# Suggesting Skills

> Look at what the user keeps re-explaining to the agent and propose new SKILL.md files that would replace those repeated explanations. Use when the user says "what skills should I have", "suggest skills", "audit my skills", or when you notice you're being asked the same kind of task three times in a row.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-spencerpauly-skills-repo-suggesting-skills`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [spencerpauly](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/spencerpauly)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [spencerpauly](https://github.com/spencerpauly)
- **Source:** https://github.com/spencerpauly/skills-repo/tree/main/skills/suggesting-skills
- **Website:** https://skillsovermcp.com

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-spencerpauly-skills-repo-suggesting-skills
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Suggesting Skills

Find the gaps in the user's skill library. Skills are most valuable when they capture the things the user *would otherwise have to explain to the agent every time*.

## When to use

- The user explicitly asks "what skills am I missing", "what should I add", "audit my skills".
- You notice the same kind of request happening repeatedly in a session — that's a skill waiting to be written.
- After a long session, before the user closes the chat, offer to extract any reusable playbook from the work just done.

## Steps

1. **Inventory what's already there.** Read every `SKILL.md` in the repo. Note for each: name, the trigger phrase in the description, and the one-line goal. If two existing skills overlap, flag the duplication.

2. **Look for the pattern of "I keep telling you to…".** Strong candidates for new skills are:
   - **Repeated workflow** — the user has asked for the same multi-step task at least twice.
   - **Repeated correction** — the user has had to fix the same kind of mistake the agent makes (formatting, voice, missing a step).
   - **Tribal knowledge** — facts about *this* user's stack, team, or product that aren't in the codebase but the user keeps having to restate.
   - **External tool wiring** — the user has an MCP, CLI, or API the agent could be using but isn't.

3. **Propose 3–5 candidate skills**, each as a one-paragraph pitch:
   ```
   Name:        kebab-case-name
   Trigger:     when the user says "..." or asks to "..."
   What it does: one sentence
   Why it's worth a skill: the repeated thing it replaces
   ```

4. **Rank them.** Sort by frequency × annoyance: how often does the situation come up, and how painful is it when it's not automated?

5. **Ask the user which 1–2 to actually write.** Don't auto-generate all of them. Skills that aren't trusted get ignored, which is worse than not having them.

6. **For each chosen skill, scaffold a `SKILL.md`** in `skills//` with:
   - Frontmatter (`name`, `description` with trigger phrases, `license`).
   - "When to use" — the trigger conditions, in plain English.
   - "Steps" — numbered, imperative.
   - "Don't" — the failure modes you've seen.

## Output format

```markdown
## Existing skills (N)
- skill-name — what it does, when it fires.

## Suggested additions
1. **** —  _(seen X times this session)_
2. ...

## Candidate skill files

```

## Don't

- Don't suggest a skill for something the agent already does well by default. Skills are for the cases where the *un-prompted* behavior is wrong.
- Don't propose 20 skills. The repo gets noisy and the agent's skill-selection routing degrades. 5–15 well-trusted skills > 50 mediocre ones.
- Don't write the SKILL.md without the user's go-ahead. Half the value of a skill is that the user trusts it; that requires their hand on the design.

## Source & license

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

- **Author:** [spencerpauly](https://github.com/spencerpauly)
- **Source:** [spencerpauly/skills-repo](https://github.com/spencerpauly/skills-repo)
- **License:** MIT
- **Homepage:** https://skillsovermcp.com

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

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-spencerpauly-skills-repo-suggesting-skills
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/spencerpauly
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.