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Guide · Agent skill

How to use the Company Creator agent skill (company-creator)

Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data

The Company Creator is an agent skill from the Paperclip project that helps an AI agent design and write a folder-based agent company: agent instruction files, an optional CEO and team structure, and optional projects, tasks and skills, all following the Agent Companies specification. This guide is for developers and small teams who want a structured multi-agent starting point. By the end you will know what the skill does, how to install it, how to trigger it, and what it needs and does not do.

Company Creatorpaperclipai/paperclip · MIT

Quick start

  1. 1Download and unzip the skill. Download the ZIP from the skill page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into your project's .claude/skills/ folder.
  2. 2Confirm your runtime supports the interview tool. Make sure your agent can read SKILL.md and use an AskUserQuestion-style interview tool, since the skill depends on it.
  3. 3Make the spec available. Ensure docs/companies/companies-spec.md is in your Paperclip repo or that the agent can reach agentcompanies.io.
  4. 4Describe your goal in plain language. Ask for a company, team or repo-based package using a natural request such as creating an agent team for a specific job.
  5. 5Answer the interview questions. Respond to two or three questions per round about domain, agents, CEO need, skills and workflow pattern, and confirm the proposed hiring plan.
  6. 6Choose the output location and review the files. Pick where the package should be written, then check COMPANY.md, the AGENTS.md files and the workflow described in each one.

What is an agent skill, and what does company-creator do?

An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file with instructions that an AI agent reads when a task matches the skill's description. The company-creator skill is one of these. Its job is to make the agent generate an agent company package: a folder with a COMPANY.md root file, agent definitions in AGENTS.md files, and optional TEAM.md, PROJECT.md, TASK.md and SKILL.md files, plus a .paperclip.yaml file.

Before writing any files, the skill tells the agent to interview you about your goal. It then proposes a hiring plan and a workflow pattern: pipeline, hub-and-spoke, collaborative or on-demand. It can also take an existing repo or skills collection and create a company package that wraps it.

  • Mode 1, company from scratch: you describe the company and the agent interviews you, then generates the package.
  • Mode 2, company from a repo: the agent analyses a git repo URL, local path or tweet and creates a company that wraps it.
  • Output is files only. The skill writes files based on its instructions and the referenced spec.

Install the company-creator skill

You can install the skill in one of three places. Use the ZIP download from the skill's page on our directory, then pick the option that fits how you work.

For a personal setup, unzip the download into ~/.claude/skills/ so the company-creator folder is available to every project. For a single project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

  • Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
  • Project install: unzip into your project's .claude/skills/
  • Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP

Check the requirements before you start

The skill needs an agent runtime that can read SKILL.md and use an AskUserQuestion-style interview tool. The interview step is required, so a runtime without such a tool will not follow the intended process.

The skill also needs access to the spec. That can be the local file docs/companies/companies-spec.md in the Paperclip repo, or the web spec at agentcompanies.io. If you use Mode 2 with a repo, you need git access to clone it.

  • Agent runtime that reads SKILL.md and supports an AskUserQuestion-style interview tool
  • Access to docs/companies/companies-spec.md in the Paperclip repo, or the web spec at agentcompanies.io
  • Git access for Mode 2 (cloning a repo)
  • Network access is used; the skill does not run scripts

How to trigger the skill with natural requests

You do not need a special command. Describe what you want in plain language. The skill's description mentions requests to create a company, scaffold an agent team, hire agents, or turn a repo or skills collection into a company package, so phrasing close to those should match.

Expect the agent to ask two or three focused questions per round before it writes anything. Answer with your domain, the work you need done, and whether you want a CEO. The skill is designed to propose a concrete hiring plan rather than ask open-ended questions.

  • "Create an agent company for a small content team that drafts, edits and publishes blog posts."
  • "Scaffold an agent team for reviewing pull requests in this repo."
  • "Turn this repo into a company package: https://github.com/example/repo" (use your own repo URL)

Choose a workflow pattern

The skill asks how work moves through the organisation, because agents need to know what triggers them, what they hand off and what done means. It infers a pattern from your description or, for a repo, from its structure, then asks you to confirm or change it.

Pipeline suits a clear linear process such as plan, build, review, ship. Hub-and-spoke suits a manager dispatching to specialists who report back independently. Collaborative suits a small team of peers on the same output. On-demand suits a toolbox of specialists you call directly.

  • Pipeline: sequential stages, each agent hands off to the next
  • Hub-and-spoke: a manager delegates to specialists
  • Collaborative: peers work on the same output
  • On-demand: agents are summoned as needed

Where the files go and what you get

Once you confirm the plan, the agent reads the spec and the example in its references, then generates the package. Before writing, it asks where to put the package: a subdirectory in the current repo, a new directory you name, or the current directory if it is empty or you confirm.

The generated layout follows the spec. Slugs are lowercase and hyphenated, COMPANY.md carries schema agentcompanies/v1, and every agent except the CEO has reportsTo set to its manager. Agent instructions are written into AGENTS.md bodies, including where work comes from and who the agent hands off to.

  • COMPANY.md, agents/<slug>/AGENTS.md, and optionally teams/, projects/, tasks/ and skills/
  • A .paperclip.yaml vendor extension file
  • For repo-based companies, a references footer linking the source repo
<company-slug>/ ├── COMPANY.md ├── agents/ │ └── <slug>/AGENTS.md ├── teams/ ├── projects/ ├── tasks/ ├── skills/ └── .paperclip.yaml

Safety notes: scripts and network

The skill does not run scripts. Its files are references and instructions, so the risk is mostly in the files it writes and in the network calls it makes while analysing a repo or reading the web spec. Review the generated package before using it in any real setup.

The skill's guidance says not to export secrets, machine-local paths or database IDs, and to reference external skills rather than copying them by default. Check those points yourself on the output.

  • Runs scripts: no
  • Uses network: yes (cloning repos and reading the web spec)
  • Review generated files before committing or importing them

What people use it for

  • Turning an existing repo with SKILL.md files into a company package that references those skills rather than copying them
  • Scaffolding a small three-to-five agent team for a startup-style project with a CEO and specialists
  • Designing a pipeline of stages such as plan, build, review and ship for a software workflow
  • Creating a team or department package without a CEO when you only need a group of agents

Frequently asked questions

Is the company-creator skill free to use?

The source gives the licence as MIT, which permits use under its terms. Check the licence file in the paperclipai/paperclip repository for the full text before you rely on it commercially.

What do I need to run company-creator?

You need an agent runtime that can read SKILL.md and use an AskUserQuestion-style interview tool, access to the spec in the Paperclip repo or at agentcompanies.io, and git access if you are wrapping a repo.

Where do I install the company-creator skill?

Unzip the ZIP into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps you can upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Does company-creator deploy or run my agents?

No. The skill only writes files based on its instructions and the referenced spec. It does not run or deploy the agents it describes.

Is company-creator good for a single agent skill?

Not really. It generates a whole company folder structure, which is more than most single-task needs. For one skill or a one-off prompt, write a single SKILL.md or prompt instead.

How does company-creator compare with writing agent files by hand?

The skill interviews you, proposes a hiring plan and workflow, and then follows the Agent Companies spec for file layout and reporting lines. Writing by hand gives you full control but requires you to know the spec and the workflow patterns yourself.

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Our verdict

Use company-creator if you are a developer or small team who wants a spec-conformant starting point for a multi-agent setup, or who wants to wrap an existing repo or skills collection in a company package. Pick something else if you only need one agent skill or a quick prompt, or if you expect the tool to run and deploy agents, since it only writes files.

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