Skills Reference

All 43 specialized skills that extend your agent’s capabilities.

Table of contents
  1. What Are Skills?
  2. Core Engineering Skills (9)
    1. Debugging Protocol
    2. Sequential Thinking
    3. Code Review
    4. Guardrails
    5. Architecture Decision Records (ADR)
    6. Performance Optimization
    7. Refactoring Patterns
    8. Research Methodology
    9. Omni
  3. Design & UI Skills (2)
    1. Frontend Design
    2. Mobile Design
  4. Multi-Agent Skills (4)
    1. Parallel Dispatch Decomposition
    2. Parallel Dispatch DAG
    3. Parallel Dispatch Ownership
    4. Parallel Dispatch Merge
  5. Language & Framework Idioms (18)
  6. Domain Skills (10)
    1. API Documentation
    2. Browser Automation
    3. Chaos Testing
    4. CLI Development
    5. Data Engineering
    6. Embedded Systems
    7. Incident Response
    8. ML Engineering
    9. Payment Integration
    10. Supply Chain Security

What Are Skills?

Skills are folders in .agents/skills/ that contain structured instructions for specialized tasks. Each skill has a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and detailed guidance. More complex skills may include scripts, language modules, examples, and resources.

Skills differ from rules in that they are procedural — they describe a process to follow, not just constraints to respect.

Core Engineering Skills (9)

Debugging Protocol

File: .agents/skills/debugging-protocol/SKILL.md

A systematic protocol for validating root causes of software issues. Instead of guessing, the agent forms hypotheses and tests them methodically.

When to Use:

  • Complex bugs with non-obvious causes
  • Flaky tests
  • Unknown system behavior
  • When a quick fix attempt has already failed

How It Works:

  1. Observe the symptoms
  2. Form hypotheses about root cause
  3. Design specific tests for each hypothesis
  4. Execute tests and collect evidence
  5. Validate the root cause before applying a fix

Language Modules (13):

Module Languages/Runtimes
languages/go.md Go (goroutines, pprof, Delve, race detector)
languages/typescript.md TypeScript, Node.js, Vue, React
languages/python.md Python, Django, FastAPI
languages/rust.md Rust (cargo, rustc, tokio)
languages/java.md Java, Spring Boot (JVM tools, heap/thread dumps)
languages/csharp.md C#, .NET, ASP.NET Core
languages/swift.md Swift, SwiftUI, iOS/macOS
languages/flutter.md Flutter, Dart (DevTools, widget rebuilds)
languages/cpp.md C++ (sanitizers, GDB/LLDB, Valgrind)
languages/kotlin.md Kotlin (coroutine debugger, JVM tools)
languages/php.md PHP, Laravel (Xdebug, autoloading)
languages/ruby.md Ruby, Rails (debug gem, Pry, Zeitwerk)
languages/frontend.md Vue 3, React, browser, Vite

Sequential Thinking

File: .agents/skills/sequential-thinking/SKILL.md

A tool for dynamic, reflective problem-solving through iterative thought chains. Adapted from the Sequential Thinking MCP Server.

When to Use:

  • Complex planning requiring revision
  • Multi-step analysis where context maintenance is needed
  • Problems requiring branching or backtracking
  • Hypothesis verification
  • Full scope isn’t initially clear

Code Review

File: .agents/skills/code-review/SKILL.md

A structured protocol for inspecting code quality against the full awesome-agv rule set. Catches issues that linters miss: architectural violations, missing observability, business logic errors, and pattern inconsistencies.

