Sonic Skills

Precision audio-engineering skills for AI agents.

Sonic Skills is a curated pack of Markdown skills for reviewing, debugging, explaining, and implementing audio software. The focus is practical: realtime safety, DSP correctness, plugin host compatibility, Web Audio behavior, and the kinds of edge cases that turn into clicks, dropouts, broken recall, or unstable filters.

What It Covers

Area	Skills	Use for
Core DSP safety	audio-dsp-review, audio-numerics-review, audio-performance-debug	Realtime violations, floating-point traps, denormals, xruns, profiling strategy
Debugging and explanation	audio-artifacts-debug, audio-signal-flow-explainer, audio-math-explainer	Clicks, aliasing, DC offset, routing diagrams, DSP intuition
DSP implementation	dsp-algorithm-guide	Biquads, SVFs, compressors, FDN reverbs, FFT convolution, phase vocoders, PolyBLEP
Plugin formats	vst3-review, clap-review, au-review	Spec compliance, host contracts, parameter/state handling, render-thread rules
Frameworks	juce-guide, juce-review, yup-guide, yup-review	JUCE and YUP plugin setup, parameters, UI/thread boundaries, MIDI and buffer safety
Web audio	webaudio-guide, webaudio-review	AudioWorklet processors, graph construction, automation, WebMIDI, browser constraints
Game audio	game-audio-guide, game-audio-review	Wwise/FMOD DSP plugins, middleware allocators, RTPC/parameter patterns, engine thread safety

How To Use

Download the latest main branch zip from GitHub and install into ~/.codex/skills:

tmp_dir=$(mktemp -d) && curl -L https://github.com/kunitoki/sonic-skills/archive/refs/heads/main.zip -o "$tmp_dir/sonic-skills.zip" && unzip -q "$tmp_dir/sonic-skills.zip" -d "$tmp_dir" && sh "$tmp_dir/sonic-skills-main/bootstrap" install all

Install all skills into your local agent skill directory:

./bootstrap install codex

or:

./bootstrap install claude

Use all to install into both ~/.codex/skills and ~/.claude/skills:

./bootstrap install all

Uninstall removes only the Sonic Skills directories managed by this repository:

./bootstrap uninstall codex
./bootstrap uninstall claude
./bootstrap uninstall all

If a destination skill directory already exists and was not created by this bootstrap script, install stops instead of overwriting it. Use --force when you intentionally want to replace an existing directory:

./bootstrap install codex --force

Point your agent at this repository and ask for the skill by name, or describe the task naturally.

Examples:

/audio-dsp-review inspect the current project

/webaudio-review why does this AudioWorklet crackle under load?

/dsp-algorithm-guide implement a stable state variable lowpass filter

/clap-review inspect this CLAP plugin's process() and params extension

Skills are designed to compose. A VST3 review, for example, should usually start with audio-dsp-review and audio-numerics-review, then add vst3-review for format-specific contracts.

Skill Catalog

Skill	Purpose
audio-dsp-review	Finds allocations, locks, I/O, system calls, and other audio-thread hazards.
audio-numerics-review	Finds denormals, NaN/Inf propagation, cancellation, fixed-point overflow, and precision loss.
audio-performance-debug	Gives profiling workflows and optimization patterns for xruns, spikes, and high CPU.
audio-artifacts-debug	Maps audible symptoms to likely root causes and targeted checks.
audio-signal-flow-explainer	Traces sources, processors, routers, sidechains, feedback, latency, and sinks.
audio-math-explainer	Explains DSP concepts with intuition, formula, and code connection.
dsp-algorithm-guide	Guides implementation and verification of common DSP blocks.
juce-guide	Walks through building a JUCE plugin with CMake, APVTS, UI, state, and packaging.
juce-review	Reviews JUCE-specific thread boundaries, APVTS, ValueTree, MessageManager, MIDI, and buffers.
yup-guide	Walks through building a YUP plugin with yup_audio_plugin, AudioProcessor, AudioParameterHandle, UI, state, and packaging.
yup-review	Reviews YUP-specific processor lifecycle, parameter handles, editor gestures, bus layout, state recall, and wrapper contracts.
vst3-review	Reviews VST3 bus negotiation, processor/controller separation, parameters, state, latency, and tail behavior.
clap-review	Reviews CLAP threading tags, event lifetime, params/state extensions, ports, and process status.
au-review	Reviews AUv2/AUv3 render blocks, properties, parameters, tail time, sandboxing, and auval readiness.
webaudio-guide	Guides Web Audio pipelines, AudioWorklets, automation, worklet communication, and WebMIDI.
webaudio-review	Reviews AudioWorklet safety, deprecated APIs, browser policies, and shared-memory patterns.
game-audio-guide	Guides Wwise/FMOD custom DSP plugin setup and callback structure.
game-audio-review	Reviews Wwise/FMOD/Unreal middleware integration and game/audio-thread safety.

Repository Layout

skills/
  <skill-name>/
    SKILL.md              # trigger metadata and core workflow
    references/           # optional deeper checklists, patterns, formulas, examples

Each SKILL.md is intentionally compact. Larger code patterns and spec checklists live under references/ so agents can load them only when needed.

Design Principles

• Realtime first: the audio callback is a deadline, not a suggestion.
• Spec-aware: plugin-format advice is grounded in host/API contracts, not folklore.
• Practical over academic: formulas are connected to code paths, parameter ranges, and tests.
• Composable: universal DSP checks pair with framework- or format-specific reviews.
• Evidence-oriented: good reviews include file/line findings, why the issue matters, and concrete fixes.

Contributing

When adding or editing a skill:

1. Keep SKILL.md focused on workflow and decision points.
2. Move detailed examples, tables, and long references into references/.
3. Validate technical claims against primary docs, specifications, or papers.
4. Prefer actionable review language: symptom, cause, risk, fix.
5. Avoid broad rules that are only sometimes true. State the condition.

License

See LICENSE.