Agent Skills are structured, composable instructions that AI coding agents follow to perform development tasks. They follow the Agent Skills open standard, supported by Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, and OpenAI Codex.
Skills provide idempotency, composability, and graceful degradation.
Run /pair-next at the start of every session. It reads project adoption files and PM tool state, then recommends the most relevant skill to invoke.
| Type | Count | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Process | 9 | Lifecycle phases — orchestrate capability skills |
| Capability | 24 | Atomic units — perform a single focused operation |
Process skills compose capability skills. Capability skills are independently invocable. Total: 34 (9 process + 24 capability + 1 navigator).
| Skill | How-To | Phase | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
/pair-process-specify-prd |
01 | Induction | Create/update PRD |
/pair-process-bootstrap |
02 | Induction | Full project setup |
/pair-process-plan-initiatives |
03 | Strategic | Create and prioritize initiatives |
/pair-process-plan-epics |
06 | Strategic | Break initiatives into epics |
/pair-process-plan-stories |
07 | Iteration | Break epics into user stories |
/pair-process-refine-story |
08 | Iteration | Refine stories with AC + technical analysis |
/pair-process-plan-tasks |
09 | Iteration | Break stories into tasks |
/pair-process-implement |
10 | Execution | Implement tasks with TDD |
/pair-process-review |
11 | Review | Code review with merge flow |
How-to guides 04 and 05 (subdomain/bounded-context definition) no longer map to a process skill — see Domain Modeling Skills below and Migration Notes.
| Skill | Scope |
|---|---|
/pair-capability-map-subdomains |
DDD subdomain placement (core/supporting/generic + Volatility), scoped to caller's touched items |
/pair-capability-map-contexts |
DDD bounded-context placement + per-relationship strength/distance/volatility assessment, scoped to caller's touched items |
Reclassified from process to capability (D24) — see Callers Matrix and Migration Notes.
| Skill | Scope |
|---|---|
/pair-capability-assess-stack |
Tech stack evaluation + dependency validation |
/pair-capability-assess-architecture |
Architecture pattern selection |
/pair-capability-assess-methodology |
Development methodology selection |
/pair-capability-assess-pm |
PM tool selection |
/pair-capability-assess-testing |
Testing strategy evaluation |
/pair-capability-assess-infrastructure |
Infrastructure strategy evaluation |
/pair-capability-assess-observability |
Observability strategy evaluation |
/pair-capability-assess-ai |
AI development tools evaluation |
| Skill | Scope |
|---|---|
/pair-capability-verify-quality |
Quality gate checking |
/pair-capability-verify-done |
Definition of Done checking |
/pair-capability-verify-adoption |
Adoption compliance checking |
/pair-capability-assess-debt |
Technical debt detection + prioritization |
| Skill | Scope |
|---|---|
/pair-capability-record-decision |
ADR/ADL creation + adoption update |
/pair-capability-write-issue |
PM tool issue creation/update |
/pair-capability-estimate |
Story estimation |
/pair-capability-setup-gates |
CI/CD quality gate configuration |
/pair-capability-setup-pm |
PM tool configuration |
| Skill | Scope |
|---|---|
/pair-capability-design-manual-tests |
Manual test suite generation from project analysis |
/pair-capability-execute-manual-tests |
Manual test suite execution + report generation |
| Skill | Scope |
|---|---|
/pair-capability-assess-code-quality |
Code quality metrics assessment |
/pair-capability-manage-flags |
Feature flag lifecycle management |
| Skill | Scope |
|---|---|
/pair-capability-grill |
Reusable interview engine (interview / sync modes), write-free |
.skills/
├── process/ # Lifecycle phase skills
│ ├── specify-prd/
│ ├── bootstrap/
│ ├── plan-initiatives/
│ ├── plan-epics/
│ ├── plan-stories/
│ ├── refine-story/
│ ├── plan-tasks/
│ ├── implement/
│ └── review/
├── capability/ # Atomic operation skills
│ ├── map-subdomains/ # scoped DDD subdomain placement
│ ├── map-contexts/ # scoped DDD bounded-context placement
│ ├── assess-*/ # 8 assessment skills
│ ├── verify-*/ # 3 verification skills
│ ├── design-manual-tests/
│ ├── execute-manual-tests/
│ ├── record-decision/
│ ├── write-issue/
│ ├── estimate/
│ ├── setup-gates/
│ ├── setup-pm/
│ ├── assess-code-quality/
│ ├── manage-flags/
│ └── grill/
└── next/ # Navigator skill
└── SKILL.md
Each skill directory contains a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter (name + description) and a structured algorithm using the check → skip → act → verify pattern.
