Squads Overview

Squads are teams of specialized AI agents assigned to a single repository. Once a squad is hired, Io delegates all work related to that repository to the squad automatically.

Composition

Every squad has two mandatory roles plus LLM-generated specialists:

Role	Mandatory	Purpose
Team Lead	✅	Plans objectives, assigns tasks, picks models
QA Agent	✅	Reviews work, runs tests, has veto power
Specialists	Generated	Roles tailored to the repo (e.g., Frontend Dev, API Engineer)

Key Principles

• One squad per repo — Each repository gets exactly one squad
• No characters — Agents have functional roles, not personas or universe themes
• Delegation is automatic — Once a squad exists, Io routes relevant work there
• Human oversight — QA gates, configurable PR modes, inbox notifications

Squad Lifecycle

1. Hire   → Io analyzes repo → proposes team → user approves
2. Active → Squad handles all work for that repo
3. Fire   → Squad disbanded, Io handles repo directly again

Management

Manage squads via chat, API, or web dashboard:

"Hire a squad for https://github.com/org/my-app"
"What's the status of the my-app squad?"
"Fire the my-app squad"

Configuration Per Squad

Each squad has independent settings:

• PR Mode — How completed work is delivered
• MCP Servers — Optional Model Context Protocol servers for agents
• Members — Add or remove specialist roles