CAO Worker Protocols

CAO Worker Protocols is an AI Engineering skill for Claude Code, published by awslabs in cli-agent-orchestrator.

1.1K stars226 forkson awslabs/cli-agent-orchestratorAdded 2026/08/21+1% in starsRepository updated 2026/08/21

agent-orchestrationai-agentsai-coding-assistantantigravityclaude-codecodexcopilot-clicursor-clideveloper-toolshermeskimi-clikiromcpmodel-context-protocolmulti-agent-systemsopencodeorchestrationpythontmux

Install in seconds

Install CAO Worker Protocols

Copy CAO Worker Protocols into your Claude Code skills folder. Run the command in your terminal, or review the source on GitHub before installing.

terminal

npx degit https://github.com/awslabs/cli-agent-orchestrator/tree/main/skills/cao-worker-protocols ~/.claude/skills/cao-worker-protocols

Requires Node.js. Downloads this skill only — not the rest of the repository — into your Claude Code skills folder.

Without Node.js

git clone https://github.com/awslabs/cli-agent-orchestrator.git

Clones the whole repository, then copy the skill’s own directory into your skills folder yourself.

In this catalog

Source file: skills/cao-worker-protocols/SKILL.md in awslabs/cli-agent-orchestrator
Installs to: ~/.claude/skills/cao-worker-protocols
Collection: One of 18 skills cataloged from this repository
Category: AI Engineering — 2451 skills

What CAO Worker Protocols does

CAO Worker Protocols defines how worker agents handle assigned versus handed-off tasks in CLI Agent Orchestrator. Use it to decide when to return results directly and when to call send_message with the right receiver.

CAO Worker Protocols is cataloged under AI Engineering on DirSkills. CAO Worker Protocols comes from a repository tagged agent-orchestration, ai-agents, ai-coding-assistant, antigravity and claude-code.

Documentation

README

Excerpt

CAO Worker Protocols

Use this skill when acting as a worker agent inside CLI Agent Orchestrator.

This skill explains how workers should interpret assigned versus handed-off work, when to call send_message, and how to report results back cleanly.

Understand the Dispatch Mode

Workers receive tasks through one of two orchestration modes:

handoff: blocking work where the orchestrator captures your final output automatically
assign: non-blocking work where you must actively return results to the requesting terminal

Depending on provider and CAO behavior, a handoff may be made explicit in the task text. For example, Codex workers currently receive a [CAO Handoff] prefix for blocking handoffs. Other providers may rely on the task wording and orchestration context instead.

This is the opening of the README. Read the full README on GitHub.

Frequently asked about CAO Worker Protocols

What else does awslabs publish alongside CAO Worker Protocols?
CAO Worker Protocols is one of 18 skills that DirSkills catalogs from awslabs/cli-agent-orchestrator, the repository it ships in. Its siblings there include AG-UI Author, AI-DLC Portfolio and Add UI To MCP Server. Each one is a separate skill with its own page in this directory, installs the same way CAO Worker Protocols does, and is maintained by awslabs in that same repository. The rest of the collection is listed on the awslabs/cli-agent-orchestrator page.
How does CAO Worker Protocols compare to other AI Engineering skills?
CAO Worker Protocols ranks #1271 by stars among the 2451 AI Engineering skills in this catalog. The most-starred ones next to it are Architecture Decision Records, AI-First Engineering and Agentic OS. DirSkills ranks by the star count of the repository each skill ships in, so that order reflects how popular those repositories are rather than any review of CAO Worker Protocols against them. Open each page to compare what they document and how they install.