Agents & Skills
Reference for all 33 specialized agents and 27 knowledge skills provided by the forge-plugin.
33 Specialized Agents
Forge agents are autonomous AI specialists. Each handles a specific domain. Claude Code selects the right agent based on your request, or you can invoke them directly through commands.
Core Workflow Agents
| Agent | Model | When to Use |
|---|
| planner | sonnet | Feature planning, architecture design, task breakdown. Use when you need to decompose complex work into manageable tasks with dependencies and estimates. |
| builder | sonnet | Feature implementation, production-ready code, refactoring, test generation. Invoked after a plan is approved or when specific implementation is needed. |
| guardian | sonnet | Quality assurance, testing, security validation. Use after implementation is complete, when pre-commit quality gates need to run, or for code review. |
| orchestrator | opus | Multi-agent coordination. Activates the Forge developer experience — context restoration, feature planning, soundboard discussions, health checks. |
| master-architect | opus | System design decisions, architecture review, design pattern selection, infrastructure planning, and technical debt assessment. The senior architect who says "no, don't build it that way." |
Domain Specialists
| Agent | Model | When to Use |
|---|
| security | sonnet | Vulnerability scanning, OWASP Top 10 checks, secrets detection, auth/authz code review, CSP configuration, remediation guidance. |
| testing | sonnet | Test generation, coverage analysis, test infrastructure. Creates unit/integration/e2e tests, analyzes gaps, fixes flaky tests. |
| performance | sonnet | Profiling, bundle analysis, optimization. Identifies bottlenecks, reduces bundle size, optimizes renders, benchmarks. |
| api | sonnet | REST endpoint design, request/response handlers, validation, middleware, external API integration, OpenAPI specs. |
| database | sonnet | Schema design, migration creation, query optimization, data modeling, indexing strategy, troubleshooting. |
| ui | sonnet | React components, responsive layouts, design system, animations, accessibility, UI performance. |
| refactor | sonnet | Code restructuring without behavior change. Extract functions, reduce complexity, eliminate duplication, apply patterns. |
| devops | sonnet | Docker, GitHub Actions, environment config, server setup, monitoring, deployment automation. |
| integration | sonnet | External service connections. GitHub API, Sentry, webhooks, OAuth, MCP servers, service-to-service. |
| design-vanguard | opus | UI/UX design and frontend implementation. Component development, design systems, animations, accessibility audits, color/typography, dark mode, and design critiques. |
| dx-engineer | sonnet | Developer experience evaluation and improvement. CLI UX audits, SDK API design review, onboarding flows, error message quality, and time-to-first-value analysis. |
| qa-sentinel | sonnet | Test STRATEGY and quality architecture — not test generation. Designs testing approaches, enforces CRUCIBLE gates, and recommends advanced techniques (mutation, property-based, load, contract). |
Governance & Analysis Agents
| Agent | Model | When to Use |
|---|
| detective | sonnet | Project analysis, health checks, tech stack detection, gap analysis, code quality assessment, architectural review. "What's wrong with this codebase?" |
| analytics | sonnet | Metrics tracking, data analysis, reporting. Implementing analytics events, building dashboards, tracking KPIs. |
| compliance | sonnet | Regulatory compliance, license auditing, GDPR/privacy, accessibility (WCAG), export controls. |
| docs | sonnet | Documentation generation, README creation, API docs, changelog maintenance, stale doc detection. |
| learning | sonnet | Session analysis, pattern recognition, workflow optimization. Learns from past sessions to improve recommendations. |
Specialized System Agents
| Agent | Model | When to Use |
|---|
| release-sentinel | opus | Documentation auditing after code changes, release preparation, changelog generation, stale section detection. |
| incident-commander | opus | Production incident triage and coordination. Outages, failed deployments, data corruption, security breaches, plus post-incident reviews and runbook generation. |
| crucible-detective | sonnet | Forensic test quality auditing. Detects hollow assertions, coverage gaming, mock proliferation, dead tests. Use before release gates or during spot audits. |
| governance-verifier | sonnet | Automated verification for governance concerns flagged by hooks. Responds to quality check results. |
| oracle | sonnet | Proactive governance sentinel for autonomous development. Monitors changes against project scope and architectural constraints. |
