mathias
8da7c9c45f
The discipline in tdd was already language-agnostic; the checklist under it was not. A Python user inherited a mandatory `go test -race` box they can never tick and never got told that `mypy --strict` belongs in the red gate. Per #18's own comment and writing-skills' Multi-Language Dilution warning, the main SKILL.md keeps ONE canonical inline example (Go, the default stack) and the other four languages live in reference files: python, typescript, rust, java. The RED run drove every change. A subagent given a Python task with the Go-only skill reported, in its own words: - "Everything from L169 to L244 is Go-only, and the verification checklist at L326 silently inherits that Go-ness — which is why a Python user ends up with a mandatory box (-race) they can never tick and a required gate (mypy --strict) that isn't listed at all." - "For a brand-new function, the first RED is always a collection-time ImportError... The only clean resolutions are a stub that raises NotImplementedError (production code before a red test?) or accepting ImportError as a legitimate red. The skill picks neither, and this is the single biggest gap." It now picks: that red is legitimate, and writing a stub to satisfy the runner is the Iron Law with extra steps. - The Go table-driven exemplar branches on a `wantErr` column inside the loop. Translated literally that is a conditional assertion folding two behaviours into one test — which this skill's own quality table forbids. The agent caught itself mid-translation; both SKILL.md and python.md now say not to port it. Also: the checklist names the static-analysis gate per language instead of assuming `go vet`, and says to strike the concurrency box deliberately where no equivalent exists — a box that cannot be ticked teaches people to skip checklists. Refs #18 Bump-Type: minor
skills
Engineering skills library — markdown SKILL.md files that plug into any
AI-coding harness.
For Claude Code this repo is a plugin, installed from the marketplace it
also hosts; that path carries the hooks and MCP servers too. For Crush, Pi
and OpenCode it is a plain library wired by install.sh as one directory
symlink per harness. See SKILLS_INDEX.md.
What is a skill?
A skill is a single directory containing one or more markdown files. The
canonical entrypoint is <name>/SKILL.md. Additional reference material
lives alongside in the same directory (e.g.
clean-code/references/code-smells.md). Harnesses load skills on
demand — keep SKILL.md short and triggerable; push depth into
references.
See SKILLS_INDEX.md for the full catalogue with
descriptions and "use when" triggers.
Install
Claude Code — the plugin
/plugin marketplace add https://git.d-ma.be/mathias/skills.git
/plugin install skills@mathias
The plugin ships skills, the secret-guard + pre-task-ritual hooks, and the
brain/gitea/infra MCP servers as one versioned unit. Skills are namespaced
(skills:tdd). Updates land when .claude-plugin/plugin.json's version
moves — CI bumps it on every release.
Crush, Pi, OpenCode — install.sh
curl -fsSL https://git.d-ma.be/mathias/skills/raw/branch/main/install.sh | bash
Idempotent. It clones or fast-forwards the checkout, then populates one managed directory and gives each harness a single link to it:
| Path | Target |
|---|---|
~/.agents/skills/ |
a real directory, one symlink per skill (Pi reads this path directly) |
~/.agents/skills/<skill> |
$SKILLS_CHECKOUT_DIR/skills/<skill>, or another configured source |
~/.config/crush/skills |
~/.agents/skills |
~/.config/opencode/skills |
~/.agents/skills |
Total links are N + one per harness — not N x harnesses, which is what #23 was actually about.
More than one source of skills
~/.agents/skills used to be a single link straight at this checkout. That
encoded an assumption nobody had stated — that this checkout is the only source
of skills on the host — and on flamingo the only way to install this library
was to displace Anthropic's official set, which lived in Crush's directory.
Real capability loss dressed up as a tidy-up (#27).
Point SKILLS_EXTRA_SOURCES at any number of extra directories, colon
separated, each holding <skill>/SKILL.md:
SKILLS_EXTRA_SOURCES=~/.config/crush/skills.anthropic bash install.sh
- The checkout is always first and always wins a name collision — but the collision is logged, never resolved in silence. Quietly picking one is how stale content wins.
- Removing a skill from a source removes its link on the next run.
- Anything in the managed directory that is not a symlink is reported and left alone. install.sh does not delete content it did not create.
- The source list is recorded at
~/.agents/skills-sourcessobin/doctorcan tell a link into a known source from a link into a forgotten one.
Where the checkout must live
SKILLS_CHECKOUT_DIR defaults to ~/.local/share/skills, and that default is
load-bearing: it is host-local, outside any synced or shared directory.
On this fleet ~/dev is an iCloud folder shared by flamingo and iguana, and it
spans two path roots — /Users/mathias on the Macs, /home/mathias on koala.
A checkout there is a git working tree with two concurrent writers, and any
absolute symlink stored there is broken on one side by construction. That is
what produced 243 dangling links across 12 repos (#23). Do not "fix" the
default to point into ~/dev.
Per-host env-var overrides
| Env var | Default |
|---|---|
SKILLS_REPO_URL |
https://git.d-ma.be/mathias/skills.git |
SKILLS_REF |
main (set to e.g. v0.4.0 to pin a release) |
SKILLS_CHECKOUT_DIR |
$HOME/.local/share/skills |
SKILLS_SKIP_FETCH |
unset (1 wires an existing checkout without touching HEAD) |
AGENTS_SKILLS_DIR |
$HOME/.agents/skills |
CRUSH_SKILLS_DIR |
$HOME/.config/crush/skills |
OPENCODE_SKILLS_DIR |
$HOME/.config/opencode/skills |
SKILLS_EXTRA_SOURCES |
unset (colon-separated extra source directories) |
Antigravity and Mistral Vibe targets were removed — unused.
Checking a host
task doctor # or bin/doctor
Reports dangling links, links resolving into a foreign checkout, skill-count mismatches, stray entries, and leftover per-skill Claude symlinks. Non-zero exit on drift. It also runs at session start via the plugin, so a drifting host says so rather than waiting to be discovered.
Versioning
Every commit to main is auto-tagged as a semver release by the
.gitea/workflows/release.yml action. Bump direction follows the commit
footer:
Bump-Type: major→X.0.0Bump-Type: minor→0.Y.0- anything else →
0.0.Z(patch, the default)
Consumer projects can pin a version by setting SKILLS_REF=v0.1.0
before task skills:install; default is main for always-current.
Contributing a skill
- Add a directory
<short-kebab-name>/. - Create
<short-kebab-name>/SKILL.md— start with one-paragraph purpose, then triggers ("use when …"), then mechanics. - Add a row to
SKILLS_INDEX.md(description + use-when). - Commit directly to
main. Conventional-commit prefix (feat:/fix:/docs:). AddBump-Type: minorfooter when adding a new skill or expanding scope; default patch covers edits.
This repo is markdown-only and public — never include secrets, client names, or anything under NDA in a skill.