guidance

name	guidance
description	Authoritative guidance for building Claude Code skills, agents, and plugins, plus init and update steps that install and refresh the plugin-building skills in the current repository. Use when you need the rules or best practices for a skill, agent, hook, or plugin — designing, reviewing, hardening, or checking one against the guidance. Run with `init` to vendor the guidance, skill-builder, and agent-builder skills into the current repository (so they run with no dependency on this plugin) plus a path-scoped rule index, or `update` to refresh an already-vendored copy. Does not run an interview to build a new skill or agent from scratch — use skill-builder or agent-builder. Does not write feature code, review application code, or build non-plugin features.
allowed-tools	Read, Glob, Grep, Bash(find *)

This skill has three modes. Pick the mode from how it was invoked, then follow only that mode's steps.

• If the invocation argument is init or initialize (any case), run Initialization Mode.
• If the invocation argument is update or refresh (any case), run Update Mode.
• Otherwise, run Guidance Mode.

Guidance Mode

Serve the relevant guidance for what the user is building. Do not read every guidance document — that defeats the purpose. Find the one or two that apply, read them, and apply them.

The guidance documents live in this skill's own references/ directory. Use this map to choose, then read only the specific file(s) you need:

• Deciding whether something should be a skill, agent, or hook → ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/plugin-entity-taxonomy.md.
• Authoring or hardening a skill (descriptions, frontmatter, progressive disclosure, allowed-tools, scripts, composition, testing, troubleshooting) → the files under ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/skill-building-guidance/.
• Authoring an agent (domain focus, self-containment, model selection, multi-agent economics, graceful degradation) → the files under ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/agent-building-guidelines/.
• Plugin or marketplace configuration files (plugin.json, marketplace.json, monitors.json, themes.json) → the files under ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/claude-marketplace-and-plugin-configuration/.
• Versioning, README structure, local development, the iterative development process, and specialization-versus-model-tier reasoning → the top-level files in ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/.
• Copyable starter files → ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/templates/.

Steps:

1. Identify what the user is building or asking about.
2. List the relevant subdirectory under ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/ to see the available documents, using the map above.
3. Read only the document(s) that directly apply.
4. Apply the guidance to the user's situation. Cite the document you used so the user can read it in full if they want.

Initialization Mode

Install the plugin-building skills into the current repository so anyone using the repo can run them and consult the guidance, with no dependency on this plugin remaining installed.

1. Run ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/init-guidance.sh from the repository root. The script vendors three skills into .claude/skills/ under a plugin- prefix so they never collide with this plugin's own slash commands: a guidance-only plugin-guidance skill (whose references/ directory is the single in-repo copy of the guidance documents), plugin-skill-builder, and plugin-agent-builder (with their names, cross-references, and guidance paths rewritten to that vendored copy). It then writes the path-scoped rule index at .claude/rules/plugin-building-guidance.md. Capture its output.
2. Report to the user what was written: the three vendored skills, the total file count, the rule index path, and the paths: globs. Explain that the three skills are now available directly in the repo (/plugin-guidance, /plugin-skill-builder, /plugin-agent-builder) and that the rule index is an index only — Claude Code loads it when a matching skill or agent file is touched, and it points to the vendored guidance so only the documents the current file needs are loaded, not all of them.
3. Do not commit. Leave the new files staged for the user to review.

Update Mode

Refresh the vendored skills and their rule index in a repository that already has them, so contributors get the current skills and guidance after this plugin has been updated. Updating is the same vendoring operation as Initialization Mode — it replaces every vendored skill in full (each SKILL.md and the guidance documents under plugin-guidance/references/, removing any files that the plugin source has since dropped) and regenerates the rule index — but it first confirms the skills are actually installed before touching anything.

1. Check whether the skills are already installed at the expected location. Run find .claude -maxdepth 3 \( -path '*/skills/plugin-guidance' -o -name plugin-building-guidance.md \) from the repository root. The skills are installed only when both the .claude/skills/plugin-guidance directory and the .claude/rules/plugin-building-guidance.md rule index turn up.
2. If the skills are not installed (the find turns up neither, or only one of the two), do not update. Tell the user the skills are not installed at the expected location (.claude/skills/plugin-guidance/ and .claude/rules/plugin-building-guidance.md) and ask whether they want to install them now. If they confirm, switch to Initialization Mode and run its steps. If they decline, stop without writing anything.
3. If the skills are installed, run ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/init-guidance.sh from the repository root. The script removes each vendored skill directory and re-copies it fresh from the plugin source, so every SKILL.md and every guidance document under plugin-guidance/references/ is replaced with the current version (and any file the plugin has since removed is dropped), then regenerates the rule index at .claude/rules/plugin-building-guidance.md. Capture its output.
4. Report to the user what was refreshed: the three vendored skills, the total file count, the rule index path, and the paths: globs.
5. Do not commit. Leave the changes staged for the user to review.