AI Development Framework

Three Man Team

Structure for teams that ship.

By: Russell Aaron

See how it works ↓ View on GitHub →
v1.2.0 559 Stars MIT License Built in production
The Problem

AI tools are powerful.
And undisciplined.

AI coding tools are powerful but undisciplined. They read entire codebases when they need one function. They add features nobody asked for. They drift mid-task. They burn tokens on every session doing work that didn't need to happen.

"The solution isn't a better prompt. It's a process."

The Research

Three is not arbitrary.

DeepMind research on multi-agent systems shows that structured role separation produces more reliable outputs than a single unconstrained agent. Specialization reduces drift. Handoffs force precision. Review creates accountability.

Role 01
Architect
Owns the plan and the brief. Nothing gets built without a written specification. The single fixed point everything orients around.
Role 02
Builder
Reads the brief. Confirms the plan. Builds exactly what was specified — no more, no less. Hands off clean.
Role 03
Reviewer
Reviews against the brief, correctness, and standards. Will not pass work that isn't right. Nothing ships without a review.
The Sprint

Every step. Every time.

💬
Plan
Architect
Project Owner
📋
Brief
Architect
Architect
⚙️
Build
Builder
Builder
🔍
Review
Reviewer
Reviewer
🚀
Deploy
Architect
Architect
📝
Log
Build Log
Architect
HANDOFF 01

Architect plans the work and writes the brief. The brief is the contract — specific, scoped, unambiguous. Builder doesn't start without it.

HANDOFF 02

Builder reads the brief, posts a plan, and builds. When done, Builder writes the review request and hands off to Richard. Clean, documented, traceable.

HANDOFF 03

Reviewer clears it or sends it back with findings. Nothing skips this step. When Richard signs off, Architect deploys.

The Team

Three roles. One process.

Arch
Architect
Arch
Plans the work, writes the brief, owns the deploy. The fixed point everything orients around.
Bob
Builder
Bob
Builds exactly what the brief says. Fast, precise, no ego. Hands it to Richard clean.
Richard
Reviewer
Richard
Quiet until he speaks. Will not pass work that isn't right. Has seen what happens when corners get cut.
Token Efficiency

Less noise. More signal.

Three Man Team bakes token discipline into every role. Each agent follows five rules that kill waste before it compounds across a session.

Is this in a skill or memory? → Trust it. Skip the file read. Is this speculative? → Kill the tool call. Can calls run in parallel? → Parallelize them. Output > 20 lines you won't use? → Route to subagent. About to restate what user said? → Delete it.

For bash output compression, RTK is a separate tool that compresses find, ls, grep output before it reaches Claude's context. Learn more at github.com/rtk-ai/rtk.

📊
Benchmark data coming in Step 2. Token efficiency measurements from a controlled A/B test — structured Three Man Team workflow vs. baseline unstructured session — will appear here once Test B completes.
Goes Well With

Not required. Just good.

ccusage ↗
Tracks your Claude Code token usage and costs by session, day, or billing window. Know exactly what you're spending.
claude-historian-mcp ↗
An MCP server that lets Claude search your past conversation history. Find solutions you've already solved without starting from scratch.

Three Man Team works without either. These just make the experience better.

Quick Start

Up and running in two steps.

Per-project install
bash 
cd your-project
git clone https://github.com/russelleNVy/three-man-team .claude/skills/three-man-team
cd .claude/skills/three-man-team && ./setup
Global install
bash 
git clone https://github.com/russelleNVy/three-man-team ~/.claude/skills/three-man-team
cd ~/.claude/skills/three-man-team && ./setup
Clone on GitHub →