using-skills

using-skills is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from int2t05/engineering-skills. It costs 54 tokens per session (1,216 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A skill router that identifies which development skill fits an incoming task across nine software-development lifecycle phases.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it at the start of a session or when deciding how to route a task; it can identify and sequence the relevant skills.
Why use it?
It helps choose the right procedure before work begins, including when a task is unfamiliar, spans several phases, or needs a specific workflow.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for Claude Code and Codex: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} variable, but also agents/openai.yaml present.

Runs only inside its plugin — its command needs a path that Claude Code sets for a plugin’s own hooks and for nothing else. Install the plugin, not this.

Part of the engineering-skills plugin — 47 skills, 1 hook shipped together

Good fit Use it at the start of a session or when deciding how to route a task; it can identify and sequence the relevant skills.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install

Getting it into your agent

This one installs as part of its plugin. Adding the marketplace and installing the plugin brings it with everything else the plugin ships.

Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add int2t05/engineering-skills
Claude Code
/plugin install engineering-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install engineering-skills, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 47 skills, 1 hook.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for using-skills

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/int2t05/engineering-skills/using-skills.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/int2t05/engineering-skills/using-skills)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/int2t05/engineering-skills/using-skills"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/int2t05/engineering-skills/using-skills.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 54 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,216 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00054 $0.01216
Opus 5 $0.00027 $0.00608
Sonnet 5 $0.00011 $0.00243
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00122

Measured 3d ago against content hash 2cb8cb5614a1, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

using-skills scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/meta/using-skills/SKILL.md · 73 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 73 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Using Skills

A router. Identify the SDLC phase of the incoming work, then activate the matching skill. Skills live under nine SDLC phases, plus a meta group for this router and skill-authoring.

When to use

  • Start of a session, before any response or action.
  • Unsure which skill fits the task at hand.
  • A task spans multiple phases and you need to sequence them.

Not for: mid-task when a skill is already active — don't re-route. For any new task, route even if it seems obvious; the skill may enforce discipline the shortcut skips.

Rationalizations that skip routing — resist them:

Excuse Reality
"This is just a simple question." Questions are tasks. A skill may structure the answer.
"I already know how to do this." Knowing how ≠ following the discipline. The skill enforces the steps.
"It's faster to just do it." A skipped test-first or review is a bug shipped faster.
"The skill is obvious here." Obvious to route ≠ obvious to follow. Invoke it; let it run.
"This is too small for a skill." Small tasks are where discipline slips. tdd/debugging scale down.
"I'll route after I start." Starting unrouted biases you against the skill's process. Route first.

Steps

  1. Pick the phase, then activate the entry-point skill it lists.
    • metausing-skills (this router) · skill-authoring (author + eval skills)
    • 01-productbrainstorm · spec · oss-strategy
    • 02-researchresearch (general / market / tech-selection modes)
    • 03-designarchitecture · domain-modeling · api-design · codebase-design · frontend-design · image-to-code · imagegen · design-research · schema-design · prompt-engineering · prototype
    • 04-developimplement · multi-agent-orchestration · breakdown · context-engineering · i18n · auth-implementation · error-handling
    • 05-tunecost-optimization · performance · simplify · refactoring
    • 06-testtdd · test-generation · api-testing · e2e-testing · load-testing
    • 07-verifya11y-review · code-review · debugging · security-review · linting
    • 08-shipshipping · git-workflow · ci-cd · deprecation-migration · oss-polish
    • 09-operateobservability · documentation-audit · purity-audit · handoff · incident-response

Read the full file on GitHub · 73 lines

Files

What ships with it

2 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago Changed 2cb8cb5614a1
  2. 7d ago First seen · 73 lines · 54 tokens per session scan A d140acb5c696

Subscribe to this mod's changes

using-skills is a skill published in the GitHub repository int2t05/engineering-skills (3 stars, last pushed 6d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 54 tokens to every session and 1,216 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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