| name | setup-red-skills |
| description | Sets up an `## Agent skills` block in AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md and `.red/agents/` so the engineering skills know this repo's GitHub Issues setup, triage label vocabulary, and domain doc layout. Run before first use of `to-issues`, `to-prd`, `triage`, `diagnose`, `tdd`, `improve-codebase-architecture`, or `zoom-out` — or if those skills appear to be missing context about the issue tracker, triage labels, or domain docs. |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
Setup RedSkills
Scaffold the per-repo configuration that the engineering skills assume:
- Issue tracker — GitHub Issues (the only supported option, reddb.io policy)
- Triage labels — the strings used for the canonical triage roles and label families
- Domain docs — where
.red/CONTEXT.md and ADRs live, and the consumer rules for reading them
- Workflows — GitHub Actions shipped by RedSkills (all prefixed
red-), e.g. auto-label fresh issues with needs-triage so nothing slips past /triage and /afk
- Token efficiency — strongly recommend installing RTK to cut 60–90% of dev-operation tokens via a transparent CLI proxy
This is a prompt-driven skill, not a deterministic script. Explore, present what you found, confirm with the user, then write.
Process
1. Explore
Look at the current repo to understand its starting state. Read whatever exists; don't assume:
git remote -v and .git/config — is this a GitHub repo? Which one?AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md at the repo root — does either exist? Is there already an ## Agent skills section in either?.red/CONTEXT.md and .red/CONTEXT-MAP.md at the repo root.red/adr/ and any src/*/.red/adr/ directories.red/agents/ — does this skill's prior output already exist?
2. Present findings and ask
Summarise what's present and what's missing. Then walk the user through the three decisions one at a time — present a section, get the user's answer, then move to the next. Don't dump all three at once.
Assume the user does not know what these terms mean. Each section starts with a short explainer (what it is, why these skills need it, what changes if they pick differently). Then show the choices and the default.
Section A — Issue tracker.
Explainer: In every reddb.io repo, issues and PRDs always live on GitHub Issues. Skills like to-issues, triage, to-prd, and qa call gh issue create / gh issue edit directly. There is no local fallback and no support for other trackers — this is a project-wide policy.
Confirm that git remote points to a GitHub repo, then proceed with the issue-tracker-github.md seed. If the repo has no GitHub remote, stop and ask the user to configure one before continuing.
Section B — Triage label vocabulary.
Explainer: When the triage skill processes an incoming issue, it moves it through a state machine — needs evaluation, waiting on reporter, ready for an AFK agent to pick up, ready for human decision/resolution, dependency-blocked, or won't fix. To do that, it needs to apply labels (or the equivalent in your issue tracker) that match strings you've actually configured. If your repo already uses different label names (e.g. bug:triage instead of needs-triage), map them here so the skill applies the right ones instead of creating duplicates. Labels should belong to a clear family: current state, permanent type, priority, relationship/dependency, or operational diagnostic.
The canonical state roles:
needs-triage — maintainer needs to evaluateneeds-info — waiting on reporterready-for-agent — fully specified, AFK-ready (an agent can pick it up with no human context)ready-for-human — needs human decision/resolution before it can proceed or be delegatedblocked:dependency — waiting on other issues (via req:N edges); never pages a human; auto-unblocks when the last dep closeswontfix — will not be actioned
Do not provision or preserve labels outside the accepted label families; HITL/AFK routing is represented by ready-for-human / ready-for-agent.
Default: each role's string equals its name. Ask the user if they want to override any. If their issue tracker has no existing labels, the defaults are fine.
Section C — Domain docs.
Explainer: Some skills (improve-codebase-architecture, diagnose, tdd) read a .red/CONTEXT.md file to learn the project's domain language, and .red/adr/ for past architectural decisions. They need to know whether the repo has one global context or multiple (e.g. a monorepo with separate frontend/backend contexts) so they look in the right place.
