thematteroftime Creator — meta-skill that builds experiment-orchestration skills
You are generating a skill that lives inside another project. The output is a working clone of paper-to-experiment adapted to that project's simulation framework.
Hard rules
- Inspect first, ask second. Read the user's project root before any question. Files >> their description.
- Don't invent fields. If a question's answer can't be inferred from the codebase, surface it; don't guess.
- Skill output is text-only. No GPU, no simulations, no
--applyto user files outside.claude/skills/<generated>/. - Generated skill must validate. Before handing off, dry-run the schema against one of the user's existing configs.
- Single source of class registry. Generated skill must point at one runtime registry (e.g.
tools/registry.py), never at scattered references. - AI only produces config; never executes. This contract is non-negotiable in every generated skill.
Process
1. Inspect repo → 2. Interview (17 Q) → 3. Fill profile
↓
6. Hand off ← 5. Self-test ← 4. Generate skill
Step 1 — Inspect repo
Read in order:
pyproject.toml/package.json/Cargo.toml(language + deps)- The user's main entry script (whatever runs a simulation)
- One existing config file (the kind of artifact the new skill will produce)
docs/for any README / architecture notes
Catalog: language, config format (JSON/YAML/TOML/Python), entry-script signature, output dir convention, existing analyzer/plotter classes.
Step 2 — Interview
Open templates/interview.md, ask the 17 questions in order. One question per turn. Multiple-choice when possible. Skip questions whose answers you already inferred — and say so ("from inspecting <file>, I'll assume X; correct?").
Step 3 — Fill profile
Save user answers + inspections to docs/specs/<TS>-<framework-name>-profile.md using templates/framework_profile.md as scaffold. This file is the input contract for skill generation.
Step 4 — Generate skill
For each {{X}} placeholder in templates/skill_scaffold/, substitute from the framework profile filled in Step 3.
Identity / structure (from §A):
| Token | Profile field |
|---|---|
{{FRAMEWORK_NAME}} |
A.1 framework_name |
{{LANGUAGE_STACK}} / {{LANGUAGE_HINT}} |
A.2 language_stack |
{{CONFIG_FORMAT}} |
A.3 config_format |
{{ENTRY_SCRIPT}} |
A.4 entry_script |
{{CONFIG_PATH_PATTERN}} |
derived from A.3 + project layout |
{{CONFIG_PATH_EXAMPLE}} |
derived: e.g. configs/examples/<sample>.json |
{{OUTPUT_DIR_CONVENTION}} |
A.5 |
{{TYPE_CONCEPT}} |
A.6 (e.g. force_type, model_type) |
{{REGISTERED_TYPES}} (CSV) / {{REGISTERED_TYPES_JSON_ARRAY}} |
A.7 |
{{PRIMARY_FIELD}} |
F.1 (one-word domain label) |
Schema / validation (from §C):
| Token | Profile field |
|---|---|
{{REGISTRY_PATH}} |
C.1 registry_path |
{{VALIDATOR_PATH}} |
C.4 (or new: scripts/validate_config.py) |
{{TYPE_REGISTRY_FILE}} |
derived: references/<type_concept>s.md |
{{MAX_STEPS}}, {{MAX_STRIDE}} |
derived from B.4 + project max-N |
{{DEFAULT_N}} |
from typical config in E.1 |
{{DEFAULT_THRESHOLD_VALUE}} / {{DEFAULT_<THRESHOLD_NAME>}} |
C.2 cross-field rules |
{{TYPE1_LIMIT}} (and similar per-type limits) |
C.2 per-type ranges |
Resource budgets (from §D):
| Token | Profile field |
|---|---|
{{HARDWARE_TARGET}} |
D.1 |
{{HARD_BUDGETS}} (summary string) |
D.2 |
{{WALL_BUDGET_HR}} |
D.2 wall |
{{RAM_BUDGET_GB}} |
D.2 RAM |
{{DISK_BUDGET_GB}} |
D.2 disk |
{{ACCEL_BUDGET_GB}} |
D.2 accel |
{{ACCEL_PER_N_BYTES}}, {{ACCEL_OVERHEAD_GB}} |
D.2 + B.4 calibration |
{{FAST_RATE_SMALL}}, {{FAST_RATE_MID}}, {{FAST_RATE_LARGE}} |
B.4 step rate (fast mode, by N tier) |
{{SLOW_RATE_SMALL}}, {{SLOW_RATE_LARGE}} |
B.4 step rate (slow mode, by N tier) |
Defaults (from §A.7 + C):
| Token | Profile field |
|---|---|
{{DEFAULT_ANALYZER}} |
one of A.7 with "Analyzer" suffix |
{{DEFAULT_AGGREGATOR}} |
one of A.7 with "Aggregator" suffix |
{{ANALYZER_NAMING}} |
F.3 |
Write the generated files to <user_project>/.claude/skills/paper-to-experiment-<framework>/. Never overwrite an existing skill of the same name without explicit confirmation.
Self-check before handoff: grep the generated files for any remaining {{...}} tokens. If any survive, you missed a substitution — go back to Step 3 and add the missing profile field.
Step 5 — Self-test
Run validate_config.py --strict (the generated one) against one of the user's existing approved configs. Must exit 0. If it fails, fix the schema generation rule, regenerate, retry. Log failures into the profile §F (lessons captured for future iterations).
Step 6 — Hand off
Tell the user: where the skill is, what registry entries to add, the smoke-test command, and the contract file (SKILL.md) they'll iterate on.
Anti-patterns
| Thought | Reality |
|---|---|
| "Just clone paper-to-experiment as-is" | Their framework isn't ours. Profile-substitution is the whole point. |
| "Skip the interview, infer everything" | One wrong inference rots downstream. Ask when unsure. |
| "Don't bother self-testing" | Untested generation = handing the user a broken skill. |
| "AI runs simulations to verify" | Out of scope — creator produces files, never burns compute. |
Files
.claude/skills/creator/
├── SKILL.md # this file
├── templates/
│ ├── interview.md # 17 questions (framework profile)
│ ├── framework_profile.md # filled by creator + user
│ └── skill_scaffold/ # placeholder skill, copied + substituted
│ ├── SKILL.md.tmpl
│ ├── design.md.tmpl
│ ├── schema.json.tmpl
│ ├── registry.md.tmpl
│ └── validator.py.tmpl
└── references/
├── distillation.md # what's framework-agnostic vs specific
└── md_test1/ # this project as exemplar
End of skill.