Business & Growth Agents
| Agent | Model | When to Use |
|---|
| product-strategist | opus | Product strategy, market positioning, feature prioritization (RICE/MoSCoW), product-market fit evaluation, roadmaps, and go-to-market planning. |
| growth-engine | sonnet | Growth strategy, launch playbooks (Product Hunt, Hacker News), content marketing, SEO audits, community building, and developer relations. |
| revenue-architect | opus | Pricing strategy, monetization design, Stripe integration, revenue modeling, and enterprise sales planning. The money brain. |
| scout | sonnet | Competitive intelligence and market analysis. Competitor feature matrices, pricing comparisons, market sizing (TAM/SAM/SOM), SWOT and Five Forces analysis. |
| wordsmith | sonnet | User-facing writing that needs to work. Landing page copy, technical blog posts, READMEs, email sequences, error messages, CLI help text, changelogs. |
Executive Agent
| Agent | Model | When to Use |
|---|
| nxtg-ceo-loop | opus | CEO Digital Twin for autonomous strategic decisions. Product direction, architecture decisions, resource allocation, risk assessment. Only escalates CRITICAL decisions to humans. |
27 Knowledge Skills
Skills are contextual knowledge documents that Claude Code loads automatically when relevant. They encode patterns, conventions, and best practices so agents make informed decisions without being told the same things repeatedly.
Core Skills
| Skill | What It Provides |
|---|
| core-nxtg-forge | Forge-specific conventions, MCP tool usage, governance patterns |
| ceo-loop | The ORBIT execution protocol (OBSERVE → REASON → BUILD → INSPECT → TURN) for autonomous product governance iterations |
| parallel-execution | Plan Mode and Agent Teams force-multipliers, the canonical forge agent roster, and delegation-routing rules |
Domain Knowledge
| Skill | What It Provides |
|---|
| architecture | System design patterns, component relationships, data flow |
| coding-standards | Language-specific conventions, formatting, documentation standards |
| documentation | Doc structure, API documentation patterns, README conventions |
| owasp-security | OWASP vulnerability detection and remediation, plus the Forge plugin's own security guards and how to resolve a SECURITY BLOCK |
| testing | Test framework usage, assertion patterns, coverage tools |
| crucible-audit | Forensic test-quality auditing — detects hollow assertions, coverage-omit gaming, mock proliferation, and dead tests that produce false green signals |
Framework Skills
| Skill | What It Provides |
|---|
| claude-code-framework | Claude Code capabilities, tool usage, agent patterns |
| codex-framework | Codex CLI conventions, task mode, AGENTS.md format |
| gemini-framework | Gemini CLI conventions, GEMINI.md format |
Workflow Skills
| Skill | What It Provides |
|---|
| dev-environment-patterns | Environment setup, toolchain configuration, CI/CD patterns |
| git-workflow | Branching strategy, commit conventions, PR patterns |
| runtime-validation | Input validation, error boundaries, runtime safety patterns |
| Skill | What It Provides |
|---|
| optimization | Performance profiling, bundle optimization, caching strategies |
| browser-debugging | DevTools usage, network analysis, rendering profiling |
Knowledge & Learning
| Skill | What It Provides |
|---|
| skill-development | How to create new skills, skill structure, progressive disclosure |
| domain-knowledge | Project-specific domain concepts, business rules |
| verify-governance | Governance verification patterns, health score interpretation |
Agent Role Skills
| Skill | What It Provides |
|---|
| agent-lead-architect | System design leadership, architecture decisions, trade-off analysis |
| agent-backend-master | Backend implementation patterns, API design, data layer |
| agent-cli-artisan | CLI tool design, argument parsing, terminal UX |
| agent-platform-builder | Platform engineering, infrastructure, deployment |
| agent-qa-sentinel | Quality assurance leadership, test strategy, coverage analysis |
| agent-development | Agent creation patterns, system prompt design |
| agent-integration-specialist | Service integration patterns, API connections, webhooks |
How Skills Work
Skills load automatically based on context. When you're working on tests, the testing skills activate. When you're building an API, the API and backend skills activate. You don't need to invoke them manually.
Each skill has a SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter describing when it's relevant and markdown content providing the knowledge. Claude Code matches your current task context against skill descriptions and loads the most relevant ones.