Skill Developer Workflow

Implement skill development issues through iterative planning, TDD-governed implementation, and review cycles.

When to Use

• Implementing a GitHub issue that creates or modifies skills, plugins, agents, or hooks
• Issue requires TDD-governed phases (baseline → implement → verify)
• Work involves SKILL.md frontmatter, workflow references, agent prompts, or hook scripts

When NOT to Use

• General code changes unrelated to skill/plugin authoring
• Quick validation or auditing — use /plugin-dev instead
• Scaffolding a new plugin from scratch — use /plugin-dev:create instead

Quick Reference

Phase	Action	Exit Condition
0. Setup	MUST create feature branch	On feature branch (NOT main/master)
1. Context	Read issue + detect skill files	Requirements clear, skill files noted
2. Plan	Draft implementation plan	Plan complete
3-4. Validate	Gemini review loop (max 5)	APPROVED status
4.5. Baseline (RED)	TODO: #163 — capture baseline behavior	Baseline captured (or skipped pending #163)
5-7. Implement (GREEN)	Write minimal skill addressing failures	All tasks done + criteria met + tests passing + validation passing
7.5. Verify (REFACTOR)	TODO: #163 — compare against baseline	Benchmark passes (or skipped pending #163) or escalated
8-9. Review	Council review (max 3)	APPROVED status
10. Finalize	Commit + PR	PR created
11. Cleanup	Clean temps, delete branch	Branch deleted after merge

Consultant Scaling

Change Size	Criteria	Consultants
Trivial	<10 lines, no logic changes	Skip review → Phase 10
Small	1-2 files, simple logic	council:gemini-consultant only
Medium	3-5 files, moderate complexity	council:gemini-consultant + council:codex-consultant
Large	6+ files, architectural impact	/council skill

Skill File Detection

During Phase 1, detect and note these skill-related files for domain-specific handling:

• SKILL.md — Skill activation definitions (YAML frontmatter + instructions)
• references/*.md — Workflow reference files (e.g., references/WORKFLOW.md)
• agents/*.md — Agent/subagent definitions
• hooks/hooks.json — Hook config (declares hook types, matchers, and script references)
• scripts/ — Hook scripts (executables referenced by hooks.json via ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/...)

Triggers

Use this skill when the user says: "develop skill", "skill dev", "plugin develop", "develop issue", "skill workflow", "implement skill issue", "TDD skill development".

Workflow Reference

Read references/WORKFLOW.md now — it contains the detailed step-by-step procedures for every phase, including TDD extension points, loop limits, and escalation rules. Follow it exactly.