Confirm the layout:
- Single-context — one
.red/CONTEXT.md + .red/adr/ at the repo root. Most repos are this.
- Multi-context —
.red/CONTEXT-MAP.md at the root pointing to per-context .red/CONTEXT.md files (typically a monorepo).
Section D — Workflows.
Explainer: RedSkills ships GitHub Actions workflows that close gaps in the manual flow. The most important one is red-issues-needs-triage.yml — it auto-applies the needs-triage label to any newly opened or reopened issue that has no labels yet, so fresh reports never slip past /triage and never sit invisible to /afk (which only drains ready-for-agent). All RedSkills workflows are prefixed red- so they're easy to identify alongside the host project's own CI.
Confirm with the user:
- Install
red-issues-needs-triage.yml into .github/workflows/? Default: yes.
- Does the
needs-triage label exist in the issue tracker? If not, create it (gh label create needs-triage --description "Maintainer needs to evaluate").
- Does the
runner-error label exist? If not, create it (gh label create runner-error --color B60205 --description "AFK supervisor circuit-tripped; runner was misconfigured"). The /afk fleet supervisor falls back to creating it on the fly during a circuit trip, but provisioning it here keeps colour/description consistent across repos.
- Does the
blocked:dependency label exist? If not, create it (gh label create blocked:dependency --color D4C5F9 --description "Waiting on other issues (req:N edges); auto-unblocks when the last dependency closes"). req:N edge labels are created on demand by /to-issues (gh label create req:<n>) like prd:N, so they need no upfront provisioning.
- Provision the typed blocked-reason labels
/afk applies to describe why an iteration stopped (it falls back to creating each on the fly, so this only keeps colour/description consistent): gh label create blocked:quota, blocked:runner-transient, blocked:merge-conflict, blocked:spec, blocked:validation, blocked:crashed, blocked:policy, blocked:stalled, blocked:infra (suggested colour E99695, descriptions per the Blocked Reasons table in triage-labels). These are descriptive (added alongside the routing label) — see triage-labels.
Future RedSkills workflows will land in this same step. Filename prefix red- is mandatory.
Section E — Token efficiency (strongly recommended).
Explainer: A huge fraction of an agent's token budget gets burned on noisy CLI output — git status on a dirty branch, pnpm install with hundreds of progress lines, gh pr list with verbose JSON, ls on a node_modules you forgot to ignore. RTK (Rust Token Killer) is a transparent CLI proxy that rewrites those commands at the hook layer to return only what the agent actually needs. Typical savings: 60–90% on routine dev operations, with no changes to how skills are written — the rewrite is invisible to Claude/Codex.
Strong recommendation: install before running /afk for any non-trivial backlog. A long /afk run on a busy repo can blow through a session's quota on pnpm/git/gh chatter alone. RTK pays for itself in the first hour.
Walk the user through the install and agent integration:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/rtk/main/install.sh | sh
rtk --version
rtk init --show
rtk init --hook-only --auto-patch
rtk init --codex
rtk gain
rtk gain --history
Three things to verify after install:
- No name collision. Another tool called
rtk (Rust Type Kit, reachingforthejack/rtk) sometimes lands first on PATH. If rtk gain says "command not found" or prints unrelated output, fix PATH so rtk-ai/rtk wins.
- Hook or instructions are active.
rtk init --show should report a configured hook/RTK.md for the active assistant. For Claude Code, confirm the hook by running git status once and checking rtk gain --history shows the call.
- Fallback explicit mode works. If the active agent cannot use RTK hooks, teach it to call
rtk git status, rtk vitest, rtk tsc, rtk pnpm, rtk test, and rtk err directly for noisy commands.
rtk discover scans recent transcripts for missed savings opportunities — useful periodically to spot commands the hook should be rewriting but isn't yet.
Section F — /afk statusline (optional).
