Agent Configuration

This is the complete reference for Lineup agent configuration. For a conceptual overview of what agents do and why they exist, see Agents.

Frontmatter schema

Every agent is defined as a Markdown file in the plugin's agents/ directory. The YAML frontmatter block controls configuration:

---
name: researcher
color: blue
description: Explores codebases, reads documentation, and gathers context.
tools: Read, Grep, Glob, LS, WebFetch, WebSearch
model: haiku
memory: project
---

(Agent instructions follow here)

Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
name	string	Yes	Agent role name. Must match the filename without .md.
color	string	Yes	Display color for visual identification in the terminal.
description	string	Yes	One-line summary of the agent's purpose and when to use it.
tools	string	Yes	Comma-space separated list of tools the agent can use.
model	string	Yes	Language model to use. One of haiku, sonnet, opus.
memory	string	Yes	Persistent memory scope. One of user, project, local.

Color values

Color	Status
blue	Fully supported
green	Fully supported
yellow	Fully supported
red	Fully supported
cyan	Supported (may have rendering issues in some terminals)
magenta	Supported (may have rendering issues in some terminals)

Model values

Value	Description
haiku	Fast, cost-effective. Best for high-volume exploration tasks.
sonnet	Balanced cost and capability. Strong general reasoning.
opus	Most capable. Best for planning, implementation, and review.

Memory values

Value	Storage location	Shared across
user	~/.claude/agent-memory/<agent>/ (Claude)	All projects for this user
project	~/.claude/projects/<project-path>/agent-memory/<agent>/ (Claude)	Only the current project (default)
local	.lineup/memory/<agent>/	Only the current directory

Default agent configurations

These are the factory defaults stored in agent frontmatter. At runtime, the orchestrator may override the model field via effort-based model selection based on triage complexity. Use /lineup:configure to customize, or reset to these values at any time. See Customize Agents for a walkthrough.

Researcher

Field	Default
Name	researcher
Color	blue
Model	haiku
Memory	project
Tools	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, WebFetch, WebSearch

Read-only codebase exploration with web search. Cannot modify files. Safe to run without supervision. Uses Haiku for cost-effective, high-volume file scanning.

Architect

Field	Default
Name	architect
Color	red
Model	opus
Memory	project
Tools	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, Write

Reads the codebase and research findings, then writes implementation plans. Has Write to save plans when requested. No Bash or Edit -- planning doesn't require running commands or modifying existing files.

Developer

Field	Default
Name	developer
Color	yellow
Model	opus
Memory	project
Tools	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, Edit, Write, Bash, NotebookEdit

Full tool access. Creates files, edits code, runs build commands, handles notebooks. The only agent with unrestricted tools.

Reviewer

Field	Default
Name	reviewer
Color	green
Model	opus
Memory	project
Tools	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, Bash

Read access plus Bash to run tests. Cannot modify code. Reports issues rather than fixing them.

Documenter

Field	Default
Name	documenter
Color	cyan
Model	opus
Memory	project
Tools	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, Write, WebFetch

Read access, Write (for creating documentation files), and WebFetch (for pulling in external references). No Bash -- documentation doesn't require running commands.

Teacher

Field	Default
Name	teacher
Color	magenta
Model	opus
Memory	project
Tools	Read, Grep, Glob, LS, WebFetch, WebSearch

Same tool set as the researcher -- read-only access plus web search. Explores code to build understanding, then produces explanations.

Available tools

These are the tools that can be assigned to agents:

Tool	Purpose
Read	Read file contents
Grep	Search file contents with regex
Glob	Find files by pattern
LS	List directory contents
Edit	Modify existing files
Write	Create or overwrite files
Bash	Execute shell commands
NotebookEdit	Edit Jupyter notebook cells
WebFetch	Fetch content from URLs
WebSearch	Search the web

MCP tools can also be used. For example, mcp__brave-search__brave_web_search for the Brave Search MCP server. Tool names are specified exactly as they appear in Claude Code.

Tool format in frontmatter

Tools are specified as a comma-space separated list:

tools: Read, Grep, Glob, LS, WebFetch, WebSearch

Not an array -- this is a flat string with comma-space (, ) as the delimiter.

Agent file structure

The frontmatter is the configuration block. The body (everything after the second ---) contains the agent's instructions. Both frontmatter and body are immutable -- /lineup:configure never modifies these files. Instead, it writes override files to ~/.claude/lineup/agents/.

---
name: researcher
color: blue
description: One-line summary.
tools: Read, Grep, Glob, LS
model: haiku
memory: project
---

(This is the agent's instruction body.
Neither the body nor the frontmatter are modified by /lineup:configure.
User customizations are stored as override files in ~/.claude/lineup/agents/.)

Centralized instructions for agent memory behavior and document output formatting are defined in AGENTS.md at the plugin root. These instructions apply to all agents uniformly and cover persistent memory guidelines (what to store, when to update) and document output requirements (YAML format, ephemeral presentation). See the "Agent Persistent Memory Instructions" and "Agent Document Output Instructions" sections in AGENTS.md for details.

The orchestrator

The orchestrator is the main Claude Code session itself. It coordinates the pipeline, delegates to subagents, and interacts with the user. It is not a subagent file -- there is no orchestrator.md.

The orchestrator has access to all tools and runs at whatever model the user's Claude Code session uses. It cannot be configured through /lineup:configure.