How do I install the Discourse skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add athola/discourse in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

What does the Discourse skill do?

Scans HN, Lobsters, Reddit, and tech blogs for community experience reports. Use when gathering practitioner opinions on a technology or approach. It is listed under Coding & Dev Tools on SkillMD.

Is Discourse safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: docs only, makes network calls. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Discourse?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Discourse free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Discourse?

athola (@athola) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Discourse by athola — Agent Skill

Name: Discourse
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: athola

File contents

Discourse Search

When To Use

Gathering community opinions on a technology or approach
Finding experience reports from HN, Reddit, or Lobsters

When NOT To Use

Academic research (use /tome:papers)
Code examples (use /tome:code-search)

Scan community channels for discussions on a topic.

Channels

Hacker News: Algolia API at hn.algolia.com
Lobsters: WebSearch with site:lobste.rs
Reddit: JSON API (append .json to URLs)
Tech blogs: WebSearch targeting curated domains

Workflow

Build search URLs/queries per channel using tome.channels.discourse.* functions
Execute via WebFetch (APIs) or WebSearch (fallback)
Parse responses into Finding objects
Merge across sources with source attribution

Exit Criteria

At least two community channels (HN, Lobsters, Reddit, or tech blogs) queried per invocation
HN results fetched via Algolia API at hn.algolia.com (WebFetch); WebSearch used as fallback if the API is unreachable
Each Finding object includes a source field identifying which channel (HN, Lobsters, Reddit, or blog) it came from
If all WebFetch and WebSearch calls fail for every channel, the failure is reported explicitly rather than returning fabricated or empty findings

Source: athola/claude-night-market → plugins/tome/skills/discourse/SKILL.md

Frequently asked questions

Discourse