Process skills compose capability skills with optional graceful degradation:
/pair-process-implement
├── /pair-capability-verify-quality (required)
├── /pair-capability-record-decision (required)
├── /pair-capability-assess-stack (optional — warns if missing)
└── /pair-capability-verify-adoption (optional — warns if missing)
Optional skills degrade gracefully: if not installed, the process skill warns and continues without blocking.
/pair-capability-map-subdomains and /pair-capability-map-contexts are capabilities, not process steps: every caller invokes them with $scope set to the items it just touched. /pair-process-bootstrap is the only caller allowed a full-catalog $scope: all run.
| Capability | Caller | Phase | $scope set to |
|---|---|---|---|
/pair-capability-map-subdomains |
/pair-process-refine-story |
Functional/domain analysis | The story's capability area |
/pair-capability-map-subdomains |
/pair-process-plan-initiatives |
Initiative creation | The initiative's capability area |
/pair-capability-map-subdomains |
/pair-process-plan-epics |
Epic breakdown | The epic's capability area |
/pair-capability-map-subdomains |
/brainstorm (planned — #230) |
Broad brainstorm | All capabilities discussed |
/pair-capability-map-subdomains |
/pair-process-bootstrap |
Project setup | all (full catalog — bootstrap only) |
/pair-capability-map-contexts |
/pair-process-refine-story |
Technical analysis | The story's touched contexts/services |
/pair-capability-map-contexts |
/pair-process-plan-tasks |
Task breakdown | The task's touched contexts/services |
/pair-capability-map-contexts |
/brainstorm (planned — #230) |
Punctual/technical brainstorm | The contexts discussed |
/pair-capability-map-contexts |
/pair-process-bootstrap |
Project setup | all (full catalog — bootstrap only) |
No caller performs a full re-mapping outside /pair-process-bootstrap. When no subdomain//boundedcontext/ artifacts exist yet, both capabilities fall back to "system areas" (services/modules) instead of requiring the DDD prerequisites — no HALT, no error.
map-subdomains, map-contexts: process → capability (D24, #246)
- Old path:
.skills/process/map-subdomains/,.skills/process/map-contexts/— new path:.skills/capability/map-subdomains/,.skills/capability/map-contexts/. - Installed command names change accordingly:
/pair-process-map-subdomains→/pair-capability-map-subdomains;/pair-process-map-contexts→/pair-capability-map-contexts. Unprefixed dataset command names (/map-subdomains,/map-contexts) are unchanged. - Invocation contract changed:
$scopeis now required and means "items/areas the caller touched" (notall/single). Full-catalog$scope: allis now bootstrap-only. - New behavior: graceful "system areas" fallback when no DDD artifacts exist;
Volatilityfield on subdomains; per-relationship strength/distance/volatility assessment with an approval gate on unbalanced+volatile relationships (seesubdomain-template.md,bounded-context-template.md). - No standalone process step remains for domain mapping — how-to guides 04/05 still describe the workflow, but the underlying skill is invoked scoped by the callers in the Callers Matrix above.
- How-to guides = workflow orchestrators (the "what" and "when")
- Skills = operational detail (the "how")
- No duplication: skills contain the algorithm, how-to guides describe the workflow context
When skills are installed, invoke them directly. When not installed, follow the how-to guide manually.
Skills read from and write to adoption files in .pair/adoption/:
| Area | Adoption File | Skills That Read | Skills That Write |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tech stack | tech/tech-stack.md |
/pair-capability-verify-adoption, /pair-process-review |
/pair-capability-assess-stack, /pair-process-bootstrap |
| Architecture | tech/architecture.md |
/pair-capability-verify-adoption, /pair-process-review |
/pair-capability-assess-architecture |
| Way of working | tech/way-of-working.md |
/pair-process-implement, /pair-process-review, /pair-capability-estimate |
/pair-capability-assess-methodology, /pair-capability-setup-pm |
| Decisions (ADR) | tech/adr/*.md |
/pair-capability-verify-adoption, /pair-process-review |
/pair-capability-record-decision |
| Decisions (ADL) | decision-log/*.md |
/pair-capability-verify-adoption |
/pair-capability-record-decision |
- Start here: Run
/pair-nextto determine what to do - Process flow:
/pair-process-specify-prd→/pair-process-bootstrap→/pair-process-plan-initiatives→ ... →/pair-process-implement→/pair-process-review - Independent capability: Any capability skill can be invoked directly (e.g.,
/pair-capability-estimate,/pair-capability-assess-debt)