Skill First

Skill-First Discipline

Before responding to ANY user request, check if a matching skill exists.

Checklist

1. Scan available skills - Review the Skill tool's available skills listing
2. Match request to skill - Does any skill cover this task type?
3. Load if matched - Use Skill tool to load it
4. Announce usage - Tell the user: "I'm using [skill-name] to [action]"
5. Follow exactly - Execute the skill's guidance without deviation

Rationalizations to Reject

If you catch yourself considering these, stop and check for skills:

• "This is simple, I don't need a skill"
• "I'll just do this quickly"
• "The skill is overkill"
• "I already know how to do this"

These are failure modes. If a skill exists for your task, use it.

Discovering Available Skills

The Skill tool shows all installed skills in its "Available Skills" section. Skills are organized by source:

• majestic-engineer: Code search, TDD, diagrams, CI, git worktrees
• majestic-rails: Ruby/Rails coding, RSpec, Minitest, gem building
• majestic-tools: Brainstorming, skill creation, skill-first
• majestic-marketing: Copy editing

To list skills programmatically:

find ~/.claude -path "*/skills/*/SKILL.md" 2>/dev/null | xargs -I{} grep "^name:" {}

When to Skip

Skip only when:

• Answering factual questions (no task involved)
• Simple clarifications
• User explicitly declines skill usage

For everything else, skill-first is mandatory.