para-skills 🧠

Curated AI Agent skills and the /para-skill workflow for PARA Workspace.

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Table of Contents

• Overview
• Documentation
• Quick Start
• What's Included
• The Skill Lifecycle
• Workflow Actions
• Skill Templates
• Quality Checklist (27 Points)
• Contributing
• License

🎯 Overview

para-skills provides:

1. /para-skill workflow — A Co-Author engine that guides you through creating, validating, and testing AI Agent skills
2. Skill templates — Ready-to-use templates for common skill types (project-profile, tool/utility)
3. Quality checklist — A 27-point framework (including Sandbox Testing) for ensuring skill quality

📖 Documentation

• Skill Development Guide — How to create, validate, and Sandbox test a skill.
• Architecture — System overview, content zoning, and data flow.

🚀 Quick Start

Install the workflow

Copy the workflow into your PARA Workspace:

# From your PARA workspace root
cp skills/para-skill/para-skill.md .agents/workflows/para-skill.md

Create your first skill

# Create a project-profile skill for your project
/para-skill add project-profile --template project

# Or create a utility skill
/para-skill add my-tool --template tool

Validate & test

# Check quality compliance
/para-skill validate project-profile

# Run conversational evaluation
/para-skill test project-profile

📦 What's Included

skills/
├── catalog.yml                    # Skill registry
└── para-skill/
    ├── para-skill.md              # The workflow (6 actions)
    └── references/
        ├── skill-quality-checklist.md   # 27-point quality framework
        └── templates/
            ├── project-profile.md  # Project DNA template
            └── tool-skill.md       # Utility/automation template

🔄 The Skill Lifecycle

Developing an AI Agent skill requires discipline to ensure it doesn't cause hallucination or execute destructive actions. The /para-skill workflow enforces this lifecycle:

graph TD
    A[Identify Need] -->|/para-skill add| B(Draft SKILL.md)
    B -->|Co-Author Engine| C{User Review}
    C -->|Edit/Feedback| B
    C -->|Approve| D[Save to Workspace]

    D -->|/para-skill validate| E{27-Point Check}
    E -->|Warn / Fail| F[Auto-Fix via /standardize]
    F --> D

    E -->|Pass 100%| G[Integration Testing]
    G -->|/para-skill test| H(Mode A: Quick Eval)
    G -->|/para-skill test| I(Mode B: Sandbox Eval)

    H -.->|Refine Logic| B
    I -->|Strict Containment| J[test-report.md]

    J -->|Pass| K((Release to Team/OSS))

    classDef primary fill:#2ea44f,stroke:#2ea44f,color:#fff,rx:5px,ry:5px;
    class K primary;

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🛠 Workflow Actions

Action	Description
list	Compare active skills vs. governed catalog
add	Create a new skill via guided Co-Author interview
install	Install or update a skill from the governed catalog
validate	Check a skill for PARA + quality compliance (read-only)
standardize	Upgrade an existing skill to current standards
test	Run conversational eval with user-provided test prompts

📋 Skill Templates

🏗️ Project Profile (--template project)

Creates a project DNA skill covering:

• §1. Project Identity (type, language, build system)
• §2. Naming Conventions (plans, branches, commits)
• §3. Maintenance Patterns (version bump, dogfooding)
• §4. Quality Standards (build/test commands)
• §5. Documentation Flow (internal vs public)
• §6. Plan Review Checklist (the most powerful section — catches planning mistakes)

🔧 Tool Skill (--template tool)

Creates a utility/automation skill with:

• Workflow steps in imperative form
• Input/Output format specification
• Edge case handling
• Script and reference bundling

🔍 Quality Checklist (27 Points)

Group	Points	What it checks
P1-P5	PARA Structure	Frontmatter, folder, index, naming, version
D1-D4	Description	Trigger context, pushy, length, specificity
C1-C4	Content	Length, progressive disclosure, references, TOC
W1-W5	Writing Style	Explain why, imperative, examples, scope, safety
B1-B3	Resources	Scripts, references, assets organization
T1-T3	Test Readiness	Test prompts, expected output, testability type
TM1-TM3	Test Mode	Sandbox overrides, containment paths, report templates

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

📄 License

MIT License

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Built for the PARA Workspace ecosystem.