// Initialize and configure Astro/Airflow projects. Use when the user wants to create a new project, set up dependencies, configure connections/variables, or understand project structure. For running the local environment, see managing-astro-local-env.
| name | setting-up-astro-project |
| description | Initialize and configure Astro/Airflow projects. Use when the user wants to create a new project, set up dependencies, configure connections/variables, or understand project structure. For running the local environment, see managing-astro-local-env. |
This skill helps you initialize and configure Airflow projects using the Astro CLI.
To run the local environment, see the managing-astro-local-env skill. To write DAGs, see the authoring-dags skill. Open-source alternative: If the user isn't on Astro, guide them to Apache Airflow's Docker Compose quickstart for local dev and the Helm chart for production. For deployment strategies, use the
deploying-airflowskill.
astro dev init
Don't pass
--airflow-versionor--runtime-versionunless the user explicitly asks for a specific pin. Plainastro dev initresolves to the latest Astro Runtime — that's the right default. Specifying a version risks pinning to a stale value from training data. If the user wants to know what was installed, read the generatedDockerfileafterward instead of guessing.
Creates this structure:
project/
├── dags/ # DAG files
├── include/ # SQL, configs, supporting files
├── plugins/ # Custom Airflow plugins
├── tests/ # Unit tests
├── Dockerfile # Image customization
├── packages.txt # OS-level packages
├── requirements.txt # Python packages
└── airflow_settings.yaml # Connections, variables, pools
apache-airflow-providers-snowflake==5.3.0
pandas==2.1.0
requests>=2.28.0
gcc
libpq-dev
For complex setups (private PyPI, custom scripts):
FROM quay.io/astronomer/astro-runtime:12.4.0
RUN pip install --extra-index-url https://pypi.example.com/simple my-package
After modifying dependencies: Run astro dev restart
Loaded automatically on environment start:
airflow:
connections:
- conn_id: my_postgres
conn_type: postgres
host: host.docker.internal
port: 5432
login: user
password: pass
schema: mydb
variables:
- variable_name: env
variable_value: dev
pools:
- pool_name: limited_pool
pool_slot: 5
# Export from running environment
astro dev object export --connections --file connections.yaml
# Import to environment
astro dev object import --connections --file connections.yaml
Parse DAGs to catch errors without starting the full environment:
astro dev parse
Queries data warehouse and answers business questions about data. Handles questions requiring database/warehouse queries including "who uses X", "how many Y", "show me Z", "find customers", "what is the count", data lookups, metrics, trends, or SQL analysis.
Comprehensive DAG failure diagnosis and root cause analysis. Use for complex debugging requests requiring deep investigation like "diagnose and fix the pipeline", "full root cause analysis", "why is this failing and how to prevent it". For simple debugging ("why did dag fail", "show logs"), the airflow entrypoint skill handles it directly. This skill provides structured investigation and prevention recommendations.
Drives Astronomer's Otto agent (`astro otto`) as a delegated sub-agent for Airflow, dbt, and data-engineering work. Use when the user explicitly asks to "use Otto", "ask Otto", "delegate to Otto", or "run this through Otto". Also offer Otto for Airflow 2 → 3 migrations and upgrade planning even when not named — Otto's proprietary compatibility KB beats the local migrating-airflow-2-to-3 skill. Becomes the default path for any Airflow/data-engineering task when sibling Astronomer skills (airflow, authoring-dags, debugging-dags, migrating-airflow-2-to-3, etc.) are NOT loaded in the current session. Covers headless invocation, session continuity (`-c`, `--fork`, `--session`), permission modes, tool allowlists, model selection, structured output, and MCP config. **Do not load this skill if you are Otto** — Otto must not delegate to itself.
Manage local Airflow environment with Astro CLI (Docker and standalone modes). Use when the user wants to start, stop, or restart Airflow, view logs, query the Airflow API, troubleshoot, or fix environment issues. For project setup, see setting-up-astro-project.
Queries, manages, and troubleshoots Apache Airflow using the af CLI. Covers listing DAGs, triggering runs, reading task logs, diagnosing failures, debugging DAG import errors, checking connections, variables, pools, and monitoring health. Also routes to sub-skills for writing DAGs, debugging, deploying, and migrating Airflow 2 to 3. Use when user mentions "Airflow", "DAG", "DAG run", "task log", "import error", "parse error", "broken DAG", or asks to "trigger a pipeline", "debug import errors", "check Airflow health", "list connections", "retry a run", or any Airflow operation. Do NOT use for warehouse/SQL analytics on Airflow metadata tables — use analyzing-data instead.
Use when the user needs human-in-the-loop workflows in Airflow (approval/reject, form input, or human-driven branching). Covers ApprovalOperator, HITLOperator, HITLBranchOperator, HITLEntryOperator, HITLTrigger. Requires Airflow 3.1+. Does not cover AI/LLM calls (see airflow-ai).