When to Use:

  • During the /audit workflow (Phase 1)
  • When asked for a code review outside any workflow
  • Best practice: use in a fresh conversation to avoid confirmation bias

Review Categories (Priority Order):

Priority Category Issues Found
Critical Security, Data Loss, Resource Leaks Injection, hardcoded secrets, unclosed connections
Major Testability, Observability, Error Handling, Architecture Missing interfaces, no logging, empty catch blocks
Minor Pattern Consistency, Naming, Code Organization Deviation from codebase patterns, unclear names
Nit Style, Documentation Formatting, missing comments

Language-Specific Anti-Patterns (12 modules):

Language Anti-Patterns
Go languages/go.md
TypeScript languages/typescript.md
Python languages/python.md
Rust languages/rust.md
Java languages/java.md
C# languages/csharp.md
Swift languages/swift.md
Flutter languages/flutter.md
C++ languages/cpp.md
Kotlin languages/kotlin.md
PHP languages/php.md
Ruby languages/ruby.md

Guardrails

File: .agents/skills/guardrails/SKILL.md

Pre-flight checklist and post-implementation self-review protocol. Catches issues that would otherwise only surface during verification.

When to Use:

  • Pre-Flight: Before writing any code (start of Phase 2: Implement)
  • Self-Review: After writing code but before verification (end of Phase 2)

Language-Specific Self-Review (12 modules):

Language Checklist
Go languages/go.md
TypeScript languages/typescript.md
Python languages/python.md
Rust languages/rust.md
Java languages/java.md
C# languages/csharp.md
Swift languages/swift.md
Flutter languages/flutter.md
C++ languages/cpp.md
Kotlin languages/kotlin.md
PHP languages/php.md
Ruby languages/ruby.md

Architecture Decision Records (ADR)

File: .agents/skills/adr/SKILL.md

Document significant architectural decisions so institutional knowledge persists across conversations and team members. ADRs capture the why, not just the what.

When to Use:

  • During Research phase when choosing between approaches
  • When introducing a new dependency or pattern
  • When changing existing architecture
  • When choosing between 2+ viable approaches

Process:

  • ADRs stored in docs/decisions/NNNN-short-title.md
  • Number sequentially, never delete — mark as Superseded by NNNN
  • Status lifecycle: Proposed → Accepted → Deprecated or Superseded

Performance Optimization

File: .agents/skills/perf-optimization/SKILL.md

Profile-driven performance optimization protocol. Instead of guessing, the agent profiles first, analyzes data, and applies fixes one-at-a-time with benchmarking.

When to Use:

  • Profiling data is available (pprof, flamegraph, Lighthouse, Chrome DevTools)
  • User asks to analyze or optimize performance of a component
  • Benchmark regression is detected
  • After deploying a feature that touches a hot path

Core Methodology:

  1. Profile — collect data using language-appropriate tooling
  2. Analyze — focus on cumulative cost, trace flat back to user-land code
  3. Prioritize — rank fixes by impact/risk ratio
  4. Optimize — one fix at a time, TDD, benchmark immediately
  5. Verify — compare before/after with identical benchmark config
  6. Stop — when remaining cost is in runtime internals or hardware-optimized code

Language Modules (13):

Module Use When
languages/go.md Go services, APIs, CLI tools
languages/typescript.md TypeScript backends, Node.js
languages/python.md Python services, data pipelines
languages/rust.md Rust binaries, libraries
languages/java.md Java/Spring services
languages/csharp.md .NET services
languages/swift.md Swift/iOS apps
languages/flutter.md Flutter/Dart apps
languages/cpp.md C++ systems, games
languages/kotlin.md Kotlin/Android apps
languages/php.md PHP/Laravel services
languages/ruby.md Ruby/Rails services
languages/frontend.md Web frontends (JS/TS bundle, rendering, network)

Profiling Scripts:

Script Purpose
scripts/go-pprof.sh Extract Go pprof CPU/heap profiles into agent-readable markdown
scripts/frontend-lighthouse.sh Core Web Vitals via Lighthouse or Vite chunk analysis

Refactoring Patterns

File: .agents/skills/refactoring-patterns/SKILL.md

Safe refactoring pattern catalog: code smell taxonomy, transformation techniques, behavior preservation strategies, and metrics tracking.

