Use skills together
Most tasks need several skills in order — plan, design, build, review, ship. Using them together is skill composition. A workflow skill is the orchestrator that names the sequence.
Descriptions route, skills invoke skills
- Descriptions route. Every skill's
descriptionis packed with trigger phrases. Once installed, the agent reads them all and loads the matching skill automatically — you describe the task, you don't hand-pick. - Skills invoke skills. A workflow's body is an ordered list of which other skills to call, via the Skill tool.
- Skills cross-reference.
write-prdsays “rungrillfirst”; the chain forms even without a workflow.
Prerequisite: run scripts/install-skills.sh so every SKILL.md is where the agent can see its description.
Four ways to run a bundle
- A — Just describe the task. “let's build the reports-export endpoint, it's sizeable” → the agent matches
workflows/new-featureand walks the sequence. No setup. - B — Slash command — a one-word trigger:
# ~/.claude/commands/feature.md Follow ~/workbench/skills/workflows/new-feature.md for: $ARGUMENTS # then, in a session: /feature add rate limiting - C — Name the workflow. “use the ship-change workflow for this fix”
- D — Chain by hand. “grill me on this, then draft the PRD, then break it into phases”
Orchestrators4 skills
Each one's body is an ordered table of which skills to invoke at each stage and what each hands to the next.
One-time setup when bringing a repo under agent-assisted work — get oriented, write its CONTEXT.md, install the skills, record deviations from AGENTS.md, seed .out-of-scope
Orchestration for a production incident — from the page through mitigation, root cause, fix, and postmortem, invoking the incident and deployment skills in order
End-to-end orchestration for building a non-trivial new feature — invoke the right skills in order, from alignment through to release
The development loop for a change that fits in roughly one session — orient if needed, pick the domain skill for the area, build test-first, deslopify, clean the commits, self-review, security-check if warranted, ship
Building an endpoint
| You say | Agent invokes |
|---|---|
| “build the /reports export endpoint, sizeable” | workflows/new-feature |
| (it interviews you) | planning/grill |
| (drafts the spec, you review) | planning/write-prd |
| (the contract) | design/design-endpoint + design/design-schema |
| (phase list, you approve) | planning/phased-delivery |
| per phase | scaffold-nestjs-module → tdd → deslopify → split-commit → pr-review → security-review → tag |
| ship | deployment/deploy-service → deployment/cut-release |
Notes & limits
- — A workflow is a checklist the agent follows, not hard automation.
- — Auto-routing isn't perfect. Nudge it: “also run the security review”.
- — Each phase of a feature is its own fresh session.
- — Write a new workflow when you catch yourself running the same 4–8 skills in the same order (
meta/write-skill).
Full write-up: docs/composing-skills.md