Agent Engineering Skills

Agent engineering skills turn messy coding, design, debugging, issue, and architecture work into repeatable procedures. Source: Skill Registry, 2026-11-03

When To Use This

Use this family for coding flow, architecture, domain modeling, planning, implementation, debugging, tests, and engineering communication.

Core Model

Executable behavior lives in skills/**/SKILL.md. This page owns family-level routing, tradeoffs, and failure modes. Exhaustive inventory lives in Skill Registry. Full retired article bodies live in Retired Skill Article Ledger.

Concept Position

Axis	Value
Family	Generated skill-family synthesis
Concept owned	Agent engineering skills turn messy coding, design, debugging, issue, and architecture work into repeatable procedures.
Operationalizes into	Skill Registry, Skill Resolver, executable `SKILL.md` source
Use this page when	choosing the right skill family before loading executable source

Decision Matrix

Need	Route
Use Kevin's engineering-flow router for planning.	Load the named SKILL.md from Skill Registry and use this page for context.
Use codebase/design/domain skills before broad implementation.	Load the named SKILL.md from Skill Registry and use this page for context.
Use tests/TDD/debugging skills when proof is central.	Load the named SKILL.md from Skill Registry and use this page for context.

Do Not Confuse

Pure visual polish belongs in frontend-design-skills.
Security review belongs in security-review-skills.
Wiki maintenance belongs in agent-operations-skills.

