Category Agents

Category agents are specialized workers that Sisyphus delegates implementation work to. Each category is optimized for a different type of task. Sisyphus picks the right category automatically, but you can also specify one explicitly.

The Six Categories

quick

Optimized for: Small, fast tasks that don't need deep reasoning.

• Adding a comment
• Renaming a variable
• Fixing a typo
• Updating a config value
• One-line changes

"Add a TODO comment to the login handler"
→ Sisyphus delegates to quick

deep

Optimized for: Multi-step implementation with verification at each step.

• Adding a new feature
• Implementing a CRUD endpoint
• Writing tests alongside code
• Refactoring a module

"Add password reset to the auth system"
→ Sisyphus delegates to deep
→ deep implements model, route, handler, tests
→ deep verifies build + tests at each step

ultrabrain

Optimized for: Complex reasoning that requires deep analysis.

• Architecture decisions
• Algorithm design
• Performance optimization
• Complex data transformations
• Debugging subtle concurrency issues

"Optimize this O(n²) algorithm to O(n log n)"
→ Sisyphus delegates to ultrabrain

visual-engineering

Optimized for: UI/UX implementation with design quality enforcement.

• Building components
• Implementing layouts
• Responsive design
• CSS animations and transitions
• Design system implementation

"Build a responsive dashboard layout with a sidebar and main content area"
→ Sisyphus delegates to visual-engineering
→ visual-engineering enforces design rules, hardware-accelerated CSS, component architecture

artistry

Optimized for: Creative work that needs taste and polish.

• Landing page design
• Visual polish and refinement
• Creative copy
• Brand-aligned styling

"Make this landing page look professional and distinctive"
→ Sisyphus delegates to artistry

writing

Optimized for: Documentation, articles, and prose.

• README files
• API documentation
• Blog posts
• Code comments (when substantial)
• Changelog entries

"Write a README for this project"
→ Sisyphus delegates to writing

How Categories + Skills Compose

Categories and skills work together. A category determines how the agent works (its optimization), and a skill determines what it knows (its domain expertise).

task(category="deep", load_skills=["tdd"])
→ deep agent with TDD expertise
→ Follows red-green-refactor loop

task(category="visual-engineering", load_skills=["frontend-design"])
→ visual-engineering agent with frontend design expertise
→ Enforces design quality rules

task(category="writing", load_skills=["docs-writer"])
→ writing agent with documentation expertise
→ Follows documentation conventions

Composition Examples

Task	Category	Skill	Why
Add TDD feature	deep	tdd	Multi-step + test-first methodology
Build dashboard UI	visual-engineering	frontend-design	UI work + design quality
Write API docs	writing	docs-writer	Prose + documentation conventions
Fix auth bug	deep	diagnose	Multi-step + structured debugging
Refactor with domain language	deep	grill-with-docs	Multi-step + domain alignment

How Sisyphus Picks Categories

When you give Sisyphus a task, it automatically selects the right category:

1. Small, obvious change → quick
2. Multi-step implementation → deep
3. Needs deep reasoning → ultrabrain
4. UI/UX work → visual-engineering
5. Creative/polish work → artistry
6. Documentation/prose → writing

You can override the automatic selection by specifying a category explicitly, but most of the time the automatic routing works well.

Category Agents in the Pipeline

During /start-work, Atlas assigns categories to each task from the Prometheus plan:

Plan: Bookmark API
│
├── Task 1: Project scaffold → quick
├── Task 2: SQLite models → deep
├── Task 3: Auth middleware → deep
├── Task 4: CRUD handlers → deep
└── Task 5: Integration tests → deep (with tdd skill)

Atlas reads the task description and assigns the category that best matches the work required.

See Also

• Sisyphus: Executor — How Sisyphus routes to categories
• Atlas: Orchestrator — How Atlas assigns categories in the pipeline
• Skills Ecosystem — Available skills and how they compose with categories
• Add a Feature — Category delegation in practice