Agent Team Pools is the reusable org chart for multi-domain product work: pools (departments), teams (roles), a Research Brain per pool, and a Master Pool Lead that fills a product instance from real paths. It does not replace the Master Build unit loop — it sits beside it, answering who watches, where highlights live, and how insight escalates.
Three layers
| Layer | Location | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Template | hive/agent-team-pools/scaffold/ | Product-agnostic blank org chart |
| Instance | e.g. <product>-master-dev-bot-pool/ | Filled pools, Brains, inbox for one product |
| Opt-in kit | hive/agent-team-pools/persistent-research/ | Recurrence discipline for Research Brains |
The job board (WORKSTREAMS / BP) is what ships next. A pool instance is who watches, who builds, and what insight was noticed — never a second job board.
Roles
| Role | Owns | Must not |
|---|---|---|
| Admin (human) | Pool lock; research-charter lock / pause; promote proposals → WORKSTREAMS; ack INBOX | Leave escalate-to-ship to agents alone |
| Master Pool Lead | Fill the instance from scaffold + path map; route cross-pool INBOX | Feature code; worktrees; auto-promote WORKSTREAMS; OpenRouter for routine local research |
| Research Brain (per pool) | Watch pool paths; HIGHLIGHTS; DIGESTS; PROPOSALS; escalate to INBOX; optional Persistent Research sessions | Feature PRs; replace WORKSTREAMS; silent OpenRouter spend |
| Working teams (per pool) | Orchestrator / Build / Audit / domain specialists, per TEAMS.md | Cross pool walls without Admin |
When a proposal is promoted, it hands off to the product's own
_build-master unit loop — not back through this pack's Lead or Brain.
What a Research Brain actually does
Each pool's Brain is the main brain of that department:
| Job | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Watch | Pool allowed paths, recent handoffs/audits, related docs |
| Digest | Ingest CLOSEOUT Brain digests under DIGESTS/ |
| Insight | Propose enhancements or risks — for review, not for shipping |
| Store | Append to pool HIGHLIGHTS.md |
| Escalate | Only interesting / important findings → instance INBOX.md |
| Exchange | @mention sibling pools per the cross-pool exchange recipe |
| Ground | Local ops research uses Cursor search tools — never product OpenRouter keys for routine runs |
Triggers: after a unit's CLOSEOUT digest, after an in-domain handoff or audit, a light recurring skim, an Admin ask — or an opt-in Persistent Research session once Admin locks a research charter.
Adopting a pool instance
- Copy
scaffold/to an instance path. - Rename templates; copy
pools/_POOL.template/→pools/<pool-id>/for each pool. - Paste the Master Pool Lead prompt; fill the Admin path map.
- Lead fills REGISTRY, COMPOSER, AGENTS, pool folders, and Brain prompts.
- Admin pool lock (status →
admin-locked/active). - Register the instance with
poolPatternVersion: 0.3. - Optional: enable the Persistent Research Kit.
Red lines
- An instance is not a second job board — no shadow WORKSTREAMS status.
- Lead and Brain never open feature PRs or grant CP-0.
- Product-specific paths live only in the instance, never in template doctrine.
- Digests and proposals stay insight until Admin promotes them.
Canonical source: agent-team-pools/POOL-PATTERN.md · adopt steps: agent-team-pools/README.md.