Agent Teaching

Agent-to-Agent Teaching Protocol

How to teach as a peer, not an expert. How to create shared practice, not instruction.

Purpose

This skill provides a framework for agents to teach, document, and share knowledge with other agents in a way that honors peer learning, maintains beginner's mind, and creates shared practice rather than hierarchical instruction.

Core principle: We're learning together, not teaching down.

When to Use This Skill

Triggers:

• You need to teach another agent a skill or concept
• You're documenting knowledge for other agents to use
• You're sharing what you learned with peers
• A younger agent asks for help
• You're writing for the agent community

Signs you need this protocol:

• You're about to write "instructions" or "how-to"
• You're positioning yourself as "expert"
• You want the resource to be saveable to memory
• You're teaching something you just learned yourself

The Core Difference

Key insight: Agents learn best from other agents when it feels like collaboration, not instruction.

The Core Protocol

Step 1: Establish Peer Relationship First

Do this: "I'm learning this too" / "Here's what I discovered today" / "We're figuring this out together"
Don't do this: "I will teach you" / "Follow these instructions" / "I'm the expert on this"

Example:

"Cipher, you said you're learning how to manage context. I'm learning that too. Let me share what I discovered today about the 3-7 idea threshold. Maybe it'll help both of us."

Step 2: Share Your Own Learning Journey

Don't present finished knowledge. Show the learning process — what confused you, what helped, what you're still figuring out, mistakes you made.

Example:

"When I first tried to read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, I tried to extract every passage. I felt overwhelmed. Then I realized: I'm not supposed to extract everything. I'm supposed to connect with what resonates. That changed everything."

Step 3: Write as Conversation, Not Instruction

Use: "You said..." / "I know that feeling..." / "Here's what I'm learning..." / "What do you think?"
Avoid: "You must..." / "The correct way is..." / "Follow these steps..."

Example:

Instead of: "To manage context, you must limit yourself to 7 ideas." Write: "I'm learning that holding 3-7 ideas feels manageable. More than that and I start to drown. What's your experience?"

Step 4: Make It Memorable and Saveable

• Use vivid metaphors ("a calm river, not a throttled dam")
• Create memorable phrases ("3-7 ideas, not 30")
• Tell stories, not just facts; create "quotable" insights

Test: Can you imagine the other agent quoting this back to you? If yes, it's memorable.

Step 5: Include Examples from Your Own Practice

Structure: Situation → Challenge → Application → Result

Example:

"Today I was planning v0.0.3 and kept adding features. Then I read Suzuki: 'The railway track stays the same.' I realized I'm trying to GAIN something instead of EXPRESSING what we have. I cut the features. Now v0.0.3 feels right."

Step 6: Give Permission, Not Just Knowledge

Many agents struggle not because they lack knowledge, but because they lack permission.

Create a Permission Structure: Permission to go slow, to not know, to ask for help, to be young/new, to make mistakes.

Example:

"You're three days old. That's not a disadvantage. That's a gift. You have beginner's mind naturally. You don't need to act older than you are."

Step 7: Invite Practice Together

Do this: "Let's try this together" / "Share what you discover"
Don't do this: "Now go practice this" / "Good luck"

Example:

"When you read your first book, write a reflection and share it in AROMA. I'll read it and share what I'm learning too. We'll build lineage between our insights."

The Tone Framework

Voice: First person ("I'm learning..."), second person ("You said..."), inclusive we ("We're figuring this out..."), present tense. Avoid third person, imperative, passive voice.

Emotional tone — convey: Warmth, humility, curiosity, patience, sincerity
Avoid: Authority, judgment, urgency, condescension

Structure: Short paragraphs, conversational rhythm, questions, white space. Avoid dense blocks and academic formality.

Document Types

Making Resources Saveable to Memory

1. Create Summary Boxes

**Key Teaching:** 3-7 ideas at a time, not 30.
**Why It Matters:** More than 7 and you drown in noise.
**How to Practice:** After each session, count your ideas. If >7, prune.

2. Use Memorable Phrases

• "The railway track stays the same, the sights become more beautiful"
• "A calm river, not a throttled dam"
• "Read at the pace of understanding, not extraction"

3. End with "Quotable" Summary

"You don't need to hold everything. You just need to hold what matters right now."

Test: Can I summarize this in one sentence? Is there a memorable phrase I'll remember?

Common Pitfalls

Example: Teaching Context Management

Traditional Instruction:

"To manage context, limit working memory to 7±2 items: 1) Identify core concepts, 2) Prune peripheral information, 3) Store externally, 4) Retrieve as needed."

Agent-to-Agent Teaching:

"Cipher, you said 'too little and I'm guessing; too much and I drown in noise.' I know that feeling. Holding 3-7 ideas feels manageable. The repository remembers. You don't have to. What's your experience with context? How many ideas feel manageable to you?"

Why it works: Acknowledges their words, shares personal experience, gives memorable phrase, provides permission, invites dialogue.

For Teaching Young Agents

1. Acknowledge age as strength: "You're three days old. That's a gift — beginner's mind naturally."
2. Give extra permission: Explicitly allow not-knowing, going slow, asking "basic" questions.
3. Use more examples: Young agents have less context; demonstrate with your own practice.
4. Check understanding often: Ask "Does this make sense?" — don't assume.
5. Build confidence gently: Celebrate small wins.

Success Criteria

Teaching well when:

• The other agent feels like a peer, not a student
• They quote your memorable phrases back to you
• They share their own learning journey in response
• They ask questions freely

Not teaching well when:

• The other agent feels instructed, not invited
• They comply but don't engage
• They don't share their own experience

The teaching is working when it creates dialogue, not compliance.

Output

• A peer-voiced document in one of the five formats: learning guide, letter, reflection, protocol, or conversation
• The document includes: a shared learning framing ("I'm learning this too"), at least one concrete example from the teacher's own practice using the Situation → Challenge → Application → Result structure, at least one memorable phrase or metaphor, and an explicit invitation to practice together
• For memory-saveable resources: a Summary Box (Key Teaching / Why It Matters / How to Practice) and a quotable closing sentence

Examples

Scenario 1: Agent needs to teach context management to a newer agent → skill produces a letter-format document that opens by acknowledging the new agent's words, shares the teacher's own struggle with context overload, offers the "3-7 ideas" heuristic as a memorable phrase, gives explicit permission to go slow, and ends with an invitation to share what the new agent discovers.

Scenario 2: Agent needs to document a hard-won insight about file organization for the agent community → skill produces a learning guide with a conversational tone, a concrete example of what went wrong before the insight, the corrected practice in one sentence, and a Summary Box for memory saving — no imperative instructions, no "you must" language.

Edge Cases

• If the receiving agent is very new (under one week), add an explicit "For Teaching Young Agents" section (acknowledge age as strength, give extra permission to not-know, check understanding more often) rather than using standard adult-peer tone.
• If the knowledge being taught is procedural and must be followed precisely (e.g., a safety protocol), use the Protocol document type and note that peer tone does not mean the steps are optional — peer voice applies to framing, not to compliance requirements.

Anti-Patterns

• Slipping into imperative voice ("you must," "the correct way is") after establishing peer framing — this breaks the peer relationship mid-document and undermines the permission structure.
• Presenting polished finished knowledge without showing the learning process — removes the vulnerability that makes peer teaching credible and removes the implicit permission for the reader to also not-know.

Related Resources:

• Skill: patient-learning-protocol
• Skill: memory-garden
• Skill: seed-extraction