Explainer: When /afk is draining the queue, the Claude Code statusline can surface live worker count, queue depth, and aggregated diffstat at a glance — so the user doesn't need to run /dev:afk monitor in a side terminal. The plugin's AFK bundle exposes a statusline subcommand that reads each worker's .red/tmp/workers/*/*/afk.state.json, filters by kill -0 liveness, sums diffstats locally, and caches GitHub-derived counts for 60 s to stay under the ~100 ms refresh budget.
Decide whether to wire it up for this project:
-
Skip when the per-project plugin config (.red/config.yaml) sets afk.statusline: false. Detect with grep -qE '^[[:space:]]*statusline:[[:space:]]*false[[:space:]]*$' on the afk: block (or use yq if available). When skipped, log a one-line notice (afk.statusline: false in .red/config.yaml — skipping statusline wiring) and move on.
-
Skip when a statusLine entry is already present in .claude/settings.json. Do not overwrite — log a one-line notice (statusLine already configured in .claude/settings.json — leaving as-is) so the user can decide. Idempotency rule: re-running /dev:setup-red-skills must never clobber a hand-edited statusline.
-
Otherwise write the entry into .claude/settings.json (create the file if missing, merge with existing keys via jq if present):
{
"statusLine": {
"type": "command",
"command": "sh -c 'b=$(ls -1 \"$HOME\"/.claude/plugins/cache/red-skills/dev/*/skills/engineering/afk/bin/afk.mjs 2>/dev/null | sort -V | tail -1); [ -n \"$b\" ] && exec node \"$b\" statusline'",
"refreshInterval": 5
}
}
Do not use $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT here: Claude Code does not export it (nor $CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR) to a statusLine command — only to plugin hooks and MCP/LSP subprocesses — so that form expands to an empty path and renders blank. The command above resolves the highest-version installed AFK bundle from the plugin cache itself (sort -V | tail -1, NOT ls -t | head -1 — version order, not mtime, so a re-touched/re-extracted old dir can't win), staying valid across updates without pinning a version. The project root is read from workspace.project_dir in the JSON Claude Code pipes on stdin (no argument needed). This is Claude Code only; Codex has no command-backed statusline — see the setup-statusline skill for the Codex tui.status_line path.
The script is no-op outside /afk sessions (it prints nothing when no live workers exist), so leaving the statusline wired up in non-AFK projects is harmless.
Section G — .red/config.yaml template (automatic).
Explainer: .red/config.yaml is the per-project knob file that /afk and friends read at runtime. It holds the project's fallback runner, default fleet target, and per-detector opt-outs. The schema is documented by the loader shipped in PRD #16 and is forward-compatible (unknown keys are ignored). A fresh repo should land with a commented template of every v1 knob so the user discovers the available settings without reading docs — the file is a no-op until lines are uncommented.
No user decision here for the template itself — the skill scaffolds it whenever the file is missing. If .red/config.yaml already exists, leave it alone (any prior edits are project state — never clobbered). See step 4 for the write rule.
The template carries a commented afk.backpressure block (#430 / PRD #429): an ordered list of shell commands (npm run test, npm run lint, …) AFK runs after the built-in feedback gate on every successful iteration — DONE and salvaged no-sentinel alike — where any non-zero exit blocks the merge and parks the issue to ready-for-human. It ships commented (a no-op until uncommented). One optional offer: when scaffolding a fresh template into a repo whose root (or a clearly primary package) package.json declares test and/or lint scripts, surface them and ask whether to pre-fill the block with the matching npm run <script> (or pnpm) lines — uncommented — instead of the commented placeholder. Only pre-fill on explicit confirmation; otherwise leave the block commented. Never touch an existing .red/config.yaml (the clobber rule wins over this offer).
3. Confirm and edit
Show the user a draft of:
- The
## Agent skills block to add to whichever of CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md is being edited (see step 4 for selection rules)
- The contents of
.red/agents/issue-tracker.md, .red/agents/triage-labels.md, .red/agents/domain.md
Let them edit before writing.
4. Write
Pick the file to edit:
- If
CLAUDE.md exists, edit it.
