Implement proven backend architecture patterns including Clean Architecture, Hexagonal Architecture, Domain-Driven Design, and deep module design. Use this skill when designing clean architecture for a new service, when refactoring a monolith to use bounded contexts, when implementing hexagonal or onion architecture patterns, when debugging dependency cycles between application layers, or when making architectural decisions about module depth, seams, and interfaces.
Read from and write to Kyle's Notion Second Brain. Use this skill whenever the user wants to add a note, save an idea, log something, file something away, create a task, write a journal entry, update Notion, or mentions "second brain", "notion", "add to my notes", "save this", "log this", "file this", "add a task", "to do", "remind me", "journal entry", or asks what projects or topics exist. Also trigger when the user shares something worth capturing (research finding, meeting outcome, decision, idea) and asks you to save it. When in doubt, use this skill — it's better to trigger unnecessarily than to miss a capture.
Research-backed learning system with two modes: Study (pre-test → material creation → NotebookLM podcast prompts) and Test (retrieval practice at the edge of your knowledge with gap tracking across sessions). Use this skill whenever the user wants to learn new material, study a topic, create study notes, review for exams, test their knowledge, do retrieval practice, track learning progress, or mentions "study mode", "test mode", "learning", "study", "review", "quiz me", "test me", "knowledge gaps", or "spaced practice". Also trigger when the user uploads PDFs, docs, or other content and says they want to learn or understand it. This skill should be used even for casual requests like "help me learn this" or "I need to study for..."
pytest-specific testing patterns — fixtures, mocking, parameterization, async testing, and configuration. Use when writing Python tests with pytest, setting up pytest infrastructure, or needing pytest-specific patterns. For TDD process and philosophy (red-green-refactor, vertical slicing), use the `tdd` skill instead.
Surgical code refactoring to improve maintainability without changing behavior. Surfaces architectural friction and proposes deepening opportunities — turning shallow modules into deep ones. Covers deep vs shallow module analysis, deletion test, seam identification, extracting functions, breaking down god functions, improving type safety, and eliminating code smells. Use when user says "refactor", "clean up this code", "improve architecture", "make this more testable", or wants to find refactoring opportunities in a codebase.
Skill for analyzing research papers in the context of an active research project. Extracts structured information (contribution, method, results, limitations), assesses relevance to project goals, identifies actionable items, and logs findings to the research log. Use this skill whenever the user shares a paper (PDF, markdown, or link), mentions "analyze this paper", "review this paper", "what's relevant from this", "extract from this paper", "literature review", "paper summary", "how does this relate to our project", "add this to the literature", or provides a research paper with project-related context. Also trigger when the user asks to compare methods across papers, identify gaps relative to existing literature, or update the literature review. Do NOT use for studying/learning a topic (use optimal-learning instead) — this skill is for project-oriented extraction, not personal knowledge building.
Test-driven development with a red-green-refactor loop. Builds features or fixes bugs one vertical slice at a time. Use when user wants to build features or fix bugs using TDD, mentions "red-green-refactor", "test-first", "write tests for this", wants integration tests, or asks for test-driven development. Works with any language — Python, TypeScript, Go, etc. For language-specific test tooling (pytest, vitest, jest), defer to language-specific skills.
Production TypeScript coding standards for modern strict-mode TypeScript (5.x+). Use when writing, reviewing, or refactoring TypeScript to ensure adherence to strict mode, discriminated unions, Zod validation, proper error handling, and modern patterns. Trigger on "make this typesafe", "TypeScript best practices", "improve these types", "strict mode", "type narrowing", "Zod schema", or any TypeScript code quality question. Not framework-specific — applies to React, Node, serverless, CLI, or any TS project.