Stop re-explaining your codebase to every AI agent - cast-skills

The annoying part of AI coding tools

Every session, the agent forgets:

• your module boundaries
• the "every user belongs to an org" rule that lives in nobody's file
• which service emits which event
• how you want features built (tests first? spec first? conventions?)

So you re-explain. It rewrites. Context drifts. Tokens burn.

Dumping a 40k-token AGENTS.md into every prompt is not a strategy. It's a tax.

I wanted something simpler: write project knowledge once, in a format agents already understand, and install it into every tool I actually use.

That's cast-skills.

npx cast-skills

What it is

cast-skills is a small CLI that bootstraps cross-tool AI skills for your machine (or project):

Skills use the open SKILL.md format - progressive disclosure: the agent loads what it needs, not your entire wiki every turn.

cast-skills is built around Anthropic's Agent Skills approach: instead of loading one massive prompt every session, the agent progressively loads only the knowledge it needs.

One install. Six tools. The wizard auto-detects what you have and drops skills in the right place:

Native tools get SKILL.md as-is. Cursor/Windsurf get an auto-converted format so you're not maintaining six copies by hand.

npx cast-skills
# or
npm i -g cast-skills && cast-skills

Requires Node ≥ 18.

How a normal feature run feels

• You say: "add X / fix Y / refactor Z"
• using-project-skills loads domain + stack + conventions
• It pulls the module-level skill for the code you're touching
• Work is steered through a spec-driven path (spec → failing tests → implement) when that workflow exists
• After a real change, explaining-changes can leave a human-readable write-up

The point isn't another chatbot persona. It's stable project memory that survives sessions and tools.

Why I didn't make this Claude-only

Most of us don't live in one harness. Monday: Claude Code. Tuesday: Cursor on a design-heavy UI. Wednesday: Copilot in a boring enterprise repo.

If "project brain" only works in one tool, you still re-explain on Tuesday.

cast-skills optimizes for write once → run everywhere that speaks skills/rules.

What this is not

• Not a full coding agent (that's a different product surface)
• Not magic RAG over your monorepo (skills are curated knowledge, not automatic embeddings)
• Not a replacement for good architecture - garbage conventions in → garbage guidance out

If your team has no conventions, the bootstrapper will still force a few useful questions. That's a feature.

Try it in 30 seconds

cd your-repo
npx cast-skills

Pick the tools you use → let it install the three skills → start a real task and see if the agent stops inventing your architecture from scratch.

• Repo: github.com/pedrocastanha/cast-skills
• npm: npmjs.com/package/cast-skills

Feedback I actually want

If you try it, tell me:

• Which tool combo you use (e.g. Claude + Cursor)
• Whether the wizard put files in the right paths
• One rule your team has that should be a skill but isn't obvious

Issues and PRs welcome - especially path fixes for tool updates (these CLIs move the goalposts often).