Claude Code skills that interview you, propose a well-formed artifact, and record it to disk. Each one enforces the quality bar that actually applies to the thing you're writing, instead of one generic "write a document" template — and no artifact gets written until you've confirmed the draft.
From the product requirements down through the four altitudes of an agile backlog: PRD → initiative → epic → feature → story.
| Skill | Command | Quality bar | Writes to |
|---|---|---|---|
| PRD | /prd |
Solution-agnostic requirements — the "what," not the "how" | docs/product/requirements.md |
| Initiative | /initiative |
Outcome-flavored, coarse, DEEP "detailed appropriately" | docs/initiatives/NNNN-<slug>.md |
| Epic | /epic |
Falsifiable hypothesis (problem, If/Then, leading indicators, MVP boundary) | docs/product/epics/NNNN-<slug>.md |
| Feature | /feature |
Benefit hypothesis + outcome-focused acceptance criteria | docs/product/features/NNNN-<slug>.md |
| Story | /story |
Full INVEST — Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable | docs/product/stories/NNNN-<slug>.md |
The philosophy behind why each level looks the way it does — and how to use the
skills together — is written up in
docs/backlog-management.md.
Skills for arc42 architecture documentation. Unlike a backlog item, these artifacts aren't standalone files — they land inside an existing arc42 document, often in several sections at once.
| Skill | Command | Quality bar | Writes to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup arc42 | /setup-arc42 |
Structure only — canonical headings, no invented content under them | docs/architecture/NN_*.md (12 files) |
| Quality goal | /quality-goal |
Falsifiable scenario — if no observation could show you missed it, it's a wish | arc42 §1.2, §4 and §10 |
| Constraint | /constraint |
Restricts design freedom — and earns its place, or gets linked instead of restated | arc42 §2 |
There's no fixed order here — unlike the backlog ladder, architecture
knowledge doesn't arrive in a tidy sequence, so run whichever skill matches what
you just learned. The one thing worth running first is /setup-arc42, so the
correct layout exists for the others to write into.
Diagrams are worth deciding on up front: I recommend mermaid with the C4
model's levels, recorded in your AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md so it holds across
conversations rather than being repeated per prompt. The reasoning is in
docs/architecture-documentation.md,
along with the rest of the thinking behind this category.
/constraint is mostly a triage skill — three of its four rulings send you
somewhere else. It applies arc42's actual test (does this restrict the
architect's freedom of design, implementation, or process decisions?) rather than
the popular one ("was it imposed on us?"), which
arc42's own text contradicts: constraints
"may be negotiable," and adherence to someone else's decision counts as a
constraint. It runs arc42's rarely-cited gate first — "try to avoid documentation
of constraints, as somebody else might already have documented them. Refer or link
to existing documentation" (FAQ C-2-3).
Entries naming a measurable end are handed to /quality-goal; entries this team
could overturn on its own authority go to §9.
# All skills
npx skills add wmeints/skills --all
# Just one, e.g. epic
npx skills add wmeints/skills --skill epicUses the skills CLI — add -g to
install globally (~/.claude/skills/) instead of project-scoped.
Copy the skill directory you want into your Claude Code skills folder:
# Personal (all projects)
cp -r skills/backlog/epic ~/.claude/skills/epic
# Or project-scoped
cp -r skills/architecture/quality-goal .claude/skills/quality-goalEach skill is self-contained — SKILL.md plus a templates/ folder — so copying
the directory is all that's needed.
Run the matching slash command, e.g. /epic or /quality-goal. Most skills are
interview skills and follow the same shape:
- Interviews you one question at a time, pushing back on vagueness and solution-first thinking — and, depending on the skill, on missing hypotheses, oversized scope, failed INVEST checks, or unfalsifiable quality goals.
- Proposes the full draft back to you and waits for confirmation.
- Writes the file — auto-numbered against whatever's already in the target folder for backlog items, or inserted into the right sections of the existing document for architecture skills.
/setup-arc42 is the exception: it's a scaffolding skill. There's nothing to
interview you about, so it writes the empty arc42 section files straight away —
headings only, no invented content under them. It won't overwrite an arc42
document that already exists; if it finds one, it stops and asks first.