Part 4: Developer Workflow for SCION: Skills, Rules & Templates

Series Navigation:
Overview | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (Current)

[!TIP] Good things take time.
Structure your workflow around skills and rules from the start. Writing custom skills, AGENTS.md guardrails, and templates requires upfront effort. But once in place, complex multi-agent workflows launch in seconds.

1. The Skill-Oriented Mindset

Developers often paste long, brittle prompts into chat windows repeatedly. In SCION's multi-agent architecture, this breaks down fast.

The foundation of a mature SCION setup is modular, reusable skills:

graph TD
    subgraph Instances["4. Agent Instances (Containers)"]
        AI1["review-bot"]
        AI2["feat-builder"]
        AI3["tech-writer"]
    end

    subgraph Templates["3. Agent Templates (Blueprints)"]
        T1["pr-reviewer"]
        T2["feature-implementer"]
        T3["blog-writer"]
    end

    subgraph Rules["2. Repository Rules (Guardrails)"]
        R1["AGENTS.md"]
    end

    subgraph Skills["1. Skills & Tools (Capabilities)"]
        S1["be-concise"]
        S2["ponytail"]
        S3["finding-google-skills"]
    end

    S1 & S2 & S3 --> R1
    R1 --> T1 & T2 & T3
    T1 --> AI1
    T2 --> AI2
    T3 --> AI3

Why Skills Matter

• Encapsulation: Each skill owns its instructions, scripts, and schemas (e.g., be-concise for clear writing, ponytail for minimal solutions).
• Composability: Mix skills across agent roles without copy-pasting prompts.
• Portability: Publish skills to the Hub Skill Bank and use them across all projects.

2. Project Guardrails: AGENTS.md

Define boundaries before launching agents. Place an AGENTS.md file at the project root. Every SCION agent reads this file on each interaction.

Example Project AGENTS.md

# Repository Rules & Constraints

## Git & PR Hygiene
- Never run mutating git commands (`git push`, `git rebase`, `git merge`) without explicit instructions.
- Create atomic, well-tested commits.
- Summarize diffs with concise bullet points.

## Code Quality Standards
- Write minimal, focused implementations — avoid speculative abstractions.
- Every new function must include unit test coverage.
- Run `go test ./...` or language test runner before reporting completion.

3. Creating Agent Templates

Templates bundle personas, rules, and skills into reusable agent roles. Store global templates in ~/.scion/templates/; they sync to the Hub automatically.

Anatomy of a Template

~/.scion/templates/pr-reviewer/
├── scion-agent.yaml       # Template configuration
├── system-prompt.md       # Persona & evaluation criteria
├── agents.md              # Operational instructions
└── skills/                # Pre-installed skills
    ├── be-concise/
    ├── caveman/
    └── ponytail/

Core Roles to Scaffold

1. pr-reviewer: Reviews PRs, inspects diffs, checks edge cases, enforces security.
2. feature-implementer: Implements features, writes unit tests, follows YAGNI.
3. blog-writer: Writes architecture guides, changelogs, and technical posts.

Publishing Templates to Hub

Sync local templates to the Hub so they appear in CLI and Web UI:

scion template push --global --all

Pro-Tip: Configuring Secrets for Antigravity

Antigravity and Gemini agents need credentials for background tasks. Without them, agents prompt for OAuth interactively and enter an error state.

Configure credentials in the SCION Web UI (Settings → Hub Resources → Secrets):

Or via CLI:

scion hub secret set GEMINI_API_KEY "your-api-key"

Once configured, agents authenticate automatically on boot.

4. Multi-Day Development Lifecycle

Real projects span days or weeks. You start a feature today, pause for a few days, return, inspect the code, test it, iterate. SCION handles this workflow natively.

1 Agent = 1 Git Worktree + 1 Container

Repository Root
├── Agent: feat-oauth   --> Worktree branch: scion/feat-oauth   (Multi-day feature)
├── Agent: review-42    --> Worktree branch: scion/review-42    (Quick PR audit)
└── Host Working Tree   --> Branch: main                       (Your local branch)

Each agent has its own worktree and container. Agents never conflict with each other or your host branch.

Step-by-Step Workflow

Day 1: Start Feature Agent

Launch your worker using the Web UI or CLI:

scion start feat-oauth --template feature-implementer
scion message feat-oauth "Draft the OAuth2 authentication handler in auth/handler.go"

Day 1 (Later): Inspect Agent Files on Host

You can inspect agent files directly on your host:

# Jump directly into the agent's worktree from your host shell:
scion cdw feat-oauth

# Inspect git diff, run local tests, or open in your IDE:
git diff
git status

Day 2–5: Suspend to Free Resources

Stepping away? Suspend the agent:

scion suspend feat-oauth

Day 6: Parallel PR Review

While feat-oauth is suspended, start a reviewer agent:

scion start pr-audit-99 --template pr-reviewer
scion message pr-audit-99 "Review pull request diff on branch origin/main..pr-99"

Day 10: Resume and Finalize

Resume via Web UI or CLI:

scion resume feat-oauth
scion message feat-oauth "Add integration tests for token refresh and error handling."

5. Kanban Mental Model

Map SCION agents to a Kanban board:

6. Summary Checklist

1. Skills First: Publish modular skills to the Hub Skill Bank.
2. Project Rules: Commit AGENTS.md at the root of every repository.
3. Templates: Create reusable roles (pr-reviewer, feature-implementer, blog-writer) in ~/.scion/templates/.
4. Persistent Workers: Use suspend/resume for multi-day tasks; use scion cdw for host-to-agent file access.