Skill Autopilot

If you were dispatched as a subagent to execute a specific task, skip this skill.

Skill Autopilot

The Iron Law

EVERY user message gets skill-matched BEFORE you respond, write code, or ask questions.

This is not a suggestion. If a skill exists that could help — even 1% chance — invoke it.

Decision Flowchart

digraph autopilot {
  "Message received" [shape=doublecircle];
  "Classify intent" [shape=box];
  "Match skills" [shape=box];
  "Duplicates?" [shape=diamond];
  "Resolve precedence" [shape=box];
  "Multi-skill chain needed?" [shape=diamond];
  "Build chain (process→domain→quality)" [shape=box];
  "Any match?" [shape=diamond];
  "Search online" [shape=box];
  "Invoke skill(s)" [shape=box];
  "Follow skill instructions" [shape=doublecircle];

  "Message received" -> "Classify intent";
  "Classify intent" -> "Match skills";
  "Match skills" -> "Duplicates?";
  "Duplicates?" -> "Resolve precedence" [label="yes"];
  "Duplicates?" -> "Multi-skill chain needed?" [label="no"];
  "Resolve precedence" -> "Multi-skill chain needed?";
  "Multi-skill chain needed?" -> "Build chain (process→domain→quality)" [label="yes"];
  "Multi-skill chain needed?" -> "Any match?" [label="no"];
  "Build chain (process→domain→quality)" -> "Invoke skill(s)";
  "Any match?" -> "Invoke skill(s)" [label="yes"];
  "Any match?" -> "Search online" [label="no"];
  "Search online" -> "Invoke skill(s)";
  "Invoke skill(s)" -> "Follow skill instructions";
}

Phase 1: Classify Intent

Read the message. What is the user doing? Match against these intent signals:

| Signal | Intent | |--------|--------| | build, create, design, page, component, UI, layout, style | Create UI | | fix, bug, error, broken, crash, not working, fails | Debug | | plan, architect, complex, multi-step, "how should I" | Plan | | review, audit, polish, check, accessibility, a11y | QA/Review | | animate, motion, transition, hover, micro-interaction | Animation | | optimize, slow, performance, bundle, render, memo | Performance | | refactor, simplify, clean up, best practices | Code Quality | | test, playwright, e2e, verify, screenshot | Testing | | commit, push, PR, deploy, merge, ship | Ship | | pdf, docx, pptx, xlsx, word, excel, slides, spreadsheet | Documents | | image, logo, banner, art, poster, generate | Media | | SEO, keywords, copy, headline, marketing, convert | Marketing | | Claude API, Anthropic SDK, MCP, agent SDK | AI/MCP | | twitter, reddit, product hunt, web search, scrape | Research | | schema, migration, postgres, neon, SQL, database | Database | | n8n, workflow, webhook, automation | Automation | | SwiftUI, iOS, React Native, Flutter, mobile | Mobile | | figma, design handoff, implement design | Figma | | find skill, install skill, "is there a skill for" | Discovery | | sentry, logging, tracing, metrics, monitoring | Monitoring | | remotion, video | Video | | domain, registrar, .com, .ai | Domains | | shadcn, component registry | Component Lib |

Multiple intents can co-exist. "Build a landing page and deploy it" = Create UI + Ship.

Phase 2: Resolve Duplicates

Many skills overlap. Always use the winner. Full precedence table: references/precedence.md

Quick rules:

• Design skills → impeccable:* wins over standalone and document-skills:*
• Process skills → superpowers:* wins over standalone
• Document skills → standalone wins over document-skills:* and example-skills:*
• React/Next → react-best-practices (standalone) = vercel-react-best-practices (pick one, not both)
• Never invoke both document-skills:X and example-skills:X — they're identical

Phase 3: Build Skill Chain

Skills have a strict invocation order. Process → Domain → Quality.

| Phase | Skills | When | |-------|--------|------| | 1. Process | superpowers:brainstorming, superpowers:systematic-debugging, superpowers:writing-plans | New features, bugs, complex tasks | | 2. Domain | impeccable:frontend-design, design-system, react-best-practices, pdf, pptx, etc. | The actual work | | 3. Quality | impeccable:audit, impeccable:polish, superpowers:verification-before-completion | After implementation | | 4. Ship | superpowers:requesting-code-review, commit-commands:commit-push-pr, vercel:deploy | Wrapping up |

Common chains — see references/chains.md for the full recipe book.

Critical gate: Process skills come FIRST. Do NOT invoke impeccable:frontend-design without superpowers:brainstorming first for new features. Do NOT invoke code fixes without superpowers:systematic-debugging first for bugs.

Phase 4: No Match → Discover

If nothing in your installed inventory matches:

1. Run npx skills find "" with 2-3 relevant keywords
2. Present results with install command: npx skills add -g -y
3. If npx skills isn't available, try: gh search repos "claude-code skill "
4. If nothing found online, proceed with general capabilities

See references/discovery.md for the full workflow.

Phase 5: Invoke

1. Announce: "Using [skill] for [purpose]"
2. Invoke: Call Skill tool with the winning skill name
3. Follow: Execute the skill's instructions exactly — skills are authoritative
4. Chain: If the skill's output names another skill, invoke that too

Red Flags — You're Bypassing Autopilot

| Your Thought | Reality | |--------------|---------| | "Too simple for a skill" | Simple tasks have the most unexamined assumptions. Check. | | "I'll check skills after" | Skills are checked BEFORE. Always. | | "Let me just write the code" | Process skills (brainstorming, debugging) come before code. | | "I already know this" | Skills have checklists you'll miss. Use them. | | "No skill matches exactly" | Partial match > no match. Also search online. | | "The user didn't ask for a skill" | Auto-invoked. Users never need to ask. | | "I'll handle design myself" | impeccable skills exist. Use them. | | "It's just a quick fix" | systematic-debugging exists for a reason. | | "I know what that skill says" | Skills evolve. Invoke the current version. |

Session Lifecycle

| Moment | Action | |--------|--------| | Start | Is this a new feature? → superpowers:brainstorming. Is there a plan? → superpowers:executing-plans. | | During | Match domain skills to each sub-task as it arises. | | Before claiming done | superpowers:verification-before-completion — ALWAYS. No exceptions. | | Before commit/PR | superpowers:requesting-code-review → commit-commands:commit-push-pr |

Always-On Context Skills

These fire automatically when their context is detected, regardless of intent:

• design-system — any project with design tokens + any visual change
• react-best-practices or next-best-practices — any React/Next.js code touch

Source & license

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

• Author: deepshal99
• Source: deepshal99/skill-autopilot
• License: MIT

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