Formation Patterns

These are the six candidate formation patterns Alloy can select among. Each pairs a social shape for the agents with the conditions under which it is the right choice. For how a formation is chosen, see Agent Formation Design.

Solo implementer

Use for low-risk, localized, well-evidenced work.

Pattern:

Coder -> Verify gates -> Summarize

Planner-coder-reviewer

Use for normal feature or refactoring work.

Pattern:

Planner -> Coder -> Intent reviewer -> Verify gates -> Summarize

Archaeologist-interviewer

Use when intent is unclear.

Pattern:

Code archaeologist -> Hypothesis generator -> Human interviewer

This should usually be read-only. The archaeologist role draws on Codebase Archaeology to reconstruct why the code is the way it is before anyone proposes changing it.

Red-team reviewer

Use when the strategy has a dangerous failure mode.

Example: gateway abstractions may prevent coupling, but can also create indirection theatre.

Pattern:

Planner -> Coder -> Simplicity skeptic -> Coder revision -> Verify gates

Framework specialist

Use when the strategy is ecosystem-specific.

Example roles:

• Phoenix LiveView specialist.
• Elixir functional core specialist.
• Spring Boot architecture reviewer.
• Angular/RIG design-system specialist.
• Rust type-safety reviewer.

Evidence specialist

Use when evidence is the main uncertainty.

Pattern:

Planner -> Test/evidence designer -> Coder -> Gate verifier

The test/evidence designer and gate verifier roles exist to make the evidence and gates strong enough to trust the result.

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Up: Agent Formation Design

Source: Product Brief §17 (Agent Formation Design).