Vitruvius Help

Vitruvius Help

Display this reference card when invoked. One-shot; do not persist anything.

What Vitruvius is

An engineering research agent: discover → read → synthesize → verify → review, with auditable provenance.

Commands

| Command | What it does | |---------|--------------| | /vitruvius | Smart dispatcher — routes to discipline or skill automatically. | | /vitruvius:civil | Civil / structural engineering research (buildings, bridges, steel, concrete, geotech). | | /vitruvius:mechanical | Mechanical engineering research (design, thermal, fluids, materials). | | /vitruvius:software | Software engineering research (architecture, frameworks, security). | | /vitruvius:electrical | Electrical / electronics research (power, controls, EMC). | | /vitruvius:architectural | Architectural research (building science, facades, codes). | | /vitruvius:verifier | Blind Verifier — independent subagent checks claim vs evidence. | | /vitruvius:verify | Verify a claim/calculation against authoritative sources. | | /vitruvius:compare | Source/standard/design comparison matrix. | | /vitruvius:review | Severity-graded artifact review. | | /vitruvius:audit | Claim-vs-implementation mismatch audit. | | /vitruvius:summarize | Faithful structured document digest. | | /vitruvius:eli5 | Plain-language engineering explanation. | | /vitruvius:artifact-reading | Anchored document reading + extraction. | | /vitruvius:scholarly-research | Academic literature discovery (OpenAlex, arXiv, etc.). | | /vitruvius:standards-lookup | Engineering standards (AISC, ACI, ASCE, IEEE, Eurocode). | | /vitruvius-help | This reference card. |

The shared research method

Every discipline skill runs the same loop (/skill:engineering-research):

1. Plan — write outputs/.plans/.md, get user confirmation.
2. Scale — direct search for narrow questions; researcher subagents only

when decomposition clearly helps.

1. Gather evidence — multiple query angles, primary sources first, an

evidence table with stable numeric IDs.

1. Draft — synthesize yourself, no invented sources or numbers.
2. Cite — inline citations; verify every reference means what it claims.
3. Review — adversarial verification pass; fix FATAL issues.
4. Deliver — final file plus .provenance.md sidecar.

Seven canonical roles: researcher (gather), writer (synthesize), verifier (cite + verify), reviewer (critique), arbiter (adjudicates verifier disagreement), goal-checker (independent completion check), and habit (read-only preference extraction). Subagents when the host supports them, otherwise the lead agent performs the applicable role work.

Non-negotiables

• Never fabricate a source. A reference or it didn't happen.
• Every output has a .provenance.md sidecar recording sources and

verification status.

• Mark status honestly: verified, inferred, blocked, unverified.
• A numeric claim without a unit, sign convention, and source is noise — flag

it.

Deactivate / stop

Say "stop vitruvius" or "normal mode" to stop an active research run. The skills remain available to invoke on demand.

Scope and Boundaries

• Vitruvius produces research — it does NOT produce final designs, construction documents, or implementation guidance.
• Research-only, not for final engineering sign-off. Licensed engineers must review and approve any design based on this research.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: adeerkhan
• Source: adeerkhan/vitruvius
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.