When to Use:

  • Technical debt remediation
  • Code smell detection and elimination
  • Pattern migration (e.g., callback → async/await)
  • Complexity reduction
  • During the /refactor workflow

Research Methodology

File: .agents/skills/research-methodology/SKILL.md

Structured research protocol for investigating technologies, patterns, and APIs before implementation. Multi-tool search, research logs, and training data fallback honesty.

When to Use:

  • Technology evaluation (new libraries, frameworks)
  • Pattern discovery before implementation
  • API investigation and compatibility analysis
  • During the Research phase of any workflow

Omni

File: .agents/skills/omni/SKILL.md

Maximum token-efficiency communication mode. Telegraphic English with minimal structured notation. 100% technical accuracy, zero fluff, zero waste.

Activation: This skill is opt-in. Load it when:

  • User explicitly requests concise output (e.g., “use omni”, “be concise”)
  • Operating as a sub-agent in /workflow-team pipelines where token budget matters
  • Agent-to-agent communication via /omni headless modifier

Never activate by default in normal conversations — users expect natural language.

Key Rules:

  • Zero filler, pleasantries, hedging
  • Never restate the user’s question
  • Fragments OK — compress form, never content
  • Code inside markdown blocks = 100% valid, never abbreviated
  • Auto-pause compression for security warnings and destructive actions

Design & UI Skills (2)

Frontend Design

File: .agents/skills/frontend-design/SKILL.md

Guidelines for creating distinctive, production-grade web interfaces. Based on Anthropic’s Frontend-Design Skills.

When to Use:

  • Building websites or landing pages
  • Creating dashboards and admin interfaces
  • Styling or beautifying existing UIs
  • Any frontend work requiring visual polish

Key Principles:

  • Design Thinking — understand context, audience, and constraints
  • Typography — distinctive, readable fonts with clear hierarchy
  • Creative Color Palettes — harmonious, purposeful color use
  • Subtle Animations — meaningful motion for state changes
  • Responsive Layouts — mobile-first, fluid grids

Mobile Design

File: .agents/skills/mobile-design/SKILL.md

Guidelines for creating distinctive, production-grade mobile interfaces for Flutter and React Native.

When to Use:

  • Building mobile app screens or widgets
  • Styling mobile interfaces
  • Creating visually striking mobile UIs
  • Working with Flutter or React Native

Key Principles:

  • Platform Conventions — iOS (Cupertino) vs Android (Material 3)
  • Light & Dark Themes — always support both
  • Motion — meaningful animations under 300ms, respect reduceMotion
  • One-Handed Use — critical actions in thumb-reach zone
  • Performance — const constructors, ListView.builder, cached images

Multi-Agent Skills (4)

These skills power the /workflow-team multi-agent orchestration. They ensure parallel sub-agents can work on the same codebase without file conflicts.

Parallel Dispatch Decomposition

File: .agents/skills/parallel-dispatch-decomposition/SKILL.md

Decomposes broad tasks into MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive), parallelizable sub-tasks with explicit scope cards.

When to Use:

  • Splitting a feature into parallel work streams for multiple agents
  • Ensuring no file overlap between parallel writers

Parallel Dispatch DAG

File: .agents/skills/parallel-dispatch-dag/SKILL.md

Constructs, validates, and traverses a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) from scope cards for safe level-based parallel dispatch. Determines execution order via topological sort. Detects cycles and invalid dependencies.

Parallel Dispatch Ownership

File: .agents/skills/parallel-dispatch-ownership/SKILL.md

Enforces MECE file boundaries for parallel write-agents. Validates that no two writers share file access. Manages the contracts layer (shared reads) and integration sub-task patterns.

Parallel Dispatch Merge

File: .agents/skills/parallel-dispatch-merge/SKILL.md

Safe, sequential merge protocol for integrating N parallel worktree branches back into main. Defines merge ordering, quality gates between merges, conflict classification, and worktree naming convention.

Language & Framework Idioms (18)

Language-specific patterns, tooling, and conventions for ecosystems beyond the core rules. Each skill follows the same structure: idioms, error handling, testing, anti-patterns, and formatting/linting commands.

