Faq Shortcuts

FAQ shortcuts from your own history

People working with an agent on one project type the same asks over and over: "how many signed up", "did it go out?", "send a reminder to those who haven't…". Each time the agent starts cold and has to relearn the traps. This skill mines what was actually asked and turns the most repeated asks into short project skills (/joined, /sent, /remind…). Each one records the right tool and the mistakes already made on that path.

Build from evidence, not from guesses about what might be useful.

1. Collect the asks

python3 scripts/extract_asks.py <project_dir> [--source all|claude|codex] [--since YYYY-MM-DD] > asks.tsv

On Windows, run it with python instead of python3. This prints every prompt typed in that project's sessions, oldest first, as date<TAB>source<TAB>prompt. It reads Claude Code (~/.claude/projects/, plus ~/.claude/history.jsonl for sessions older than the 30 days Claude Code keeps transcripts) and Codex (~/.codex/sessions/, or $CODEX_HOME) by default, and skips subagent turns and scripted runs such as codex exec, because nobody typed those. An ask repeated across both tools counts as one cluster. Cursor history is not read yet: it lives in an undocumented SQLite store.

Write the output to a scratch location, not into the repo, because prompts can contain names, emails and tokens.

Also read the commit subjects (git log --format='%ad %s' --date=short). Commits show which operations recur, like repeated send-*, sync-* and import-* scripts. Prompts show how the user phrases them.

2. Cluster by intent, then count

Read the whole list. Group prompts that want the same outcome whatever their wording ("how many joined", "how many confirmed", "how many members now" → one head-count ask). Count each cluster and keep 2–3 verbatim phrasings, which become the description's triggers.

A cluster earns a shortcut when:

• it recurs (roughly 5+ times, or on most working days), and
• it takes more than one lookup to answer properly, or it has already gone wrong at least once. Look for follow-ups like "you did it wrong", "why did you…", "did you check…".

Drop one-offs and anything a single command already answers.

3. Check what already exists

List .claude/skills/, .claude/commands/, .agents/skills/ and the project's CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md. Extend an existing skill instead of adding a near-duplicate. Then find the project's existing tools for each cluster, such as scripts, CLI commands and API routes. A shortcut should point to the tool that exists. Don't write a new one.

Read those tools' headers and the commits that fixed them. The traps you find there are the most valuable part of each skill.

4. Propose before writing

Show the user a short table with shortcut name, the ask it replaces, and how often it appeared. Let them pick. Short names beat descriptive ones here, because the point is less typing. Use one lowercase word, and never shadow a built-in command.

5. Write each skill

.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md, committed with the project so it travels. Claude Code and Cursor load skills from .claude/skills/. Codex loads them from .agents/skills/, so link each one there as well:

mkdir -p .agents/skills && ln -s ../../.claude/skills/<name> .agents/skills/<name>

Link each skill folder, not .agents/skills itself: Codex follows a symlinked skill folder but does not scan a symlinked .agents/skills.

The skill file itself:

---
name: <short>
description: <what it does>. Use for "<verbatim phrasing 1>", "<phrasing 2>", "<phrasing 3>".
argument-hint: "[optional arg]"
---
# <What it answers>

Report only / Dry run first — **never <write/send> from this skill without a yes.**

## Query / tool       ← the existing script or query, with its real flags
## Traps              ← only ones that actually happened, each with the consequence
## Report             ← exactly what to print, then ask

Rules:

• Split reading from acting. Question skills only report. Action skills dry-run, show the list with every exclusion and its reason, then apply only after a yes.
• Point to the source for every trap, like the script header, commit or incident. If you can't trace a trap to something that happened, leave it out.
• Verify every field, flag and file name against the code before you write it down. A shortcut that cites a wrong column fails silently on the day it's needed.
• Keep a skill short enough to read in a minute. Leave out history, keep the lesson.
• Quote the frontmatter description if it contains : or #, or YAML will truncate it.

6. Make them findable

Add a table to the project's CLAUDE.md (and AGENTS.md, if the project has one) that maps each shortcut to the sentence it replaces. It serves as both documentation and a reminder to use it.

Report

The shortcuts added, the ask each replaces with its count, and any frequent cluster you deliberately left out and why.