# Use > Reach Anthropic's first-party playground capability in one step: verify the upstream playground plugin is installed, invoke its skill for interactive single-file HTML explorers (controls beside a live preview, output is a prompt you paste back), or emit the exact install commands when it is absent. Use when: 'make me a playground', 'interactive explorer for X', 'install the playground plugin', 'critique this document with approve/reject controls', or any ask to tune a parameter space visually and see the result (sliders, balancing, exploring parameters). Also carries field-tested prompt recipes, delivery guidance for cloud and remote sessions where a local browser cannot open, and known-limitation notes. This wrapper generates nothing itself; the upstream skill owns generation. Not for choosing a visual form for conversation content (a visualization capability owns that) or for throwaway variations of your own project's UI (a prototyping capability owns that). - Skill: `melodic-software/use` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add melodic-software/use` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/melodic-software/use/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Web & Frontend - Author: melodic-software (https://skillmd.com/u/melodic-software) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/melodic-software/use --- # Use playgrounds ## Purpose Connect a playground-shaped request (an interactive parameter space the user wants to manipulate visually, with the result flowing back as a prompt) to the maintained first-party implementation: the `playground` skill from the `playground` plugin on the `claude-plugins-official` marketplace. This skill routes, installs, and advises. It never builds a playground itself. ## Step 1: Presence check (provenance, not prose) Determine whether the upstream plugin is installed by its identity, not its wording: - Run `claude plugin list` and look for the `playground` plugin sourced from `claude-plugins-official`. That marketplace-qualified install record is the authoritative signal. - Where the CLI is unavailable to the session, fall back to the session's skill listing: a bare `playground` skill whose description says it creates interactive HTML playgrounds. Treat the description comparison as ADVISORY only; upstream may reword it at any time, and a listing under budget pressure can drop descriptions entirely. Never conclude "absent" from wording alone when the name is present. - A local skill can shadow the upstream name. When the listed `playground` skill's description clearly describes something other than an interactive-explorer builder, say a shadow is likely, then let provenance decide: with the install record confirming `playground@claude-plugins-official`, warn about the shadow and invoke the namespaced `playground:playground` form (a bare-name shadow cannot intercept it); with no install record confirming it, take the install/guidance path, and never invoke the shadowing skill. ## Step 2: Present, so invoke When the upstream skill is present, invoke it via the Skill tool with the user's brief as arguments: the namespaced form `playground:playground` is the reliable address for a plugin skill; the bare `playground` form resolves only while no other skill carries that name. Pass the request as stated; the upstream skill owns template choice and generation. If the invocation is refused, do not retry blind: tell the user the skill is installed but this session could not invoke it, and suggest they run it themselves by asking for a playground in their own words. ## Step 3: Absent, so uplift This plugin declares the upstream dependency in its manifest, so on installs where dependency resolution runs, Claude Code offers to install `playground` automatically and reports `dependency-unsatisfied` with the exact command when it cannot. In contexts where resolution does not run (a synced or cloud session, a manual setup), emit the commands directly: ```shell /plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official /plugin install playground@claude-plugins-official ``` Scope guidance: `user` scope makes the capability available everywhere; `project` scope pins it to one repository. The marketplace-add step is often unnecessary (the official marketplaces are preconfigured on most installs); include it only when the install command reports the marketplace is unknown. If the install is blocked by organization policy, say so plainly and stop; there is no workaround to offer. ## Step 4: Delivery, especially off the desktop The upstream skill writes a single HTML file and opens it with `open .html`, which assumes a local desktop browser. Feature-detect the delivery path instead of assuming it: 1. A desktop session with a local browser: let the upstream flow open the file. 2. A session that can publish an Artifact: offer to publish the generated HTML so the user gets a link. State that the page runs under the artifact sandbox, and confirm the copy-prompt button works there before promising the round trip. 3. A session with a file-send surface (remote control, managed cloud): send the HTML file to the user to open locally. 4. None of the above: report the file's absolute path and say how to open it. Degrade visibly at every tier; never name a delivery surface as guaranteed. ## Recipes (field-tested) From the plugin author's published examples, verbatim shapes to adapt: - "Use the playground skill to create a playground that helps me explore new layout changes to the AskUserQuestion Tool" - "Use the playground skill to review my SKILL.md and give me inline suggestions I can approve, reject or comment" - "Use the playground skill to tweak my intro screen to be more interesting and delightful" - "Use the playground skill to show how this email agent codebase works and let me comment on particular nodes in the architecture to ask questions, make edits, etc" - "Use the playground skill to help me balance the 'Inferno' hero's deck" Repo-native recipe for this marketplace: "Use the playground skill to review plugins//skills//SKILL.md and give me inline suggestions I can approve, reject or comment" turns skill-file review into an interactive pass. ## Known limitations Consumer guidance for the generated playgrounds lives in [`context/consumer-notes.md`](context/consumer-notes.md); read it before relying on a generated playground for anything beyond personal exploration. ## Gotchas - A listed `playground` skill name proves presence of A skill, not THE skill: local shadows are silent, which is why Step 1 judges by install record and treats wording as advisory. - The copy-prompt button is the product; a sandboxed page (an Artifact) can restrict clipboard access, so confirm the round trip once before a long exploration. - A summarizing fetch of the upstream marketplace can misreport its contents; verify upstream facts against raw files or the install record, never a summary. ## Boundary - Choosing the best visual FORM for conversation content is the visualization capability's job; this skill fires only when the user wants an interactive, manipulable explorer whose output returns as a prompt. - Throwaway visual variations of your own project's UI are the prototyping capability's job; a playground explores a parameter space, not your codebase's routes. - Generation, templates, and the playground page's own design belong to the upstream skill; nothing here overrides them.