plan-phase, new-project, and quick still spawn general-purpose instead of dedicated agent types

[begna112]

Bug

Several workflows still use subagent_type="general-purpose" with a "First, read agent .md" prompt workaround instead of the dedicated GSD agent types. This was originally needed due to anthropics/claude-code#13898 (custom subagents can't access MCP tools), but that bug appears fixed in Claude Code 2.1.30+ (confirmed on 2.1.63).

Related: #500, #517, #455

Impact

Agents spawned as general-purpose:

• Don't get the tool configuration from agent frontmatter (no MCP tools, no Skill access)
• Don't get <tool_preferences> blocks
• Don't get color coding in the Claude Code UI
• Waste context reading the agent .md file as their first action instead of having it as system prompt

Affected Spawns

plan-phase.md (3 spawns):

• Line ~128: Researcher → general-purpose (should be gsd-phase-researcher)
• Line ~216: Planner → general-purpose (should be gsd-planner)
• Line ~312: Revision planner → general-purpose (should be gsd-planner)

new-project.md (4 spawns):

• Lines ~547, ~587, ~627, ~667: 4 parallel researchers → general-purpose (should be gsd-project-researcher)

quick.md (1 spawn):

• Line ~226: Revision planner → general-purpose (should be gsd-planner)

Already Correct

These workflows already use dedicated types:

• plan-phase.md: checker → gsd-plan-checker
• execute-phase.md: executor → gsd-executor, verifier → gsd-verifier
• new-project.md: synthesizer → gsd-research-synthesizer, roadmapper → gsd-roadmapper
• research-phase.md: researcher → gsd-phase-researcher

Suggested Fix

Switch all 8 spawns to their dedicated agent types and remove the "First, read agent .md" prompt prefix. The dedicated types already have MCP tools listed in their frontmatter (mcp__context7__, mcp__hashline-edit__, mcp__serena__*) and are properly registered in Claude Code's Task tool registry.

If cross-harness compatibility (OpenCode) is still a concern, the agent type could be conditionally selected based on the runtime, but general-purpose should not be the default on Claude Code.

[rthiago]

Is this message related?

gsd-planner subagent isn’t available in this session, so I’m using the documented fallback: spawn a default agent with planner-role instructions to generate the required 1-PLAN.md in the quick task directory.

[Tibsfox]

Hi @begna112! Confirmed this one — the workaround for anthropics/claude-code#13898 (custom subagents can't access MCP tools) is still in place across 8 spawns, even though that CC bug was fixed in v2.1.30+.

The affected spawns:

plan-phase.md (3):

• ~Line 128: Researcher → general-purpose (should be gsd-phase-researcher)
• ~Line 216: Planner → general-purpose (should be gsd-planner)
• ~Line 312: Revision planner → general-purpose (should be gsd-planner)

new-project.md (4):

• ~Lines 547/587/627/667: 4 parallel researchers → general-purpose (should be gsd-project-researcher)

quick.md (1):

• ~Line 226: Revision planner → general-purpose (should be gsd-planner)

The commenter's gsd-planner subagent isn't available in this session message confirms the fallback is triggering. Switching these to dedicated agent types means they'd get the agent frontmatter as system prompt (instead of wasting context reading it), proper MCP tool access, and correct UI coloring.

Straightforward fix — just update the subagent_type in each spawn and drop the "First, read agent .md" prompt prefix. 🙂

[begna112]

Worth noting that for the dedicated agent .md frontmatter, you can use mcp:* in allowed_tools to grant access to all configured MCP servers without having to enumerate each one individually:

---
name: gsd-phase-researcher
allowed_tools:
  - "mcp:*"
---

This avoids the brittleness of listing specific MCP tool patterns like mcp__context7__*, mcp__hashline-edit__*, etc. in every agent definition — if someone adds a new MCP server to their setup, all agents pick it up automatically without needing frontmatter updates. More granular patterns like mcp:server-name:* are available too if you want to restrict specific agent types to specific servers.

This should pair nicely with the switch from general-purpose to dedicated types, since the agents will actually respect their frontmatter allowed_tools when spawned properly.