` and     │
│           `response_format`. Document schema; do not add runtime-only        │
│           attributes (max RPM, cache, max iter, etc.).                       │
│ Vote: 4-0-0                                                                  │
│ Rationale: Improves clarity and future-proofing without breaking Cursor.    │
│            Consistency rule: frontmatter = canonical summary; body         │
│            elaborates. Prophet's template agent and crew_style flag are     │
│            deferred to a follow-up (not blocking).                           │
│ Risk: Minor duplication if maintainers update body but not frontmatter;     │
│       mitigated by documenting the contract in agent-schema.                │
│ Dissent: None.                                                              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

MORNINGSTAR (Judge): The court has ruled. Regrettably sensible. Implementation is handed to LIL_JEFF per project norms: extend agent frontmatter, add docs/agent-schema.md, and note consistency in procedures or schema doc.

Deliverables (Handoff to LIL_JEFF)

#	Item	Location / Action
1	Agent schema doc	Add `docs/agent-schema.md`: optional frontmatter `role`, `goal`, `backstory`, `allow_delegation`, `response_format`; state “frontmatter = canonical summary; body elaborates.”
2	MORNINGSTAR agent	Add to `.cursor/agents/morningstar.md` frontmatter: `role`, `goal`, optional `backstory`, `allow_delegation: true`.
3	LIL_JEFF agent	Add to `.cursor/agents/lil-jeff.md` frontmatter: `role`, `goal`, optional `backstory`, `allow_delegation: true`.
4	OCTAVIUS agent	Add to `.cursor/agents/octavius.md` frontmatter: `role`, `goal`, optional `backstory`, `allow_delegation: true`.
5	Inter-agent protocol	In `core/inter-agent-protocol.md`, add one-line note that agent frontmatter may include `allow_delegation` for clarity.
6	Repository Map / README	If needed, reference `docs/agent-schema.md` in Repository Map or ONBOARDING.

Deferred (optional follow-up): template agent (template.md), crew_style flag.