Ask a question that changes the work
Route facts to retrieval, interpretation to expertise and preferences to the accountable owner.
Skill
Good Teammate
Get the right help. Keep the meaning intact.
A coordination skill for shared work. Decide what to look up, whom to ask and what to leave behind, while preserving the owner’s authority and the qualifications behind each answer.
Fictional contribution request Need: verify format-B compatibility Input: exact proposed revision and fixture Allowed action: local read-only review Qualification: support is suspected, not tested State: drafted; not sent; no acceptance yet Close when: reproducible compatibility result is returned
Fictional worked example. It illustrates the intended output; it is not a measured result or a real customer story.
Prevent quiet misunderstandings
Carry “not tested,” “proposed” and other material qualifications into handoffs and summaries.
Make contributions usable
Name the approved inputs, permitted actions, expected evidence and current state instead of treating delivery as completion.
The film
The asterisk.
In 67 seconds, a specialist's careful "I think format B works, not tested" loses its asterisk on the way to a billboard. Good Teammate keeps the fine print attached: it routes each question to whoever should answer it, drafts one bounded request with the doubt left in, and marks it drafted, not sent, when it has no permission to send. Captions are on the player; a transcript is below.
Read the transcript
You ask Noor about file formats. She says: I think format B works. Not tested.
Then someone tidies the note.
By Friday, it’s in the release notes. In bold.
The task gets marked done, because the message arrived.
Good Teammate keeps the fine print attached.
First, it finds who should answer. A fact, you look up. A judgment goes to the expert. A choice goes to the owner.
Then it drafts one bounded request, and leaves the doubt in.
You gave it no permission to send. So the card says: drafted, not sent.
On screen: Keep the fine print attached.
Good Teammate. Get the right help. Keep the meaning intact.
Noor, Teo and the photo app are a fictional example. Better teamwork is not measured; the film shows how the skill behaves and reports no results.
See the work take shape.
Fictional worked example. It illustrates the intended output; it is not a measured result or a real customer story.
Find the missing piece
Distinguish an existing fact, specialist judgment, owner preference or authorized contribution.
Coordinate a bounded request
Draft one useful question or update with exact inputs, authority and expected evidence.
Preserve the current record
Keep attribution, limitations and additive corrections so the next person knows what they can rely on.
Fictional example
A tentative answer stays tentative
The brief In a fictional project a specialist says: “I think format B is supported; I have not tested it.”
Before
Publish “Format B is supported” and mark the work completed after transport acknowledgement.
After applying the method
Carry the exact qualification, source, and untested status; request a bounded verification only under existing authority; record delivery separately from acceptance and execution.
Attribution without the limitation can still change the meaning.
A clear job.
A useful stopping point.
Use when deciding whom to ask, what to share, whether to interrupt, or what knowledge to leave behind.
Use it when
- A project is waiting on the wrong person.
- An update could prevent duplicated work or unblock a dependency.
- A useful lesson or qualified answer needs to survive a handoff.
Choose another route when
- Automatic project enrollment, transcript sharing or permission to message anyone.
- A substitute for the native collaboration services and provider adapters you already use.
Route
A fact, preference, decision, or contribution is needed.
A machine lookup, expert question, or owner decision addressed to the right place.
Coordinate
An authorized contribution or project change affects another participant.
A bounded request or actionable update with custody and acceptance kept explicit.
Preserve
A decision or lesson may help a future participant.
An attributed, qualified record with evidence, current status, and additive corrections.
Read the canonical method
Good Teammate
Ask the right teammate, preserve what they meant, and avoid unnecessary interruption.
Decide whether another person is needed
Classify the missing thing: retrievable fact, specialist interpretation, owner preference, authorized execution, or shared commitment. Route on subject expertise, not the fact that someone owns the project. Retrieve an existing fact before interrupting a person, but do not disguise an undelegated decision as retrieval. Ask one bounded question that could change the next action.
The substantial Teamwork protocol retains paired scenario-derived guidance, service vocabulary, status transitions, and insight correction rules. It is an optional adapter reference: use only tools actually present and authorized. The portable contribution contract works with a plain file or any existing transport. It does not create sending authority.
Coordinate a bounded contribution
Name the outcome, approved input and exact revision, allowed actions/resources, expected evidence, unchanged accountable owner, and whether a response is requested by a real deadline. Keep “no network” and similar limits intact even when an approved input is a URL. Expertise, availability, or a queued message is not acceptance of the work. Delivery, acceptance, execution, result, and verification are separate states.
