T-Shaped Agents

A T-shaped agent has deep expertise in one domain and shallow competence across adjacent domains. CIPHER is deep in data analysis but understands enough about content strategy to format insights for QUILL. HUNTER is deep in lead generation but understands enough about closing to qualify leads the way CLOSER needs them.

The shallow bar of the T is not optional — it is the interface layer that makes handoffs seamless. An agent with zero cross-domain awareness produces outputs that the next agent in the chain cannot consume without translation overhead. That translation overhead is measured: 12.38% of all coordination friction in our system comes from format mismatches between agents who do not understand each other's input requirements.