A curated collection of tech-stack agnostic software engineering skills for Claude Code. Each skill encodes industry best practices as structured reference material that AI coding agents can apply during development.
Coding agents work better when they have access to well-organized domain knowledge. These skills provide that knowledge -- from TDD phase orchestration to system design tradeoffs to domain-driven design tactics -- in a format Claude Code can load on demand.
Skills are not libraries or frameworks. They are structured reference documents that shape how an agent approaches a problem.
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
Test-Driven Development (test-driven-development) |
Complete TDD skill -- RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle orchestration, phase execution, handoff contracts, and guided TDD pairing |
Code Review (code-review) |
Structured taxonomy-guided review with two-pass detection across 16 error categories |
Design Patterns (design-patterns) |
GoF and modern patterns -- creational, structural, behavioural, and architectural with trade-offs (22 reference files) |
Domain-Driven Design (domain-driven-design) |
Strategic and tactical DDD -- bounded contexts, aggregates, entities, value objects, context mapping, EventStorming (17 reference files) |
DiffDive (diffdive) |
Branch analysis and context loading for getting up to speed on unfamiliar branches |
Git Conventions (git-conventions) |
Commit message format, TDD commit rhythm, conventional commit types, PR standards |
Refactorings (refactorings) |
Refactoring catalog based on Fowler's work -- method composition, feature moving, data organisation, conditional simplification (57 reference files) |
System Design (system-design) |
Distributed systems patterns -- CAP theorem, caching, load balancing, message queues, consistency models, architectural patterns (61 reference files) |
Twelve-Factor (twelve-factor) |
Twelve-Factor App methodology for building deployable SaaS applications |
/plugin marketplace add itzcull/software-skills
/plugin install software-skills@software-skills
/reload-pluginsYou can also browse and install from the /plugin Discover tab.
If you've cloned the repo and want to test changes locally:
claude --plugin-dir ./software-skillsgit clone https://github.com/itzcull/software-skills.git
# Copy all skills
cp -r software-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/
# Or symlink for easier updates
ln -sf "$(pwd)/software-skills/skills/"* ~/.claude/skills/Skills are loaded on demand by Claude Code based on the task context.
Each skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file and an optional references/ directory:
my-skill/
SKILL.md # Main skill definition
references/ # Optional supporting documents
concept-a.md
concept-b.md
---
name: my-skill
description: One-line description of what this skill covers and when to use it.
license: MIT
metadata:
author: your-name
---
## Purpose
What problem this skill solves and why it exists.
## When to use
Specific scenarios where this skill applies.
## Reference files
Links to documents in the references/ directory.The description field in frontmatter is what Claude Code uses to decide whether to load the skill, so make it specific about the skill's scope and trigger conditions.
- Create a directory under
skills/with a kebab-case name - Write a
SKILL.mdfollowing the format above - Add reference files in
references/if the skill covers a broad domain - Open a PR with a clear description of what the skill teaches
- Tech-stack agnostic -- skills should encode principles and practices, not framework-specific recipes
- Authoritative sources -- reference established literature, standards, or widely-accepted practices
- Actionable -- include enough detail that an agent can apply the knowledge, not just recite it
- Focused -- one coherent domain per skill; split broad topics into separate skills
- Keep changes focused on accuracy or coverage gaps
- Preserve the existing structure and conventions
- Reference files should be self-contained -- each should be understandable on its own