Core

Core Development Skills

This skill provides essential development principles and checklists that all Orchestra agents follow to maintain high-quality standards across security, testing, documentation, performance, and code quality.

Overview

The core skills provide:

• Security principles (security.yaml) - Secure coding practices and vulnerability prevention
• QA guidelines (qa.yaml) - Testing standards and quality assurance procedures
• Release procedures (release.yaml) - Deployment and release management
• Performance standards (performance.yaml) - Optimization and efficiency guidelines
• Documentation standards (documentation.yaml) - Technical writing and documentation best practices
• Coding standards (coding-standards.yaml) - Code style and structure conventions
• Review checklist (review-checklist.yaml) - Pre-merge code review requirements
• Clarification guidelines (clarify.yaml) - Requirements clarification procedures
• Token efficiency (token-efficiency.md) - Guidelines for minimizing token usage

When to Use

Agents automatically reference these guidelines when:

• Iris - Applies security.yaml for security audits
• Finn - Uses qa.yaml and review-checklist.yaml for testing
• Eden - Follows documentation.yaml for technical writing
• Kai - References performance.yaml and coding-standards.yaml for architecture
• Blake - Uses release.yaml for deployment coordination
• Riley - Applies clarify.yaml for requirements clarification
• All agents - Follow token-efficiency.md to optimize responses

Usage

Agents can reference specific guidelines:

See `skills/core/security.yaml` for security best practices
See `skills/core/qa.yaml` for testing requirements
See `skills/core/token-efficiency.md` for response optimization

File Structure

skills/core/
├── SKILL.md (this file)
├── security.yaml          # Security principles
├── qa.yaml                # QA and testing standards
├── release.yaml           # Release management
├── performance.yaml       # Performance optimization
├── documentation.yaml     # Documentation standards
├── coding-standards.yaml  # Code style conventions
├── review-checklist.yaml  # Pre-merge checklist
├── clarify.yaml           # Requirements clarification
└── token-efficiency.md    # Token usage optimization

Best Practices

1. Consistency - All agents follow the same core principles
2. Reference, don't duplicate - Agents link to guidelines rather than copying them
3. Update centrally - Guidelines are maintained in one place
4. Agent-agnostic - Principles apply across all specialized agents
5. Token efficient - Guidelines are concise and focused

Integration

These core skills are automatically available to all Orchestra agents. No explicit invocation is needed - agents reference them as part of their standard operating procedures.