Terminology
Consistent definitions for terms used across Agent Baton documentation.
Execution Hierarchy
| Term |
Definition |
| Task |
The overall unit of work from plan creation to completion. Has a unique task ID. |
| Phase |
A group of steps that execute together. Phases run sequentially. Each phase ends with a gate. |
| Step |
An individual assignment given to one agent. Identified as PHASE.STEP (e.g., 2.1). Steps within a phase may run in parallel. |
| Gate |
A QA check that runs after a phase completes. Must pass before the next phase starts. |
| Team Step |
A step that coordinates multiple agents simultaneously. Members identified as PHASE.STEP.MEMBER (e.g., 2.1.a). |
Agent Roles
| Term |
Definition |
| Orchestrator |
The top-level Claude instance that plans, dispatches agents, and drives execution via the baton CLI. |
| Specialist Agent (or Subagent) |
A Claude instance dispatched by the orchestrator for a specific step. Does not spawn other agents. |
| Agent Flavor |
A stack-specific variant of a base agent (e.g., backend-engineer--python is a Python flavor of backend-engineer). |
| Skill |
An inline procedure run by the orchestrator itself, not a separate agent. |
Plan & Execution
| Term |
Definition |
| Plan |
A structured execution blueprint created by baton plan. Contains phases, steps, agent assignments, and gates. |
| Risk Level |
Classification of task sensitivity: LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, CRITICAL. Determines guardrails and approval requirements. |
| Budget Tier |
Resource allocation: lean (minimal agents), standard (balanced), full (comprehensive). |
| Model Tier |
Which Claude model an agent runs on: opus (most capable), sonnet (balanced), haiku (fastest). |
| Delegation Prompt |
The full prompt sent to a specialist agent, including task description, shared context, knowledge, and boundaries. |
Infrastructure
| Term |
Definition |
| Knowledge Pack |
A collection of domain-specific documents in .claude/knowledge/ that are injected into agent prompts at plan time. |
| Reference Document |
A procedure or guide in references/ (or .claude/references/) that agents read for workflow guidance. |
| Guardrail Preset |
A pre-defined set of safety rules applied based on risk level (e.g., what permissions agents get). |
| Mission Log |
Append-only record of agent dispatches and results in .claude/team-context/mission-log.md. |