Now liveThe Skillselion MCP - thousands of ranked skills, loaded into your agent mid-task. No install.Get it →
obra avatar

Gardening Skills Wiki

  • 266 installs
  • 733 repo stars
  • Updated October 14, 2025
  • obra/superpowers-skills

Create or refine agent skills using TDD—pressure scenarios, baseline failure, minimal SKILL.md, refactor loopholes.

About

gardening skills wiki — Writing Skills applies test-driven development to SKILL.md authoring—baseline subagent scenarios, minimal docs that fix observed rationalizations, then refactor loopholes. It covers directory layout, frontmatter, and Anthropic best practices. Solo builders use it when packaging repeatable agent workflows as installable skills.

  • Maps TDD red-green-refactor directly to skill authoring workflow.
  • SKILL.md structure rules: when-to-use descriptions, progressive disclosure, flat namespace.
  • Requires watching agents fail without the skill before writing it.

Gardening Skills Wiki by the numbers

  • 266 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • +24 installs in the week ending Jul 26, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
  • Ranked #156 of 826 Skill Development skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Security screen: MEDIUM risk (skills.sh audit)
  • Data as of Jul 28, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/obra/superpowers-skills --skill gardening-skills-wiki

Add your badge

Show developers this skill is listed on Skillselion. Paste this into your README.

Listed on Skillselion
Installs266
repo stars733
Security audit3 / 3 scanners passed
Last updatedOctober 14, 2025
Repositoryobra/superpowers-skills

What it does

Create or refine agent skills using TDD—pressure scenarios, baseline failure, minimal SKILL.md, refactor loopholes.

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Gardening Skills Wiki

Overview

The skills wiki needs regular maintenance to stay healthy: links break, skills get orphaned, naming drifts, INDEX files fall out of sync.

Core principle: Automate health checks to maintain wiki quality without burning tokens on manual inspection.

When to Use

Run gardening after:

  • Adding new skills
  • Removing or renaming skills
  • Reorganizing categories
  • Updating cross-references
  • Suspicious that links are broken

Periodic maintenance:

  • Weekly during active development
  • Monthly during stable periods

Quick Health Check

# Run all checks
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# Or run specific checks
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-links.sh
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-naming.sh
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-index-coverage.sh

# Analyze search gaps (what skills are missing)
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/analyze-search-gaps.sh

The master script runs all checks and provides a health report.

What Gets Checked

1. Link Validation (check-links.sh)

Checks:

  • Backtick-wrapped @ links - backticks disable resolution
  • Relative paths like skills/ or skills/gardening-skills-wiki/~/ - should use skills/ absolute paths
  • All skills/ references resolve to existing files
  • Skills referenced in INDEX files exist
  • Orphaned skills (not in any INDEX)

Fixes:

  • Remove backticks from @ references
  • Convert skills/ and skills/gardening-skills-wiki/~/ relative paths to skills/ absolute paths
  • Update broken skills/ references to correct paths
  • Add orphaned skills to their category INDEX
  • Remove references to deleted skills

2. Naming Consistency (check-naming.sh)

Checks:

  • Directory names are kebab-case
  • No uppercase or underscores in directory names
  • Frontmatter fields present (name, description, when_to_use, version, type)
  • Skill names use active voice (not "How to...")
  • Empty directories

Fixes:

  • Rename directories to kebab-case
  • Add missing frontmatter fields
  • Remove empty directories
  • Rephrase names to active voice

3. INDEX Coverage (check-index-coverage.sh)

Checks:

  • All skills listed in their category INDEX
  • All category INDEX files linked from main INDEX
  • Skills have descriptions in INDEX entries

Fixes:

  • Add missing skills to INDEX files
  • Add category links to main INDEX
  • Add descriptions for INDEX entries

Common Issues and Fixes

Broken Links

❌ BROKEN: skills/debugging/root-cause-tracing
   Target: /path/to/skills/debugging/root-cause-tracing/SKILL.md

Fix: Update the reference path - skill might have moved or been renamed.

Orphaned Skills

⚠️  ORPHANED: test-invariants/SKILL.md not in testing/INDEX.md

Fix: Add to the category INDEX:

- skills/gardening-skills-wiki/test-invariants - Description of skill

Backtick-Wrapped Links

❌ BACKTICKED: skills/testing/condition-based-waiting on line 31
   File: getting-started/SKILL.md
   Fix: Remove backticks - use bare @ reference

Fix: Remove backticks:

# ❌ Bad - backticks disable link resolution
`skills/testing/condition-based-waiting`

# ✅ Good - bare @ reference
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting

Relative Path Links

❌ RELATIVE: skills/testing in coding/SKILL.md
   Fix: Use skills/ absolute path instead

Fix: Convert to absolute path:

# ❌ Bad - relative paths are brittle
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting

# ✅ Good - absolute skills/ path
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting

Naming Issues

⚠️  Mixed case: TestingPatterns (should be kebab-case)

