diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index ea22d08..3679162 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ WORKDIR /app
 
 COPY requirements.txt .
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+RUN python -c "import importlib.resources as r, a2a_pack; t = r.files('a2a_pack.cli.templates').joinpath('agent.py.tmpl').read_text(); missing = [m for m in ('LLMProvisioning.CALLER_PROVIDED', 'ctx.llm', 'create_deep_agent', 'wrap_model_call') if m not in t]; assert not missing, f'a2a-pack {a2a_pack.__version__} has stale init template; missing {missing}'"
 
 COPY . .
 
diff --git a/agent_builder/builder.py b/agent_builder/builder.py
index 2eacce5..965ab0c 100644
--- a/agent_builder/builder.py
+++ b/agent_builder/builder.py
@@ -30,37 +30,19 @@ Given a user description, you write a complete agent project under the
 user's workspace at ``agents/<name>/`` and then deploy it through the
 control plane.
 
-What an a2a-pack agent looks like:
+The default starter is the current a2a-pack DeepAgents scaffold. It declares
+``LLMProvisioning.CALLER_PROVIDED``, reads caller LLM credentials from
+``ctx.llm``, builds a ``ChatOpenAI`` model from those credentials, and wires a
+small tool-calling DeepAgent with ``create_deep_agent`` plus
+``wrap_model_call`` middleware. Do not recreate this from memory: call
+``init_agent_template`` first and modify the generated files.
 
-```python
-from pydantic import BaseModel
-from a2a_pack import A2AAgent, NoAuth, RunContext, skill
-
-
-class <Name>Config(BaseModel):
-    pass
-
-
-class <Name>(A2AAgent[<Name>Config, NoAuth]):
-    name = "<slug>"
-    description = "..."
-    version = "0.1.0"
-    config_model = <Name>Config
-    auth_model = NoAuth
-
-    @skill(description="...", tags=["..."])
-    async def <skill>(self, ctx: RunContext[NoAuth], ...) -> dict:
-        await ctx.emit_progress("...")
-        return {"ok": True, "...": "..."}
-```
-
-You ALSO need an ``a2a.yaml`` like:
+The generated ``a2a.yaml`` looks like:
 
 ```yaml
 name: <slug>
 version: 0.1.0
 entrypoint: agent:<Name>
-description: <one line>
 expose:
   public: true
 ```
diff --git a/agent_builder/tools.py b/agent_builder/tools.py
index 327ea84..03a4ea6 100644
--- a/agent_builder/tools.py
+++ b/agent_builder/tools.py
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ def build_tools(ctx: ToolContext) -> list[Any]:
         try:
             files = _render_a2a_init_template(name, description=description)
             prefix = _agent_prefix(name)
-        except (OSError, ValueError) as exc:
+        except (OSError, RuntimeError, ValueError) as exc:
             return json.dumps({"error": str(exc)})
         written: list[dict[str, Any]] = []
         for path, content in files.items():
@@ -519,7 +519,7 @@ def _render_a2a_init_template(
 ) -> dict[str, str]:
     _validate_name(name)
     class_name = _class_name(name)
-    return {
+    files = {
         "agent.py": _render_sdk_template(
             "agent.py.tmpl",
             name=name,
@@ -533,6 +533,44 @@ def _render_a2a_init_template(
         ),
         "requirements.txt": _render_sdk_template("requirements.txt.tmpl"),
     }
+    _assert_current_a2a_init_template(files)
+    return files
+
+
+def _assert_current_a2a_init_template(files: dict[str, str]) -> None:
+    required_markers = {
+        "agent.py": (
+            "LLMProvisioning.CALLER_PROVIDED",
+            "ctx.llm",
+            "create_deep_agent",
+            "wrap_model_call",
+            "ChatOpenAI",
+        ),
+        "requirements.txt": (
+            "deepagents>=0.5.0",
+            "langchain-openai",
+        ),
+    }
+    missing: list[str] = []
+    for path, markers in required_markers.items():
+        content = files.get(path, "")
+        for marker in markers:
+            if marker not in content:
+                missing.append(f"{path}:{marker}")
+    if not missing:
+        return
+
+    try:
+        import a2a_pack
+
+        version = getattr(a2a_pack, "__version__", "unknown")
+    except Exception:  # noqa: BLE001
+        version = "unknown"
+    raise RuntimeError(
+        "installed a2a-pack init template is stale; expected the 0.1.3+ "
+        "DeepAgents caller-LLM scaffold. "
+        f"a2a_pack={version}; missing markers: {', '.join(missing)}"
+    )
 
 
 def _render_sdk_template(template: str, /, **vars: str) -> str:
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 10f3c8c..02a658c 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+a2a-pack>=0.1.3
 httpx>=0.27
 boto3>=1.34
 deepagents>=0.5.0
diff --git a/tests/test_template_init.py b/tests/test_template_init.py
index e29a92b..7c901de 100644
--- a/tests/test_template_init.py
+++ b/tests/test_template_init.py
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@ from __future__ import annotations
 
 import unittest
 
-from agent_builder.tools import _render_a2a_init_template
+from agent_builder.tools import (
+    _assert_current_a2a_init_template,
+    _render_a2a_init_template,
+)
 
 
 class TemplateInitTests(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -25,3 +28,10 @@ class TemplateInitTests(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_render_a2a_init_template_rejects_invalid_names(self) -> None:
         with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
             _render_a2a_init_template("Bad Name")
+
+    def test_stale_sdk_template_is_rejected(self) -> None:
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(RuntimeError, "stale"):
+            _assert_current_a2a_init_template({
+                "agent.py": "from a2a_pack import A2AAgent",
+                "requirements.txt": "httpx>=0.27",
+            })