Tool And Skill Routing

Skill	Category	Origin	Executable source	Trigger signal
calibrated-task-generation	productivity	personal	skills/productivity/calibrated-task-generation/SKILL.md	Generate verified frontier-difficulty tasks with a generator, verifier, solve-rate grader and improver loop, aimed at a 25 to 50 percent solve rate. Use when building an eval set, RL env,...
codebase-design	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/codebase-design/SKILL.md	Design deep modules, clean seams and small interfaces, and remove special cases, fallbacks and tech debt. Use when improving architecture, comparing interfaces, planning the smallest corr...
column-aligned-fields	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/column-aligned-fields/SKILL.md	Enforce column-aligned inline comments on dataclass and enum fields. Use when writing or reviewing Python dataclasses, enums, TypedDicts, or any structured type with inline field comments.
comment	deprecated	dedalus	skills/deprecated/comment/SKILL.md	Write doc comments, module docs, and inline comments that follow Dedalus conventions per language. Loads the canonical style guides from the monorepo. Covers Rust, Python, Go, and TypeScr...
commit	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/commit/SKILL.md	Create a git commit with conventional commit format. Injects current git state automatically. Use when the user asks to commit or says /commit.
diagnosing-bugs	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/diagnosing-bugs/SKILL.md	Diagnose hard bugs, regressions, flaky tests and performance problems with a disciplined loop that builds a tight repro before any fix. Use when the user says "diagnose", "debug this" or...
dxf	engineering	external	skills/engineering/dxf/SKILL.md	Generate, regenerate and validate 2D DXF drawings from Python ezdxf sources such as `.dxf.py` and gen_dxf(). Use for DXF files, 2D profiles, gaskets, panels, flat patterns, laser, plasma...
fix-types	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/fix-types/SKILL.md	Audit code for loose types that let invalid values compile; add newtypes, checked casts, enums over booleans and documented wire or DB discriminants. Use when writing structs with bare pr...
graphify-sidecar	engineering	unknown	skills/engineering/graphify-sidecar/SKILL.md	Build and query Graphify repo architecture graphs: topology, "what touches what", focused subgraphs, path and explain queries, affected-node blast radius for PR risk. Use when the user sa...
greentext	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/greentext/SKILL.md	Explain system behavior, request flows, architecture or code logic as terse 4chan-style greentext lines. Use when the user asks for "greentext", says "explain the logic", or wants a short...
grill-with-docs	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/grill-with-docs/SKILL.md	Grill a plan in two stages: map the decision tree, then resolve it in numbered rounds with a recommendation per question, updating CONTEXT.md and ADRs. Use before a PRD or code, or on "gr...
hotfix-preview	deprecated	personal	skills/deprecated/hotfix-preview/SKILL.md	Cherry-pick a commit from dev onto preview without a PR. Use when you need to cherry-pick a fix to preview without a PR, or for urgent fixes that can't wait for a full promote cycle.
implement	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/implement/SKILL.md	Implement a bounded piece of work from a PRD, issue, or agent-ready ticket. Use when Kevin invokes /implement or passes a specific PRD/issue and wants execution through TDD/checks/review.
issue	deprecated	personal	skills/deprecated/issue/SKILL.md	Create a GitHub issue using the Dedalus issue templates (bug, feature, question). Injects branch and commit context automatically, prompts for Linear link. Use when creating a GitHub issu...
kevin-engineering-flow	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/kevin-engineering-flow/SKILL.md	Router for Kevin's engineering flow. Use when Kevin invokes /kevin-engineering-flow, asks which engineering skill or flow fits, or wants a path through grill-with-docs, prototype, PRD, is...
less-is-more	personal	personal	skills/personal/less-is-more/SKILL.md	Kevin's rules for all agent work: less is more, fix a problem's class once, try a new approach only for measured value, and state his goals back. Use when starting substantive work, repor...
linear	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/linear/SKILL.md	Manage issues, projects & team workflows in Linear. Use when the user wants to read, create or updates tickets in Linear.
perf	engineering	dedalus	skills/engineering/perf/SKILL.md	Investigate performance by evidence: cheap experiments first, profile before patching, isolate hypotheses with standalone probes, and let numbers gate every decision. Use when the user sa...
postmortem	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/postmortem/SKILL.md	Run a blameless postmortem for a production incident: investigate with data, write a structured report, build verification queries, track remediation. Use when production broke, money was...
pr	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/pr/SKILL.md	Create or update a pull request using the target repository's own conventions, with a neutral fallback when the project has no template. Use when the user asks to open, update or describe...
project-briefing	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/project-briefing/SKILL.md	Generate an executive briefing of the last 24 hours of commits for the current project or a given directory. Use when the user asks for a project update, daily briefing, commit summary or...
prototype	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/prototype/SKILL.md	Build a throwaway prototype to answer one design question. Use when the user asks to prototype, spike, explore a design, compare UI variants, test a state machine, or settle a PRD decisio...
recent-code-bugfix	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/recent-code-bugfix/SKILL.md	Find and fix a bug the current author introduced in this directory within the last week, with a root cause that maps to their own changes. Use when the prompt is empty, or when asked for...
refine	deprecated	personal	skills/deprecated/refine/SKILL.md	Compound quality pass over recently changed code. Orchestrates seven standalone skills in sequence: comment, lerp, style, fix-types, interface, test-invariants, exemplar-audit. Each pass...
resolving-merge-conflicts	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/resolving-merge-conflicts/SKILL.md	Resolve an in-progress git merge or rebase conflict without discarding work. Use when conflict markers, MERGE_HEAD, rebase state, or "resolve conflicts" appears.
rtfm	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/rtfm/SKILL.md	Verify claims against primary sources: read the actual API, run the actual command, check the actual docs, and never guess. Use before writing code or docs that depend on an API, command...
simple	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/simple/SKILL.md	Frame a technical answer as a reproducible five-part diagnosis: problem, evidence, proposal, mechanism, test methodology. Use for root-cause explanations, fix proposals and debugging writ...
state-machine-dfa	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/state-machine-dfa/SKILL.md	Find and document state machines: mermaid diagrams, DFA transition tables, an executor per transition. Use for state-driven code, lifecycles, protocol handshakes, or when asked to find al...
step-parts	engineering	external	skills/engineering/step-parts/SKILL.md	Search and download purchasable CAD parts from step.parts, such as servos, motors, boards, connectors, screws, nuts, bearings and standoffs, as checksum-verified .step files. Use before m...
tdd	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/tdd/SKILL.md	Build features and bug fixes test-first with red-green-refactor, in thin vertical slices tested through public interfaces. Use when the user asks for TDD, test-first implementation, red-g...
teacher-mode	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/teacher-mode/SKILL.md	Teach the human the work an agent just did until they show they understand it: they restate first, then whys, eli5, eli14 or elii, and AskUserQuestion quizzes. Use when the user says "tea...
tests	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/tests/SKILL.md	Write tests that prove the right invariant at the smallest honest layer. Use when adding, reviewing, deleting or refactoring tests, setting test boundaries, turning bug repros into invari...
to-issues	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/to-issues/SKILL.md	Break a PRD, plan or spec into independently grabbable vertical-slice issues. Use when the user says /to-tickets, "turn this into issues", "break this down" or "make tickets", or wants AF...
to-prd	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/to-prd/SKILL.md	Turn the current conversation, notes or prototype findings into a PRD or spec without re-interviewing. Use when the user says "/to-spec", "write a PRD", "turn this into a spec", "make thi...
triage	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/triage/SKILL.md	Triage issues, bug reports, support threads or external PRs into labels, verification state and agent-ready briefs. Use on `/triage`, "triage these issues", "sort my backlog" or "label th...
tsdown	engineering	skills-sh	skills/engineering/tsdown/SKILL.md	Bundle TypeScript and JavaScript libraries with blazing-fast speed powered by Rolldown. Use when building libraries, generating type declarations, bundling for multiple formats, or migrat...
turborepo	engineering	skills-sh	skills/engineering/turborepo/SKILL.md	Configure Turborepo monorepos: turbo.json pipelines, dependsOn, caching and remote cache, --filter and --affected, env vars, internal packages and boundaries. Use when setting up a monore...
update-docs	deprecated	dedalus	skills/deprecated/update-docs/SKILL.md	Update documentation after code changes. Covers source-level docs (module docs, docstrings, inline comments) and docs-site pages. Use after any code change to keep documentation in sync w...
visual-plan	engineering	personal	skills/engineering/visual-plan/SKILL.md	Turn a planned product, UI, architecture or agent workflow change into an inspectable visual plan: flow maps, diagrams, file maps, storyboard states, risks and verification gates. Plans o...

Failure Modes

Jumping into implementation before setup/router skills.
Letting a broad skill own product facts.
Forgetting resolver/eval updates after a repeated flow becomes a skill.

Timeline

2026-11-03 | Regenerated this concise family synthesis page from Skill Registry after archiving verbose retired skill-article bodies to Retired Skill Article Ledger. private page
2026-11-03 | Concepts category refresh linked this generated family page to Concept System Map and kept it generated because executable skill source owns the procedure details. private page