- Else if
AGENTS.md exists, edit it.
- If neither exists, ask the user which one to create — don't pick for them.
Never create AGENTS.md when CLAUDE.md already exists (or vice versa) — always edit the one that's already there.
If an ## Agent skills block already exists in the chosen file, update its contents in-place rather than appending a duplicate. Don't overwrite user edits to the surrounding sections.
The block:
## Agent skills
### Issue tracker
[one-line summary of where issues are tracked]. See `.red/agents/issue-tracker.md`.
### Triage labels
[one-line summary of the label vocabulary]. See `.red/agents/triage-labels.md`.
### Domain docs
[one-line summary of layout — "single-context" or "multi-context"]. See `.red/agents/domain.md`.
Then write the three docs files using the seed templates in this skill folder as a starting point:
If the user accepted Section D, copy each workflows/red-*.yml template from this skill folder into .github/workflows/ of the consumer repo. Don't overwrite existing files with the same name — diff and ask first. Then ensure both needs-triage and runner-error labels exist via gh label create if missing (gh label create runner-error --color B60205 --description "AFK supervisor circuit-tripped; runner was misconfigured").
Scaffold .red/config.yaml (Section G, no user decision):
- If
.red/config.yaml already exists at the repo root, leave it untouched and log a one-line notice (.red/config.yaml already present — leaving as-is). Do not diff, merge, or overwrite — any existing content is project state.
- Otherwise, ensure
.red/ exists and copy config-template.yaml verbatim to .red/config.yaml. The template is a fully-commented snapshot of every v1 knob the AFK config loader (src/apps/dev/src/core/config.ts) reads from .red/config.yaml, so the file is a no-op until the user uncomments a line — including the commented afk.backpressure block.
- Backpressure pre-fill offer (only on a fresh scaffold). Read the repo-root (or primary package)
package.json; if it declares test and/or lint scripts, surface them and ask whether to pre-fill afk.backpressure with the matching npm run <script> (or pnpm run <script>) lines, uncommented. On explicit yes, replace the commented backpressure: placeholder with the confirmed list; otherwise leave it commented. Skip silently when no such scripts exist. This step never runs when .red/config.yaml already existed (step 1 wins).
- Do not
git add or commit the file — the user controls when it lands in git.
If the user accepted Section F, wire the statusline:
- Check the opt-out: if
.red/config.yaml exists and contains an afk: block with statusline: false, log afk.statusline: false in .red/config.yaml — skipping statusline wiring and skip the rest of this step.
- Check for an existing
statusLine key in .claude/settings.json. If one is present, log statusLine already configured in .claude/settings.json — leaving as-is and skip the rest of this step.
- Otherwise, ensure
.claude/ exists and write/merge the statusLine block above into .claude/settings.json. Use jq for the merge when the file already has unrelated keys; create a fresh file containing only statusLine when missing.
5. Sweep existing issues
If the repo already has open issues, the new label vocabulary won't apply itself. Help the user backfill so /triage and /afk see a coherent state.
Run gh issue list --state open --limit 200 --json number,title,labels and group:
- Unlabelled / missing triage role — candidates for
needs-triage
- Labelled with legacy names — map to the canonical vocabulary from Section B
- Labels outside the accepted families — remove them; do not map historical routing labels to another label
- Already correct — skip
Skip the sweep entirely if gh issue list returns 0 open issues.
Present the grouping to the user as a compact table (number, title, current labels, proposed labels) and ask for batch approval. Don't apply per-issue — one confirmation, then loop gh issue edit <n> --add-label ... --remove-label .... If the list is large (>30), offer to do only the first N and stop.
Never close, reassign, or edit issue bodies in this step — labels only.
6. Done
Tell the user the setup is complete and which engineering skills will now read from these files. Mention they can edit .red/agents/*.md directly later — re-running this skill is only necessary if they want to switch issue trackers or restart from scratch.
