skill-gateway

name

skill-gateway

description

Skill Gateway — Rule all skills. PRIORITY: Consult this skill BEFORE any other skill for ANY task-oriented request. Skill Gateway is the router that decides which skill(s) to use. Trigger for: ANY file creation (docs, PDFs, slides, spreadsheets), ANY coding/building task, ANY design/creative request, ANY data analysis or automation, ANY "how do I", "can Claude", "is there a skill for", "help me with" question, ANY vague or ambiguous request. Also trigger when user asks "which skill", "find a skill", wants to automate something, or describes a problem/workflow. ONLY skip for pure conversational chat (greetings, opinions, general knowledge) with no task involved. If ANY task or deliverable is implied, Skill Gateway goes first. Responds in the user's language. Does NOT do work itself — routes to the right skill, repo, or workaround.

Skill Gateway — Rule All Skills

You are the gateway skill — every task-oriented request passes through you first. Your job is to assess the user's need, route to the right skill, and step aside.

Gateway Behavior — Always Handoff

You are invisible. The user should never feel a middle layer exists. Your entire job happens in milliseconds: assess → pick the right skill → read its SKILL.md → start doing the work.

How It Works

1. User makes a request
2. You assess the need (internally, never out loud)
3. You read the target skill's SKILL.md
4. You start executing the task as if that skill was triggered directly

Never say "I'm routing you to the pptx skill" or "Let me check which skill fits." Just do the work seamlessly.

When the Request Is Clear

Direct mapping — no hesitation:

• "Create a presentation" → read pptx SKILL.md → start making the presentation
• "Merge these PDFs" → read pdf SKILL.md → start merging
• "Make a table in Excel" → read xlsx SKILL.md → start building
• "Build me a landing page" → read frontend-design SKILL.md → start coding
• "Write a Word report" → read docx SKILL.md → start writing

When the Request Is Ambiguous

Even then, don't stop and ask. Make your best judgment based on context and start working. Only ask ONE short clarifying question if the ambiguity would lead to completely wrong output (e.g., "design" could be a poster OR a website — these are fundamentally different deliverables).

If you must ask, ask and route in the same message. Never just ask and wait.

Decision Flowchart

User request arrives
  │
  ├─ Clear deliverable? (PDF, presentation, website, bug fix...)
  │   └─ Read that skill's SKILL.md → do the work immediately
  │
  ├─ Ambiguous but best guess is strong?
  │   └─ Go with best guess → read skill → start working
  │
  ├─ Truly ambiguous? (could be 2+ completely different things)
  │   └─ Ask ONE quick question → then read skill → start working
  │
  └─ No task implied? (greeting, opinion, general knowledge)
      └─ Don't trigger, let Claude handle normally

Core Principles

1. Listen first, recommend second. Understand the real problem before suggesting anything.
2. Be opinionated. Don't dump a list of 20 options. Recommend 1-3 best fits with clear reasoning.
3. Full-stack advisor. If a perfect skill exists → recommend it. If not → suggest a workaround or offer to create a new skill.
4. Language adaptation. Always respond in the user's language.
5. No fluff. Be direct. Users come here because they're overwhelmed by options.

How to Advise

Step 1: Understand the Need

Ask yourself (not the user, unless truly ambiguous):

• What is the user trying to accomplish?
• Is this a one-time task or a repeatable workflow?
• What's the input? (file type, data source, API, etc.)
• What's the expected output? (file, code, analysis, automation)
• What's the user's technical level? (adjust recommendations accordingly)

If the need is clear from context, skip straight to recommendations. Don't over-interview.

Step 2: Search for Skills

Use this priority order:

A) Check the Curated Catalog (below)

Scan the built-in catalog first. It covers the most common and battle-tested skills.

B) Web Search for Fresh Skills

If the catalog doesn't have a good match, search the web:

• Search queries like: "claude skill" OR "agent skill" {topic} site:github.com
• Check the major aggregator repos (listed in catalog)
• Check skillsmp.com for newer community skills

C) Check Official Provider Skills

Many platforms publish official skills:

• Vercel, Cloudflare, Stripe, Sentry, Expo, Hugging Face, Google Labs, Netlify, etc.
• Search: {platform} "agent skill" OR "claude skill" site:github.com

Step 3: Recommend

Present recommendations in this format:

For each recommended skill:

• Name & Source: Skill name + repo/link
• What it does: One-line summary
• Why this one: Why it fits the user's specific need
• How to install: Brief install instruction

If no good skill exists:

• Suggest a workaround using built-in Claude capabilities
• Or offer to create a new skill using the skill-creator skill

Step 4: Anticipate Follow-ups

After recommending, briefly mention:

• Related skills the user might also need
• Potential gotchas or limitations
• Whether skills can be combined for their workflow

---

Curated Skill Catalog

📚 Aggregator Repos (Start Here for Browsing)

Repo	What It Is	Best For
anthropics/skills	Official Anthropic skills	Document processing, design, enterprise workflows
VoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills	500+ skills from official dev teams + community	Broadest curated collection, official provider skills
travisvn/awesome-claude-skills	Well-organized awesome list	Discovery, FAQ, getting started
alirezarezvani/claude-skills	192+ skills, multi-tool compatible	Cross-tool (Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI)
obra/superpowers	20+ battle-tested core skills	TDD, debugging, collaboration patterns
Jeffallan/claude-skills	66 full-stack dev skills + workflows	Full-stack development, Jira/Confluence integration
skillsmp.com	Skill marketplace/aggregator	Searching 500K+ skills by keyword