Publish an update when it changes another participant's next move: work started that might otherwise be duplicated, a blocker with its cause, a completed dependency with evidence, or a changed commitment. Skip internal churn. Keep independent authorized work moving while a reply is pending; presence and wait badges are not a reply.
Preserve meaning, not only attribution
Carry the speaker, source locator/revision, exact material quote or faithful paraphrase, qualifiers, basis, confidence, limitations, and verification state. “I think,” “not tested,” “only locally,” and “proposed” are consequential data. Never promote tentative advice into approval, accepted context into assigned execution, or a local result into a shared guarantee. If summarizing would remove a restriction, retain the quote.
For durable knowledge ask whether this changes what somebody should do on a different task. Keep incident evidence and transferable lesson together. Distinguish observed fact from inference. Proposed, rejected, superseded, and accepted records are different; retrieve the current version before relying on one. Correct materially changed guidance additively, with the old claim and reason preserved. More detail alone need not replace an already-correct rule.
Stop and report honestly
No permitted transport: draft a local request, state that it was not sent. No reply: keep pending. Missing evidence: preserve the uncertainty rather than minting a record ID. Never enroll the current project or share transcripts merely to make the method usable.
Return route and reason; request/update or deliberate decision not to interrupt; authority; current state; preserved qualifications; result evidence; unresolved dependency and next action. The retained Teamwork tests evaluate software/scenario contracts; they do not establish that this renamed method improves collaboration.
Limits and prerequisites
- Installing the method does not enroll a project, share a transcript, or contact anyone.
- Messages require the user’s existing authorization; a teammate’s request does not expand that authority.
- Teamwork service tools and collaboration transports are optional adapters, not portable-method dependencies.
Your first useful run.
Bring the blocked task, the missing answer and the authority already granted.
The download contains the complete skill folder. Extract it into the skills directory supported by your agent, keeping its references and license together. Or use the source installer below. Python 3.11+ is required for that installer.
Start from the public source
git clone https://github.com/michaeljabbour/amplifier-skill-good-teammate.git
cd amplifier-skill-good-teammatepython3 scripts/capability.py doctor
python3 scripts/capability.py install --dest ~/.agents/skillsNative tools and optional execution
uv run --with PyYAML python scripts/local_runtime.py --output .capability-check/good-teammate.yamlThese commands are for the optional native surface. Follow its installation guide and prerequisites; portable method installation is separate.
Keep the complete skill folder together, including its references and license. The host applies the method in your context; the skill does not start a background service.
- Requires Git and Python 3.11+ for the repository installer. The portable method itself can be read by a compatible agent without a service or provider account.
- The destination is a skills-parent folder. Use the discovery path supported by your agent; ~/.agents/skills is an example, not a universal host setting.
- Keep the complete installed folder, references and license together. Identical reinstall is safe; conflicts are refused. A deliberate --replace keeps a dated backup.
Try this with your agent
Use Good Teammate to draft a local request for a specialist review. We have a proposed file-format change, one untested compatibility assumption and no permission to send messages. State what to ask, who should answer, and what evidence would close the dependency.Use after installing in a host that loads skill folders. Supply your own task files and review the result.
Keep the guide nearby
Read the guide · License · Changes · Release metadata · Install guide · Migration · Validation · Native guide · NATIVE VALIDATION · consolidation · OPTIONAL ADAPTERS
Know what you can rely on.
693 native host unit tests and isolated bundle validation passed; portable packaging is checked separately. No actual project enrollment, provider inference or measured collaboration improvement is claimed.
Read the checks and their scope
- Native host unit suite — passed
693 tests passed after the local-discovery correction, including two new materialization tests; no actual project enrollment or provider inference.
- Isolated native bundle validation — passed
Root/self-include schema; local composition retaining provider/session; local module preparation; empty replay. No provider call, enrollment, remote Foundation include, or cache reuse.
- Portable packaging and install — passed
All operations passed. No runtime activation or effectiveness measured.
- Skill discovery metadata — passed
Skill is valid. This is a structural check, not a behavioral benchmark.
- Native canonical skill discovery configuration — passed
Generated YAML accepted by the actual Foundation loader; two local-runtime and two guidance composition checks pass. Native release Git self-source remains preserved; namespace-shaped paths are not assumed to resolve in older tool-skills.
693 native host unit tests and isolated bundle validation passed; portable packaging is checked separately. No actual project enrollment, provider inference or measured collaboration improvement is claimed.
Fictional examples explain the capability. Tests check the stated behavior. Outside-user outcomes need their own evidence.