Skill Ecosystem
Angular (.agents/skills/angular-idioms/SKILL.md) Angular components, signals, standalone
C++ (.agents/skills/cpp-idioms/SKILL.md) Modern C++ (RAII, smart pointers, templates)
C# (.agents/skills/csharp-idioms/SKILL.md) .NET, async/await, LINQ
Django (.agents/skills/django-idioms/SKILL.md) Django ORM, views, middleware
.NET (.agents/skills/dotnet-idioms/SKILL.md) ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework, hosting
Elixir (.agents/skills/elixir-idioms/SKILL.md) OTP, GenServer, supervision trees
Java (.agents/skills/java-idioms/SKILL.md) Streams, records, sealed classes, Spring
JavaScript (.agents/skills/javascript-idioms/SKILL.md) ES2024+, async patterns, ESM
Kotlin (.agents/skills/kotlin-idioms/SKILL.md) Coroutines, sealed classes, Android
Laravel (.agents/skills/laravel-idioms/SKILL.md) Eloquent, middleware, queues
Next.js (.agents/skills/nextjs-idioms/SKILL.md) App Router, RSC, ISR
PHP (.agents/skills/php-idioms/SKILL.md) PHP 8+, type declarations, Composer
Rails (.agents/skills/rails-idioms/SKILL.md) ActiveRecord, conventions, Hotwire
React (.agents/skills/react-idioms/SKILL.md) Hooks, Suspense, Server Components
Ruby (.agents/skills/ruby-idioms/SKILL.md) Blocks, modules, RSpec
Spring Boot (.agents/skills/spring-boot-idioms/SKILL.md) Spring DI, JPA, WebFlux
SQL (.agents/skills/sql-idioms/SKILL.md) Query optimization, indexes, PostgreSQL
Swift (.agents/skills/swift-idioms/SKILL.md) SwiftUI, Combine, async/await

The core rules already include idiom files for Go, TypeScript, Vue 3, Flutter/Dart, Rust, and Python. These 18 skills extend coverage to additional ecosystems.

Domain Skills (10)

API Documentation

File: .agents/skills/api-documentation/SKILL.md

OpenAPI 3.1 specification writing, request/response examples, error documentation, versioning, and interactive API portal patterns.

Browser Automation

File: .agents/skills/browser-automation/SKILL.md

Playwright browser automation via MCP. Covers E2E testing, UI review, web scraping, screenshot capture, and general browser interaction. MCP-first — CLI is fallback only.

Chaos Testing

File: .agents/skills/chaos-testing/SKILL.md

Controlled failure injection: hypothesis design, blast radius control, safety mechanisms, game day planning, and resilience verification.

CLI Development

File: .agents/skills/cli-development/SKILL.md

CLI tool design, argument parsing, interactive prompts, shell completions, cross-platform considerations, and distribution strategies.

Data Engineering

File: .agents/skills/data-engineering/SKILL.md

Data pipeline architecture, ETL/ELT patterns, data quality, batch vs stream processing, orchestration, and data governance principles.

Embedded Systems

File: .agents/skills/embedded-systems/SKILL.md

Resource-constrained development, real-time patterns, interrupt handling, memory management, RTOS patterns, and hardware abstraction layers.

Incident Response

File: .agents/skills/incident-response/SKILL.md

Structured incident workflow: severity classification, triage, diagnosis, mitigation, postmortem, and prevention. Template-driven with blameless review.

ML Engineering

File: .agents/skills/ml-engineering/SKILL.md

ML pipeline design, feature engineering, model training/serving, experiment tracking, model validation, and MLOps principles.

Payment Integration

File: .agents/skills/payment-integration/SKILL.md

PCI DSS compliance, payment gateway integration, tokenization, webhook reliability, idempotency, fraud prevention, and subscription billing.

Supply Chain Security

File: .agents/skills/supply-chain-security/SKILL.md

SBOM generation, CVE scanning, supply chain attack detection, license compliance, dependency pinning, and artifact verification.

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