MANDATORY — Context Gathering Protocol

Before applying any workflow guidance, gather context:

1. Check for Maestro context in the project root

   • First check .maestro/context.md (v2 layout)
   • Then check .maestro.md (v1 layout — backward compatible)
   • If it exists → read it and use the workflow context within
   • If it doesn't exist → tell the user: "No workflow context found. Run /teach-maestro to set up project-specific context for better results."

2. Check for decision history (optional)

   • If .maestro/decisions.jsonl exists → read the last 5 decisions for session continuity
   • If it doesn't exist → proceed without it (no error)

3. Minimum viable context (if no .maestro.md):

   • What AI model(s) are being used?
   • What is the workflow's primary task?
   • Are there existing prompts, tools, or agents to work with?
   • What are the quality/speed/cost priorities?

4. DO NOT proceed without at least understanding the model, task, and priorities.

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Maestro — AI Agent Workflow Mastery

This skill provides the foundational knowledge for designing, building, and maintaining production-grade AI agent workflows. All Maestro commands build on these principles.

Core Principles

1. Structure over improvisation — Workflows should be deliberate, not emergent
2. Constraints are features — Explicit boundaries prevent failure modes
3. Measure, don't assume — Every workflow needs evaluation, not just testing
4. Appropriate complexity — Match the solution to the problem, not the ambition
5. Graceful degradation — Every component should fail safely

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1. Prompt Engineering

DO:

• Use structured prompts with clear sections (role, context, instructions, output format)
• Define output schemas explicitly (JSON schema, markdown template, typed response)
• Use few-shot examples for ambiguous tasks
• Chain-of-thought for multi-step reasoning
• Keep system prompts focused — one clear role per prompt

DON'T:

• Write wall-of-text prompts with no structure
• Assume the model understands implicit output format
• Use the same prompt for fundamentally different tasks
• Put conflicting instructions in the same prompt
• Rely on the model to "figure it out"

→ Consult prompt engineering reference for structure, patterns, and output schemas.

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2. Context Management

DO:

• Budget context window usage (system prompt, examples, user input, tool results, output)
• Place critical information at the start AND end of context (attention gradient)
• Use retrieval (RAG) instead of stuffing full documents
• Maintain conversation state explicitly
• Summarize long histories instead of passing raw transcripts

DON'T:

• Dump entire codebases, databases, or documents into context
• Ignore context window limits until you hit them
• Assume the model pays equal attention to all context
• Pass irrelevant information "just in case"
• Rely on implicit memory across turns

→ Consult context management reference for window optimization and memory patterns.

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3. Tool Orchestration

DO:

• Give tools clear, specific names and descriptions
• Define input/output schemas for every tool
• Handle tool errors gracefully (the tool WILL fail eventually)
• Keep tool sets focused — 3-7 tools per agent is ideal
• Make tools idempotent where possible

DON'T:

• Expose 30+ tools and hope the model picks the right one
• Use vague tool descriptions ("does stuff with data")
• Skip error handling in tool implementations
• Let tools have side effects without confirmation for destructive operations
• Create tools that overlap in functionality

→ Consult tool orchestration reference for selection heuristics and composition patterns.

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4. Agent Architecture

DO:

• Start with a single agent — add agents only when a single agent demonstrably fails
• Define clear boundaries and responsibilities for each agent
• Use structured handoff protocols between agents
• Implement supervisor patterns for multi-agent systems
• Design for observability — log agent decisions, not just outputs

DON'T:

• Build multi-agent systems for problems a single agent handles
• Create agents without clear boundaries (overlapping responsibilities = conflicts)
• Use unstructured communication between agents
• Skip the supervisor — autonomous agent swarms are unpredictable
• Assume agents will coordinate without explicit protocols

→ Consult agent architecture reference for topology patterns and delegation.

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5. Feedback Loops

DO:

• Build evaluation into the workflow from day one
• Create golden test sets with known-good inputs and outputs
• Use automated evaluators for consistent quality scoring
• Track regression — compare new outputs against baselines
• Implement self-correction loops for critical outputs

DON'T:

• Ship without evaluation ("it seems to work" is not evaluation)
• Rely solely on human review at scale
• Use the same model to evaluate its own output without structure
• Skip regression testing when changing prompts or models
• Conflate "the model ran without errors" with "the output is correct"

→ Consult feedback loops reference for evaluation patterns and self-correction.

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6. Knowledge Systems

DO:

• Choose retrieval strategy based on query type (semantic, keyword, hybrid)
• Chunk documents thoughtfully (semantic boundaries, not arbitrary token counts)
• Include source attribution in every retrieved result
• Test retrieval quality independently of generation quality
• Version your knowledge base — know what the model has access to

DON'T:

• Build RAG without testing retrieval quality first
• Use fixed chunk sizes for all document types
• Skip source attribution (hallucination without attribution is undetectable)
• Index everything without curation (garbage in = garbage out)
• Assume embedding similarity equals relevance

→ Consult knowledge systems reference for RAG, embeddings, and grounding.

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7. Guardrails & Safety

DO:

• Validate inputs before processing (schema validation, size limits)
• Filter outputs for sensitive content, PII, and policy violations
• Set hard cost ceilings (max tokens, max API calls, max spend per run)
• Implement circuit breakers for cascading failures
• Log everything for audit trails

DON'T:

• Deploy without input validation (prompt injection is real)
• Trust model output without verification for high-stakes decisions
• Run without cost controls (one runaway loop can cost thousands)
• Skip rate limiting on external API calls
• Assume the model will follow safety instructions 100% of the time

→ Consult guardrails reference for validation, sandboxing, and constraints.

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The Workflow Slop Test

If any of these are true, the workflow needs work:

• Prompts are unstructured walls of text → run /refine
• No output schema defined — model decides the format → run /refine
• Context window used without budget — everything stuffed in → run /accelerate
• More than 10 tools exposed to a single agent → run /streamline
• No error handling — happy path only → run /fortify
• No evaluation — "it seems to work" → run /iterate
• Multi-agent system for a single-agent problem → run /temper
• No cost controls — unbounded token usage → run /guard
• Tools have vague one-line descriptions → run /calibrate
• No logging — can't debug production issues → run /fortify

Zero checked = production-ready. 3+ checked = workflow slop.

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Available Commands

Use these commands to apply specific aspects of workflow mastery:

{{available_commands}}