Configure Agents to Meet Your Engineering Standard

An agent's work was rejected -- not because the code was wrong, but because it followed generic practices instead of the organization's standards. The problem is configuration: the agent has no access to the skills, behaviours, and conventions your engineering standard defines. This guide walks you through configuring agents against that standard so their output reflects what the organization expects from any contributor, human or AI. For the other half of this job, seeing what the standard expects of you, see See What's Expected at Your Level.

Prerequisites

Complete these guides before continuing:

• Getting Started: Pathway for Engineers -- install Pathway and initialize a data/pathway/ directory with starter content or your organization's standard data.
• Authoring Agent-Aligned Engineering Standards -- if your organization has not yet defined its standard, start there. This guide assumes a standard exists and npx fit-pathway discipline --list returns your disciplines.

Identify the role to configure

Every agent configuration in Pathway maps to a discipline and track -- the same coordinates used for human role definitions. Before generating an agent, identify which discipline and track describe the work the agent will do.

List the available discipline and track combinations:

npx fit-pathway agent --list

Expected output (your organization's values will differ):

se-platform software_engineering platform, Software Engineering (Platform Engineering)
se-sre software_engineering sre, Software Engineering (Site Reliability Engineering)
de-platform data_engineering platform, Data Engineering (Platform Engineering)
...

Each row shows a short ID, the discipline ID, the track ID, and a human-readable description. Note the discipline and track values for the role you want to configure -- you will use them in the next step.

If the combination you need is missing, the standard data does not define an agent section for that discipline or track. See Authoring Agent-Aligned Engineering Standards to add one.

Preview the agent configuration

Before writing files, preview what Pathway will generate. Run the agent command without --output to see the full configuration on screen:

npx fit-pathway agent software_engineering --track=platform

The output has three sections, each corresponding to a layer in the generated agent team:

1. Team Instructions (.claude/CLAUDE.md) -- cross-cutting context every agent needs: platform conventions, environment variables, and architectural decisions.
2. Agent Profile (.claude/agents/*.md) -- the agent's identity, working style, required skills, and constraints.
3. Required Skills (.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md) -- which skills the agent will load, with descriptions so the agent knows when each applies.

Review the output and confirm it reflects your organization's expectations:

• Does the team instructions section capture the platform and conventions the agent needs to know?
• Does the identity describe the right specialization?
• Do the working style entries reflect the behaviours your standard emphasizes?
• Do the constraints match the boundaries you expect the agent to observe?
• Is the skill list appropriate for the discipline and track?

If the content looks wrong, the fix is in the standard data, not in the generated output. The configuration is derived from the same YAML files that define human roles -- update the source, and the agent configuration updates with it.

Calibrate the agent's level

The --level flag picks which level's expectations the generated agent encodes. Without it, Pathway selects a default level based on core-skill proficiency.

npx fit-pathway agent software_engineering --track=platform --level=J060

Set --level explicitly when generating agents that should meet different expectations -- for example, a J040 agent and a J060 agent on the same team need separate profiles. When omitted, the output is byte-identical to today's default-resolved behaviour.

Generate the agent team

Once the preview looks right, generate the files into your project:

npx fit-pathway agent software_engineering --track=platform --output=.

Pathway writes the following structure (the skill directories will match your discipline's tier arrays — the example below uses the starter):

.claude/
  CLAUDE.md                                  # Team instructions
  settings.json                              # Tool permissions
  agents/
    software-engineer--platform.agent.md     # Agent profile
  skills/
    task-completion/SKILL.md                 # Skill files
    incident-response/SKILL.md
    incident-management/SKILL.md

The agent name is derived from the discipline's roleTitle, suffixed with the track when one is set (e.g., software-engineer--platform). Generalist configurations without a track omit the suffix.

Confirm the generated skills

List the skill IDs the agent received to confirm they match the discipline:

npx fit-pathway agent software_engineering --track=platform --skills

Expected output (your organization's skills will differ — the starter ships this shape for software_engineering --track=platform):

task_completion
incident_response
incident_management

Each skill file under .claude/skills/ contains procedural guidance for one domain: what to prioritize, what outputs to produce, and which checklists to follow. Pathway sets the proficiency level automatically so agents work at a consistently capable level across all skills.

Verify

Your agents are configured against your organization's standard when you can confirm the following:

• The generated files exist in your project. Running ls .claude/agents/*.md shows the agent profile and ls .claude/skills/*/SKILL.md shows the skill files.
• The team instructions reflect your platform. Open .claude/CLAUDE.md and verify it contains the conventions, environment, and coordination table your standard defines.
• The agent profile matches the role. Open the agent profile under .claude/agents/ and verify the identity, working style, and constraints describe the discipline and track you selected.
• The skills match the discipline. The skill files under .claude/skills/ correspond to the skills your standard assigns to this discipline and track.
• The configuration is derived, not hand-written. Any adjustment you need should be made in the standard YAML data, not by editing generated files directly. See Give Agents Organizational Context for where each type of guidance belongs and how to update agents when the standard changes.

What's next