External skill acquisition

External Skill Acquisition

Workflow for acquiring domain skills when the local skill library doesn't cover the task.

When to Trigger

Invoke this workflow when ALL conditions are true:

1. No local match: You checked installed skills in .claude/skills/ and found nothing for the task domain
2. Domain expertise needed: The task requires domain-specific knowledge beyond general coding
3. Named domain: The gap involves a recognized field — finance, climate, legal, medical, security, etc.

DO NOT trigger when:

• General uncertainty or unfamiliar libraries (use web search instead)
• Task solvable with general coding knowledge
• One-off API questions (use documentation lookup)

Decision Flow

Task arrives → check .claude/skills/
  │
  ├─ Match found → load the skill → DONE
  │
  └─ No match → Is this a named domain expertise gap?
       │
       ├─ NO  → Use general knowledge or web search → DONE
       │
       └─ YES → Proceed to 3-Tier Acquisition ↓

3-Tier Acquisition

Tier 1: Auto-Install (MIT/Apache-2.0, verified repos)

Search these repos first — they're community-vetted and license-safe:

Repo	Focus	Skills
obra/superpowers	Dev workflow (TDD, debugging, planning)	~16 skills
vercel-labs/agent-skills	Web/React/Next.js	~50 skills
anthropics/skills	Claude-specific patterns	~10 skills

Search before installing:

# Search marketplace
curl -s "https://api.skyll.app/search?q=<domain-keyword>&limit=5"

# Or use the npx CLI
npx --yes skills find <domain-keyword>

If found → install with /skills-install <owner/repo>.

Tier 2: Manual Review (community repos)

If Tier 1 misses, search GitHub for community skills:

gh search repos "topic:claude-skills topic:agent-skills <domain>" --sort stars --limit 10

Before installing from unknown repos:

1. Check license: Must be MIT, Apache-2.0, MPL-2.0, BSD-2/3, CC-BY-4.0, or CC-BY-SA-4.0
2. Check quality: Read the SKILL.md — does it have clear procedures or just vague advice?
3. Check freshness: Last commit within 6 months?

If acceptable → install with /skills-install <owner/repo>.

Tier 3: Synthesize from Documentation

When no existing skill covers the domain, create one from documentation:

1. Find authoritative docs: Official API docs, framework guides, specification pages
2. Extract procedures: Convert docs into step-by-step agent instructions
3. Create SKILL.md: Use /skills-create <domain-name> to scaffold, then fill in:
   • Trigger conditions (when to load)
   • Step-by-step procedures
   • Common pitfalls and error handling
4. Validate: Run /skills-validate <name> to check frontmatter

Same-Session Use

Newly installed skills won't be auto-discovered until the next session. To use immediately, inject the skill content directly into your working context:

# Read the newly acquired skill
skill_content = read(".claude/skills/<new-skill>/SKILL.md")

# Include it in your current context
# The agent will follow the skill's procedures for the remainder of this session

License Gate

Only auto-install skills with these licenses:

• MIT
• Apache-2.0
• MPL-2.0
• BSD-2-Clause / BSD-3-Clause
• CC-BY-4.0 / CC-BY-SA-4.0

Unknown or restrictive licenses → manual review only (Tier 2 with explicit user approval).

When to Load This Skill

Load external-skill-acquisition when:

• Delegating work in an unfamiliar domain and no installed skill matches
• User asks about acquiring or finding domain-specific skills
• Planning work in a novel domain
• Searching for skills to install

Not needed when:

• Existing skills cover the domain
• Task is general coding, testing, or infrastructure
• Already know which repo to install from (just use /skills-install)