Writing Skills — TDD for Process Docs
Write skills the way TDD writes code: baseline pressure scenarios with subagents, watch them fail, write the doc, watch them comply, refactor loopholes
- What
- Write skills the way TDD writes code: baseline pressure scenarios with subagents, watch them fail, write the doc, watch them comply, refactor loopholes
- Cost
- Free
- Needs
- an agent harness that can dispatch subagents (needed for baseline pressure scenarios); understanding of the sibling obra-test-driven-development skill (required background).
- Install
- Copy the installer prompt below into your Muse — your agent does the rest.
Curated by Skill Harbor — a meta-skill: writing skills IS test-driven development applied to process documentation. The method runs the TDD cycle on docs: write pressure-scenario test cases (subagents in adversarial setups), watch them fail (document the exact rationalizations the agent uses), write the skill addressing those specific violations, watch agents comply, then refactor to close new loopholes. It also teaches skill discoverability (SDO): descriptions must state triggering conditions only — never summarize the workflow, or agents will follow the description instead of reading the body — keyword coverage with error messages and symptoms, verb-first naming, and token efficiency for frequently-loaded skills. By @obra, listed here with credit to its creator. Honest caveats: it requires understanding the sibling test-driven-development skill first (the SKILL.md says so as REQUIRED BACKGROUND); it's a heavyweight process — baseline scenarios mean real subagent dispatches per skill, so it's overkill for one-off checklists; and some references (skills directory paths, companion skills like using-skills) assume the superpowers/Claude Code layout. Skill Harbor never reviews the code, review it yourself before use.
Version:
Install
Prerequisites: an agent harness that can dispatch subagents (needed for baseline pressure scenarios); understanding of the sibling obra-test-driven-development skill (required background). Install "Writing Skills — TDD for Process Docs" for me. A meta-skill: writing skills as TDD applied to process documentation, with skill discoverability (SDO) guidance — trigger-only descriptions, keyword coverage, token efficiency. Repository: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/blob/main/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md 1. Fetch the SKILL.md file (and any helper files) from the repository path into a temporary folder and summarize what it does in one or two sentences. 2. Safety check: review the SKILL.md and scripts for anything suspicious (unexpected network calls, shell commands, credential harvesting). This repo should contain zero secrets in code, credentials only via the secure vault. Verify that holds here; STOP on any red flag and tell me. 3. Install it as a skill: copy SKILL.md and its helper files into the agent's skills directory, in a folder named "obra-writing-skills". 4. Verify with no network calls: frontmatter valid, files in place. 5. Report what was installed, where, and what I still need to do myself. GitHub is optional: if I have a GitHub account or the gh CLI, you may use it; otherwise public access is fine. Never require it unless it's in the prerequisites above. Rules: don't touch anything outside the temp folder and the install target. If anything looks off, stop and ask me.
Questions
How do I install a build?
Every product page includes a copy-paste install prompt. Paste it into your Muse and it sets the build up for you — no manual configuration.
Where does my money go?
Straight to the seller. Skill Harbor never processes payments: checkout happens on the seller’s own page, usually Stripe.
What does the ✓ next to a creator’s name mean?
It means we confirmed the identity of the person behind the listing. It says nothing about the code itself — always check a build before installing it.