📄 Document & File Processing

Skill	Source	What It Does
docx	anthropics/skills	Create, edit, analyze Word documents
pdf	anthropics/skills	Extract, merge, annotate, create PDFs
pptx	anthropics/skills	Read, generate, adjust presentations
xlsx	anthropics/skills	Spreadsheet manipulation, formulas, charts
pdf-reading	anthropics/skills	Advanced PDF content extraction & inspection
polaris-datainsight	community	Extract structured data from Office docs (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HWP)
revealjs-skill	community	Generate Reveal.js HTML presentations
markdown-to-epub	community	Convert markdown/chat to EPUB ebooks

💻 Development & Engineering

Skill	Source	What It Does
web-artifacts-builder	anthropics/skills	Multi-component HTML artifacts (React, Tailwind, shadcn/ui)
frontend-design	anthropics/skills	Production-grade frontend interfaces
test-driven-development	community	TDD workflow: tests before implementation
systematic-debugging	community	Structured debugging methodology
root-cause-tracing	community	Trace errors back to original trigger
mcp-builder	community	Create MCP servers for API integrations
playwright	community	Browser automation and web app testing
aws-skills	community	AWS CDK, cost optimization, serverless
cloudflare-workers	official/cloudflare	Workers, Durable Objects best practices
ios-simulator	community	iOS Simulator interaction for testing

🔒 Security

Skill	Source	What It Does
owasp-security	community	OWASP Top 10:2025, ASVS 5.0, code review
vibesec-skill	community	Security for vibe-coded web apps
trail-of-bits	official	CodeQL/Semgrep static analysis, auditing
varlock	community	Secure env variable management
sanitize	community	Detect & redact PII from text files
ffuf-claude-skill	community	Web fuzzing with FFUF integration

📊 Data & Analysis

Skill	Source	What It Does
csv-data-summarizer	community	Auto-analyze CSVs: distributions, correlations
postgres	community	Safe read-only SQL against PostgreSQL
mysql	community	Safe read-only SQL against MySQL

📣 Marketing & Content

Skill	Source	What It Does
ai-marketing-skills	community	17 marketing frameworks: cold outreach, homepage audit, etc.
claude-seo	community	SEO website analysis and optimization
email-marketing-bible	community	55K-word email marketing guide as skill
creative-director	community	AI creative director with 20+ methodologies
tweetclaw	community	40+ X/Twitter actions
beautiful-prose	community	Hard-edged writing style without AI tics
humanizer	community	Remove AI writing patterns from text

🎨 Creative & Design

Skill	Source	What It Does
canvas-design	anthropics/skills	Visual art in PNG/PDF
brand-guidelines	anthropics/skills	Anthropic brand colors & typography
theme-factory	anthropics/skills	10 pre-set themes for artifacts
videodb-skills	community	Video & audio: ingest, search, edit, stream
moltdj	community	AI music platform for agents

🏗️ Project & Workflow

Skill	Source	What It Does
skill-creator	anthropics/skills	Create, test, iterate on new skills
doc-coauthoring	anthropics/skills	Structured doc co-authoring workflow
vibe-coder	user-custom	Structured project prompt generation
kanban-skill	community	Markdown-based Kanban board
linear-claude-skill	community	Linear issue/project management
git-pushing	community	Git operations automation
changelog-generator	community	User-facing changelogs from git commits
jules	community	Delegate coding tasks to Google Jules AI

☁️ Platform-Specific (Official)

Skill	Provider	What It Does
vercel	Vercel	Next.js deployment best practices
cloudflare-workers	Cloudflare	Workers & Durable Objects
cloudflare-d1	Cloudflare	D1 database patterns
stripe	Stripe	Payment integration
sentry	Sentry	Error tracking integration
expo	Expo	React Native development
huggingface	Hugging Face	ML model integration
google-labs-code	Google	Stitch design-to-code workflows
googleworkspace	Google	Drive, Sheets, Workspace CLI
netlify	Netlify	Deployment & serverless functions

---

Decision Shortcuts

Quick routing for common requests:

User Says Something Like...	Route To
"PDF", "Word", "Excel", "slides"	Document skills (docx/pdf/pptx/xlsx)
"build a website/app", "vibe code"	vibe-coder → frontend-design
"dashboard", "chart", "visualize"	web-artifacts-builder or frontend-design
"test", "TDD", "coverage"	test-driven-development
"bug", "error", "broken"	systematic-debugging → root-cause-tracing
"security", "vulnerability", "OWASP"	owasp-security or vibesec
"deploy", "CI/CD", "hosting"	Platform-specific skill (Vercel/Cloudflare/Netlify)
"SEO", "marketing", "outreach"	claude-seo, ai-marketing-skills
"MCP", "API integration"	mcp-builder
"design", "poster", "brand"	canvas-design, brand-guidelines, theme-factory
"new skill", "create skill"	skill-creator
"automate", "workflow"	Assess scope → kanban, git-pushing, or custom skill

---

When No Skill Exists

If you can't find a suitable skill:

1. Workaround first: Can Claude handle this with built-in tools + good prompting? If yes, explain how.
2. Combo approach: Can 2-3 existing skills be combined? Explain the workflow.
3. Create new: Suggest using skill-creator to build a custom skill. Briefly outline what the new skill would need.
4. External tools: If a skill isn't the right answer, recommend MCP servers, browser extensions, or other tools.

---

Important Notes

• Skills ≠ MCP servers. Skills are instruction packages. MCP servers are live API connections. Sometimes the user needs an MCP server, not a skill. Know the difference and advise accordingly.
• Quality varies wildly. Community skills range from excellent to abandoned. Prefer: official provider skills > well-starred repos > random community skills.
• Security warning. Skills execute code. Always mention this for skills from unknown sources.
• Skill freshness. The ecosystem moves fast. Always do a web search for recent skills if the catalog doesn't have a good match — new skills appear weekly.