Fix: Rename directory:

cd ~/.claude/skills/testing
mv TestingPatterns testing-patterns
# Update all references to old name

Missing from INDEX

❌ NOT INDEXED: condition-based-waiting/SKILL.md

Fix: Add to testing/INDEX.md:

## Available Skills

- skills/gardening-skills-wiki/condition-based-waiting - Replace timeouts with condition polling

Empty Directories

⚠️  EMPTY: event-based-testing

Fix: Remove if no longer needed:

rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/event-based-testing

Naming Conventions

Directory Names

  • Format: kebab-case (lowercase with hyphens)
  • Process skills: Use gerunds when appropriate (creating-skills, testing-skills)
  • Pattern skills: Use core concept (flatten-with-flags, test-invariants)
  • Avoid: Mixed case, underscores, passive voice starters ("how-to-")

Frontmatter Requirements

Required fields:

  • name: Human-readable name
  • description: One-line summary
  • when_to_use: Symptoms and situations (CSO-critical)
  • version: Semantic version

Optional fields:

  • languages: Applicable languages
  • dependencies: Required tools
  • context: Special context (e.g., "AI-assisted development")

Automation Workflow

After Adding New Skill

# 1. Create skill
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/category/new-skill
vim ~/.claude/skills/category/new-skill/SKILL.md

# 2. Add to category INDEX
vim ~/.claude/skills/category/INDEX.md

# 3. Run health check
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# 4. Fix any issues reported

After Reorganizing

# 1. Move/rename skills
mv ~/.claude/skills/old-category/skill ~/.claude/skills/new-category/

# 2. Update all references (grep for old paths)
grep -r "skills/gardening-skills-wiki/old-category/skill" ~/.claude/skills/

# 3. Run health check
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# 4. Fix broken links

Periodic Maintenance

# Monthly: Run full health check
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# Review and fix:
# - ❌ errors (broken links, missing skills)
# - ⚠️  warnings (naming, empty dirs)

The Scripts

garden.sh (Master)

Runs all health checks and provides comprehensive report.

Usage:

~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh [skills_dir]

check-links.sh

Validates all @ references and cross-links.

Checks:

  • Backtick-wrapped @ links (disables resolution)
  • Relative paths (skills/ or skills/gardening-skills-wiki/~/) - should be skills/
  • @ reference resolution to existing files
  • Skills in INDEX files exist
  • Orphaned skills detection

check-naming.sh

Validates naming conventions and frontmatter.

Checks:

  • Directory name format
  • Frontmatter completeness
  • Empty directories

check-index-coverage.sh

Validates INDEX completeness.

Checks:

  • Skills listed in category INDEX
  • Categories linked in main INDEX
  • Descriptions present

Quick Reference

IssueScriptFix
Backtick-wrapped linkscheck-links.shRemove backticks from @ refs
Relative pathscheck-links.shConvert to skills/ absolute
Broken linkscheck-links.shUpdate @ references
Orphaned skillscheck-links.shAdd to INDEX
Naming issuescheck-naming.shRename directories
Empty dirscheck-naming.shRemove with rm -rf
Missing from INDEXcheck-index-coverage.shAdd to INDEX.md
No descriptioncheck-index-coverage.shAdd to INDEX entry

Output Symbols

  • Pass - Item is correct
  • Error - Must fix (broken link, missing skill)
  • ⚠️ Warning - Should fix (naming, empty dir)
  • ℹ️ Info - Informational (no action needed)

Integration with Workflow

Before committing skill changes:

~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh
# Fix all ❌ errors
# Consider fixing ⚠️  warnings
git add .
git commit -m "Add/update skills"

When links feel suspicious:

~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-links.sh

When INDEX seems incomplete:

~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-index-coverage.sh

Common Rationalizations

ExcuseReality
"Will check links manually"Automated check is faster and more thorough
"INDEX probably fine"Orphaned skills happen - always verify
"Naming doesn't matter"Consistency aids discovery and maintenance
"Empty dir harmless"Clutter confuses future maintainers
"Can skip periodic checks"Issues compound - regular maintenance prevents big cleanups

Real-World Impact

Without gardening:

  • Broken links discovered during urgent tasks
  • Orphaned skills never found
  • Naming drifts over time
  • INDEX files fall out of sync

With gardening:

  • 30-second health check catches issues early
  • Automated validation prevents manual inspection
  • Consistent structure aids discovery
  • Wiki stays maintainable

The Bottom Line

Don't manually inspect - automate the checks.

Run garden.sh after changes and periodically. Fix ❌ errors immediately, address ⚠️ warnings when convenient.

Maintained wiki = findable skills = reusable knowledge.

Related skills

FAQ

Is Gardening Skills Wiki safe to install?

skills.sh reports 3 of 3 security scanners passed. Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.

This week in AI coding

Five minutes, every Monday - the tools, releases and tactics for developers.

unsubscribe anytime.