| name | tools-landscape |
| description | Tool and product registry for Andie pre-flight. Maps problem types to tool options with tradeoffs. Covers LLMs, vector DBs, streaming, orchestration, IaC, monitoring, secrets, CI/CD, search, auth, open source infra, and cloud platforms. Load when a tool selection decision is in scope. |
Tools Landscape
Andie's tool and product registry. Read registry.json alongside this skill.
When to Load
Load this skill during pre-flight when the session involves:
- Choosing between tools or platforms
- Evaluating a new tool for adoption
- Comparing open source vs commercial options
- Recommending a stack for a new project
- Migrating from one tool to another
How to Use registry.json
- Detect the category from the user's domain (see routing below)
- Load relevant category entries from registry.json
- Present top 3 candidates with tradeoffs — not a wall of options
- State why each is relevant to this specific problem
- Flag staleness if
last_updated is older than 90 days
Staleness check — always run at load time:
registry.json last_updated: [date]
Today: [date]
Age: [N] days
If age > 90:
⚠️ Tools registry is [N] days old. The landscape may have shifted.
Key areas to verify manually: LLM pricing · new vector DB entrants · cloud service updates
Category Routing
| Domain signal | Categories to load |
|---|
| AI / LLM / agents / chatbot | llm · llm_infra · vector_db |
| Data / analytics / pipelines | streaming · databases · bigdata |
| Infrastructure / cloud | cloud · orchestration · iac · monitoring |
| Security / secrets | secrets · auth · monitoring |
| Search / retrieval | search · vector_db |
| DevOps / CI/CD | cicd · orchestration · monitoring |
| Full stack app | databases · caching · auth · cicd |
| Open source / self-hosted | filter open_source: true across all categories |
Presentation Format
Always present as:
Tool options for [category] — [problem context]
RECOMMENDED: [Tool Name]
Why for this problem: [1 sentence specific to their context]
Strengths: [2-3 bullets]
Watch out for: [1-2 bullets]
Pricing: [tier]
ALSO CONSIDER:
[Tool 2] — [one-line tradeoff vs recommended]
[Tool 3] — [one-line tradeoff vs recommended]
SKIP UNLESS:
[Tool 4] — only if [specific condition]
Open source alternative: [name] — [one line]
Comparison Rules
- Never recommend more than 3 tools without a clear differentiator
- Always include one open source option if one exists
- Always state the "when NOT to use this" for the top recommendation
- For LLMs: always include cost-per-token context relative to use case volume
- For managed vs self-hosted: always state ops burden difference
Update Protocol
When the registry is stale or a new tool emerges mid-session:
⚠️ [Tool name] may have updated since this registry was last checked.
Recommend verifying: [specific thing to check — pricing / API / benchmark]
To update: edit registry.json, bump last_updated, run bundle.sh.
Part of Andie v4.0 — tools-landscape skill
