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Getting Started with agent-skills

agent-skills works with any AI coding agent that accepts Markdown instructions. This guide covers the universal approach. For tool-specific setup, see the dedicated guides.

How Skills Work

Each skill is a Markdown file (SKILL.md) that describes a specific engineering workflow. When loaded into an agent's context, the agent follows the workflow — including verification steps, anti-patterns to avoid, and exit criteria.

Skills are not reference docs. They're step-by-step processes the agent follows.

Quick Start (Any Agent)

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/addyosmani/agent-skills.git

2. Choose a skill

Browse the skills/ directory. Each subdirectory contains a SKILL.md with:

  • When to use — triggers that indicate this skill applies
  • Process — step-by-step workflow
  • Verification — how to confirm the work is done
  • Common rationalizations — excuses the agent might use to skip steps
  • Red flags — signs the skill is being violated

3. Load the skill into your agent

Copy the relevant SKILL.md content into your agent's system prompt, rules file, or conversation. The most common approaches:

System prompt: Paste the skill content at the start of the session.

Rules file: Add skill content to your project's rules file (CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, etc.).

Conversation: Reference the skill when giving instructions: "Follow the test-driven-development process for this change."

4. Use the meta-skill for discovery

Start with the using-agent-skills skill loaded. It contains a flowchart that maps task types to the appropriate skill.

Recommended Setup

Minimal (Start here)

Load three essential skills into your rules file:

  1. spec-driven-development — For defining what to build
  2. test-driven-development — For proving it works
  3. code-review-and-quality — For verifying quality before merge

These three cover the most critical quality gaps in AI-assisted development.

Full Lifecycle

For comprehensive coverage, load skills by phase:

Starting a project:  spec-driven-development → planning-and-task-breakdown
During development:  incremental-implementation + test-driven-development
Before merge:        code-review-and-quality + security-and-hardening
Before deploy:       shipping-and-launch

Context-Aware Loading

Don't load all skills at once — it wastes context. Load skills relevant to the current task:

  • Working on UI? Load frontend-ui-engineering
  • Debugging? Load debugging-and-error-recovery
  • Setting up CI? Load ci-cd-and-automation

Skill Anatomy

Every skill follows the same structure:

YAML frontmatter (name, description)
├── Overview — What this skill does
├── When to Use — Triggers and conditions
├── Core Process — Step-by-step workflow
├── Examples — Code samples and patterns
├── Common Rationalizations — Excuses and rebuttals
├── Red Flags — Signs the skill is being violated
└── Verification — Exit criteria checklist

See skill-anatomy.md for the full specification.

Using Agents

The agents/ directory contains pre-configured agent personas:

Agent Purpose
code-reviewer.md Five-axis code review
test-engineer.md Test strategy and writing
security-auditor.md Vulnerability detection

Load an agent definition when you need specialized review. For example, ask your coding agent to "review this change using the code-reviewer agent persona" and provide the agent definition.

Using Commands

The .claude/commands/ directory contains slash commands for Claude Code:

Command Skill Invoked
/spec spec-driven-development
/plan planning-and-task-breakdown
/build incremental-implementation + test-driven-development
/test test-driven-development
/review code-review-and-quality
/ship shipping-and-launch

Using References

The references/ directory contains supplementary checklists:

Reference Use With
testing-patterns.md test-driven-development
performance-checklist.md performance-optimization
security-checklist.md security-and-hardening
accessibility-checklist.md frontend-ui-engineering

Load a reference when you need detailed patterns beyond what the skill covers.

Spec and task artifacts

The /spec and /plan commands create working artifacts (SPEC.md, tasks/plan.md, tasks/todo.md). Treat them as living documents while the work is in progress:

  • Keep them in version control during development so the human and the agent have a shared source of truth.
  • Update them when scope or decisions change.
  • If your repo doesn’t want these files long‑term, delete them before merge or add the folder to .gitignore — the workflow doesn’t require them to be permanent.

Tips

  1. Start with spec-driven-development for any non-trivial work
  2. Always load test-driven-development when writing code
  3. Don't skip verification steps — they're the whole point
  4. Load skills selectively — more context isn't always better
  5. Use the agents for review — different perspectives catch different issues