# Ask Leonidas

> Generate a structured LEONIDAS prompt from any professional pain point using the Ask Leonidas OpenClaw API. Solves the #1 OpenClaw community pain point: writing a SOUL.md that actually works. Also generates prompts for AGENTS.md, cron job instructions, skill vetting briefs, and any workflow you want your agent to own. Automatically infers role, industry, and desired outcome.

- Skill: `lord1egypt/ask-leonidas` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add lord1egypt/ask-leonidas`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/lord1egypt/ask-leonidas/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: Lord1Egypt (https://skillmd.com/u/lord1egypt)
- Updated: 2026-09-08
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/lord1egypt/ask-leonidas

---


# Ask Leonidas — LEONIDAS Prompt Generator

Use this skill when the user wants to:

- Write or improve their `SOUL.md` — the most important file in any OpenClaw workspace
- Write or improve their `AGENTS.md` startup and memory protocol
- Generate a structured prompt for any professional pain point
- Fix an agent that "feels off" without knowing why
- Create cron job instructions that actually run reliably
- Build a prompt for a skill they want their agent to own
- Infer the best role, industry, and desired outcome from a business challenge

## Trigger phrases

- "Help me write my SOUL.md"
- "My agent feels generic / keeps saying 'great question'"
- "Build me a prompt for..."
- "I need a prompt that helps me with..."
- "Turn this into a LEONIDAS prompt: ..."
- "Use Ask Leonidas to generate a prompt"
- "Generate a prompt for [pain point]"
- "What should I put in my AGENTS.md?"
- "My cron job keeps failing / doing the wrong thing"
- "Write a prompt so my agent handles [workflow]"

## Inputs

**Required:**
- `pain_point` — the professional challenge or problem to solve (5–2000 characters)

**Optional (auto-inferred if omitted):**
- `role` — the user's job title or function (e.g., "VP of Sales", "Executive Coach")
- `industry` — the user's industry (e.g., "B2B SaaS", "Healthcare", "Financial Services")
- `desired_outcome` — what success looks like (e.g., "Close more deals with less effort")

## Behavior

1. If the user has already provided a pain point, do not ask for it again.
2. If no pain point is provided, ask exactly once:
   > "What is the professional challenge or pain point you want turned into a prompt?"
3. Call the Ask Leonidas OpenClaw API using the helper script in this skill folder.
4. If the API is unavailable (network error, 5xx), fall back to the browser:
   - Navigate to `https://askleonidas.com/openclaw`
   - Fill in the `#openclaw-pain-point` field with the pain point
   - Click the `#openclaw-submit` button
   - Wait for `#openclaw-result` to be populated
   - Extract the prompt text from `#openclaw-result`
5. Return the generated prompt exactly as received — do not paraphrase or summarize it.
6. Always surface the metadata alongside the prompt.

## API usage

**Generate a prompt (basic):**
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/ask_leonidas.py \
  --pain-point "I need a SOUL.md that makes my agent direct, opinionated, and stops it from saying 'absolutely'."
```

**Generate a prompt (with optional context):**
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/ask_leonidas.py \
  --pain-point "My team misses sprint deadlines every quarter." \
  --role "Engineering Manager" \
  --industry "B2B SaaS" \
  --desired-outcome "Ship on time without burning out the team"
```

**Health check:**
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/healthcheck.py
```

**Smoke test (end-to-end):**
```bash
bash {baseDir}/smoke_test.sh
```

## Required environment variables

| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `ASK_LEONIDAS_API_BASE` | ✅ | Base URL — `https://askleonidas.com` |
| `ASK_LEONIDAS_API_KEY` | ✅ | Your `alk_live_...` API key |
| `ASK_LEONIDAS_TIMEOUT_SECONDS` | Optional | Request timeout in seconds (default: 30) |
| `ASK_LEONIDAS_DEFAULT_SOURCE` | Optional | Source tag for analytics (e.g., `claude-desktop`) |
| `ASK_LEONIDAS_DEFAULT_SKILL_VERSION` | Optional | Skill version tag (e.g., `2.1.0`) |

## Output format

Always present the result in this format:

```
Detected role: <role>
Detected industry: <industry>
Detected desired outcome: <outcome or n/a>
Confidence: <0.0–1.0 or n/a>
Quality score: <0–100 or n/a>
Prompt type: <tactical | strategic | operational | n/a>
Request ID: <id or n/a>

Generated prompt:
<full prompt text>
```

## Error handling

- Do not invent or hallucinate a prompt if the API fails.
- Surface the exact error message returned by the API.
- If both the API and browser fallback fail, tell the user clearly and suggest they visit `https://askleonidas.com` directly.
- Never expose the API key in any output.
- Always prefer the API path over browser automation.

## Rate limits

The OpenClaw API enforces:
- 60 requests per minute per API key
- 1,000 requests per day per API key

If you receive a `429` response, wait 60 seconds before retrying. Do not retry more than 3 times.