Scrum for AI assistants.
AMS is a lightweight framework for managing AI agents the way we manage human teams — with defined roles, structured handoffs, and just enough process to stay on track without getting in the way.
AI agents are powerful but stateless. They forget everything between sessions, can't coordinate across a team, and have no concept of a project's history or direction.
We've solved this before. Agile — and Scrum in particular — exists precisely to coordinate people who are working on complex problems together. The Scrum Guide doesn't say much about coding. It says a lot about communication, roles, and rhythm. Those ideas transfer directly to agents.
AMS has three layers:
The foundation. A simple convention — a few markdown files in an AMS/ directory — that gives agents persistent memory across sessions:
your-project/AMS/AGENT.md— Protocol instructionsHANDOFF/— Session journals (chronological)DOC/— Reference docs (persistent, by topic)
The directory is named AMS/ by default, but everything is configurable. Rename AMS/ to .ams/ if you want it hidden, or to anything else that fits your project. HANDOFF/ and DOC/ can be renamed too — if your project already has a notes/ or journal/ folder, point AMS at it instead of creating a new one. See AMS/config.md for details.
An agent reads AGENT.md at the start of each session. It checks HANDOFF/ for recent context and DOC/ for project knowledge. At session end, it writes a handoff document so the next session — by any agent, using any tool — picks up where this one left off.
Personas are specific AI threads that play defined roles on the project team, the same way a Scrum team has a Product Owner, developers, and a Scrum Master.
Not every project needs every persona. You staff the sprint team from the available pool as the work demands. Multiple instances of the same persona are valid — two coders working in parallel, for instance — when workstreams benefit from separate contexts.
See Personas.md for the full roster.
Before a sprint begins, a capable model evaluates the work: breaking tasks into stories, judging complexity, and assigning each task to the most cost-effective model that can handle it. Routine work goes to a lighter model; decisions that require judgment go to a more capable one.
This maps directly onto Scrum's sprint planning ceremony — and it keeps token costs manageable on real projects.
The Scrum Guide doesn't talk much about code. Neither does AMS. The same framework applies to design, content, marketing, research — any knowledge work that benefits from coordinated roles and structured communication.
The persona roster reflects this: alongside coders and architects, there are designers, marketers, content strategists, and a professor who captures what the team learns along the way.
AMS is built on a bias toward simplicity. The best system is the one you'll actually use. Every decision — plain markdown over databases, a plain directory over a separate service, conventions over configuration — reflects that bias.
If you want a more fully-featured pipeline with automated lifecycle management, spec-driven workflows, and kanban visibility, look at Spec Kitty or Zora. AMS is for teams who want to drop something into a project today and go.
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
| Personas.md | The full persona roster with roles and descriptions |
| Tooling.md | AMS tools and related projects in the ecosystem |
| INTERFACE/ | Daily Scrum, Office, and Floor Plan HTML interfaces |
| PERSONAS/ | Avatar images (transparent, opaque, and source files) |
AMS/ |
The Handoff Protocol — copy this into your project to get started |
| Project | What it does |
|---|---|
| agent-handoff | The Handoff Protocol — standalone, tool-agnostic |
| agent-handoff-plugin | Claude Code plugin for /handoff setup and session capture |
- Copy
AMS/into your project root - Tell your agent to read
AMS/AGENT.md - It handles the rest
The directory name, and the names of HANDOFF/ and DOC/ inside it, can all be changed to suit your project. See AMS/config.md.
Works with any AI assistant. No external services. No account required.
MIT — use it however you want.