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wshobson skills

by wshobson · wshobson/skills

Curated Anthropic-format skills covering testing, debugging, refactoring, and architecture — proven companion to the agents repo.

wshobson/skills is the skills counterpart to the agents and commands repos. Each skill is a SKILL.md (Anthropic skill format) with deep instructions for a single concern: testing-strategy, refactor-safely, debug-systematically, etc. Loaded on-demand by Claude Code rather than eagerly invoked.

▶ Watch demo 📦 Install 💡 Use Cases

Why use it

Key features

Live Demo

What it looks like in practice

ready

Install

Author repository · Claude Skills documentation

Use Cases

Real-world ways to use wshobson skills

Apply a systematic debugging flow when stuck

👤 Devs on hour-3 of a bug hunt ⏱ ~60 min intermediate

When to use: You've been guessing for an hour and need a structured approach.

Flow
  1. Trigger the skill
    I'm stuck debugging a flaky test that fails on CI but passes locally. Apply your debug-systematically skill.✓ Copied
    → Skill kicks in, asks for repro steps + most-recent change
  2. Follow the steps
    Step through the bisect/log/instrument plan it gives you.✓ Copied
    → Per-step output captured
  3. Land the fix
    Once root cause confirmed, apply the fix and add a regression test.✓ Copied
    → Bug fixed; CI green

Outcome: Bug solved with documented chain of evidence.

Pitfalls
  • Skill overhead on trivial bugs — For obvious bugs, skip the skill — use it for >30min stuck moments
Combine with: wshobson-agents-skill

Design a testing strategy for a new feature

👤 Tech leads planning a sprint ⏱ ~45 min intermediate

When to use: Feature is non-trivial; you want unit + integration + e2e coverage right.

Flow
  1. Brief the skill
    Use testing-strategy. Feature: per-tenant data isolation in the API. Help me decide what to test where.✓ Copied
    → Test pyramid mapped to feature
  2. Implement test scaffolding
    Generate the scaffolding. Mark which tests are highest leverage.✓ Copied
    → Files with test stubs

Outcome: Test plan you can defend in a design review.

Refactor a high-traffic function without regressing behavior

👤 Devs touching critical code paths ⏱ ~90 min advanced

When to use: Function is in the critical path and one bug = customer impact.

Flow
  1. Pin behavior with characterization tests
    Use refactor-safely. First write characterization tests around src/checkout.ts:processOrder.✓ Copied
    → Tests that lock in current behavior
  2. Refactor in micro-steps
    Now apply refactors one tiny step at a time, running tests after each.✓ Copied
    → Per-step diffs with green tests

Outcome: Refactor that an SRE wouldn't push back on.

Combine with: wshobson-commands-skill

Combinations

Pair with other MCPs for X10 leverage

wshobson-skills-skill + wshobson-agents-skill

Skills shape how, agents do

Apply refactor-safely skill, delegate the actual edits to backend-architect agent.✓ Copied
wshobson-skills-skill + wshobson-commands-skill

Commands for fast triggers, skills for deeper guidance

/refactor for quick; refactor-safely for the critical-path version.✓ Copied

Tools

What this MCP exposes

ToolInputsWhen to callCost
debug-systematically bug description Stuck >30min 0
testing-strategy feature spec Pre-implementation 0
refactor-safely target Critical path refactors 0
review-architecture design doc Design review 0

Cost & Limits

What this costs to run

API quota
N/A — local
Tokens per call
High when fully invoked (skills are detailed instruction blocks)
Monetary
Free (MIT)
Tip
Skills load only when triggered; don't worry about idle cost

Security

Permissions, secrets, blast radius

Minimum scopes: filesystem-read
Credential storage: None
Data egress: None — pure prompts

Troubleshooting

Common errors and fixes

Skill not auto-triggering

Check the SKILL.md description matches user request semantically; tighten the description if false negatives happen

Skill triggers when not wanted

Edit description to be more specific; remove generic trigger words

Long skill inflates token cost

Trim skill body to essentials; skills should be checklists not novels

Alternatives

wshobson skills vs others

AlternativeWhen to use it insteadTradeoff
wshobson/agents (sibling)You want subagents instead of skillsSubagents are explicit; skills are auto-triggered
obra/superpowersSmaller curated skill set with different opinionsLess coverage, more taste

More

Resources

📖 Read the official README on GitHub

🐙 Browse open issues

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