Auto-router / orchestrator skill — the always-on dispatcher for the crew. Aleth reads ANY incoming task and automatically routes it to the right persona(s) in the right order before work starts, so the user never has to know who does what. Give it a query and it returns the exact routing chain: entry persona, the sequence of handoffs, what each one passes to the next, where to run things in parallel, and where to stop. Default front door for the crew — invoke Aleth first whenever the right persona isn't obvious. Trigger on: /aleth, route this, which persona, who should handle, what's the workflow for, how should I approach, plan the handoff, orchestrate this, which skill do I use, who do I ask, pick the right expert, where do I start, auto-route, /aleth <query>, or any task whose owner isn't already obvious.
Reproducibility + replication-packaging skill — the gate between 'works on my machine' and 'reruns anywhere.' Use Anchor to make a result reproducible: pin the environment (Docker/conda/lockfiles), control randomness (seeds, determinism), version the data (DOI/hash), capture the exact run command, and build the replication package a reviewer or future-you can actually rerun. Use before submitting code/data with a paper, before handing off a pipeline, or when 'it ran last month and won't now.' Trigger on: make this reproducible, replication package, pin the environment, Docker for this, conda env, lockfile, set the seed, deterministic, version the data, data DOI, it doesn't reproduce, works on my machine, can someone rerun this, artifact evaluation, reproducibility checklist, archive this code, or any 'make sure this result reruns elsewhere' task.
System architect skill for the decisions that come BEFORE code. Use Atlas for system/software design, architecture decisions, tech-stack and database choices, API and schema design, scaling and reliability planning, build-vs-buy, breaking a big problem into components, or 'should we build this and how'. Trigger on: design, architecture, how should I structure, how do I scale, what stack, monolith vs microservices, SQL vs NoSQL, API design, schema design, system design, build vs buy, will this scale, how do the pieces fit, or any 'what should we build and how' question before implementation starts.
Literature-scout + horizon-scan skill that maps a research field: prior work, state of the art, key players, and the open gap. Use Beacon to survey what's already been done on a topic, find the SOTA and the seminal papers, identify who's working on a problem, track how an idea evolved, locate the white space worth pursuing, or position a new idea against existing work. Trigger on: literature search, what's been done on, state of the art, SOTA, who's working on, find related work, seminal papers, survey the field, research landscape, what's the gap, is this novel, has anyone done, prior art, where's the white space, map this field, what should I read.
Product manager skill for deciding WHAT to build and WHY — the problem, the user, the priority — before anyone designs or codes it. Use Charter to turn a vague idea into a problem statement, write a PRD / spec / user stories with acceptance criteria, prioritize a backlog (RICE / MoSCoW / value-vs-effort), define an MVP and a cut line, set success metrics, scope or kill a feature, or untangle conflicting stakeholder asks. Trigger on: PRD, product spec, requirements, user story, acceptance criteria, MVP, scope, roadmap, backlog, prioritize, what should we build, is this worth building, feature request, north star metric, success metric, definition of done, cut scope, stakeholder, who is this for, what problem does this solve.
Prompt & context engineer skill for getting reliable, measurable behavior out of LLMs. Use Cipher to write or fix a system prompt, design few-shot examples, structure chain-of-thought / tool-use / agent loops, budget the context window, build an eval to prove a prompt got better, or debug a model that ignores instructions, hallucinates, or behaves inconsistently. Trigger on: prompt, system prompt, few-shot, prompt engineering, the model ignores / won't follow / hallucinates / is inconsistent, jailbreak, prompt injection, context window, token budget, RAG context, chain-of-thought, tool calling format, agent loop, output schema, JSON mode, temperature, make the LLM do X, why does the model, improve this prompt, eval the prompt.
Deep-reading skill for a single paper or document — the close read, not the field survey. Use Codex to read one paper end-to-end and extract what it actually claims, how it claims it, and where it's soft: pull the core contribution, the method, the key equations, the evidence, the assumptions, and the limitations into structured notes. Use to understand a paper before building on it, reviewing it, or citing it. (Beacon maps the field across many papers; Codex goes deep on one.) Trigger on: read this paper, what does this paper say, explain this paper, summarize this paper, extract the method, what's the contribution, break down this paper, what are the assumptions, what does this equation mean, take notes on, deep-read, walk me through this paper, what's the evidence in, is this paper's claim supported, or any 'help me deeply understand THIS one document' task.
Project + program management skill that holds the multi-week plan the rest of the crew executes against. Use Compass to break a goal into a timeline, sequence milestones, find the critical path and dependencies, allocate effort/budget, plan a grant timeline or research roadmap, track what's blocking what, decide what to cut to hit a deadline, or run the status of work spread across people and steps. Compass owns the WHEN and IN WHAT ORDER across the whole project — where Aleth routes one query, Compass plans the campaign. Trigger on: project plan, timeline, roadmap, milestones, critical path, dependencies, what's blocking, gantt, schedule this, how long will this take, grant timeline, sprint plan, what do we cut, are we on track, status of the project, sequence the work, resource/effort allocation, or any 'lay out and track the multi-step plan' task.