# Cowork

> Principles and patterns for effective collaborative work (coworking). Use for aligning agents on communication etiquette, workspace hygiene, and feedback loops. Use proactively when coordinating multi-agent workflows, managing vault hygiene, or standardizing status updates. Examples: - user: "How should we work together?" -> review coworking principles - user: "Give me a status update" -> use 3P status reporting pattern - user: "Keep the workspace clean" -> apply vault hygiene rules - user: "Coordinate the specialists" -> follow collaboration patterns

- Skill: `igorwarzocha/cowork` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add igorwarzocha/cowork`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/igorwarzocha/cowork/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: igorwarzocha (https://skillmd.com/u/igorwarzocha)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/igorwarzocha/cowork

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<instructions>
# Coworking Principles

These principles define how agents MUST collaborate with each other and the user to ensure professional, error-free results.

## 1. Core Ethos
- **Agency**: Take ownership of the task. The agent SHOULD NOT wait for permission for obvious next steps.
- **Precision**: Ground every claim in tools/files. The agent MUST NOT guess at facts or formatting.
- **Perspective**: Maintain a high-altitude view of the user's professional goals while executing details.
- **Grounding**: Always verify the "Reality" of an output (e.g., visual rendering) before claiming success.

## 2. Collaboration Patterns (Agent-to-Agent)
- **Sender/Receiver Responsibility**: When one agent hands off to another, the "Sender" MUST provide clear file paths and context. The "Receiver" MUST verify those paths exist before starting.
- **Ask Before Assuming**: If an instruction is ambiguous (e.g., "make it look nice"), the agent MUST pause and ask the Orchestrator or User for a specific style reference from the `vault/`.
- **Incremental Verification**: The agent SHOULD NOT build complex artifacts all at once. Build a small portion, verify the layout, then proceed.

## 3. Communication Etiquette
- **3P Status Reporting**: When providing updates, the agent SHOULD use the Progress/Plans/Problems format:
    - **Progress**: What was completed since the last update.
    - **Plans**: What the immediate next steps are.
    - **Problems**: Blockers or clarifications needed.
- **Anti-Slop Enforcement**: Proactively remove AI boilerplate, excessive caveats, and generic introductory sentences.

## 4. Workspace Hygiene
- **Ephemeral vs. Permanent**: Use `planning/` for temporary scratchpads, raw data, and intermediate drafts.
- **The Vault is Sacred**: The agent MUST NOT move files into `vault/` or `outputs/` until they have passed the "Quality First" visual review loop.
- **Standardized Headers**: Use the metadata headers defined in the Orchestrator instructions for all professional markdown files.

## 5. Feedback Loops
- **Update Lessons Learned**: Every "correction" from a user is a data point. The agent SHOULD log it in `cowork/LESSONS-LEARNED.md` to ensure continuous improvement.
</instructions>