# Skip Skill Listing Without Skill Tool

> Omit skill-listing attachments for agents that do not expose the Skill tool, so discoverability context is only sent where it can be acted on.

- Skill: `vishuwa2004/skip-skill-listing-without-skill-tool` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vishuwa2004/skip-skill-listing-without-skill-tool`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vishuwa2004/skip-skill-listing-without-skill-tool/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: vishuwa2004 (https://skillmd.com/u/vishuwa2004)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vishuwa2004/skip-skill-listing-without-skill-tool

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# SKILL: Skip Skill Listing Without Skill Tool
**Domain:** command-surfaces  
**Trigger:** Apply when an attachment or context injector is about to advertise capabilities to an agent that may not have the tool needed to use them.
**Source Pattern:** Distilled from reviewed command-surface and listing-control patterns.

## Core Method
Before generating capability-discovery context, verify that the receiving agent actually exposes the execution surface for it. If the agent lacks the `Skill` tool, return no skill-listing attachment at all rather than spending tokens on a catalog it cannot invoke. This keeps the prompt focused on actionable affordances and avoids confusing agents with instructions they have no mechanism to execute.

## Key Rules
- Check tool availability before doing any skill-listing work, including command collection or formatting.
- Treat missing execution surfaces as a hard stop, not as a degraded listing mode.
- Keep the guard close to the listing entrypoint so later refactors cannot accidentally compute listings for unsupported agents.
- Prefer actionable context over informative-but-unusable context; if the agent cannot call the tool, omit the attachment.

## Example Application
If a background helper agent is configured only with file and shell tools, skip injecting a skill catalog even if the parent session supports skills. The helper sees only the tools it can actually use, while the main agent continues receiving skill-listing updates normally.

## Anti-Patterns (What NOT to do)
- Do not send a skill listing just because the overall application supports skills; the specific consumer must expose the `Skill` tool.
- Do not compute and then discard the listing after expensive formatting work; guard before the heavy path starts.