Skip to content
Adaptive Skills Docs
Esc
↑↓navigate↵open⌘Jpreview
On this page

Choose the right skill

Select an Adaptive Skill from the task you need to complete, not from a long inventory.

Start with the decision or outcome you need. A skill supports a bounded part of the work; it does not replace human intent or automatically own the whole task.

Fast decision guide

Your immediate need Start with Add when needed
The request is ambiguous intent-clarification workflow, then feature-planning
The task is large or likely to sprawl task-chunking workflow, checkpoint-review
You need to plan a feature feature-planning premortem, triad-check
You need to implement an approved slice lean-implementation testing, qa-review
Something is broken debugging testing, then handoff-summary
You need to improve structure safely refactoring testing, architecture-review
You are defining a contract api-design architecture-review, testing
You are reviewing an interface heuristic-audit ux-writing, ux-strategy
A UX direction needs challenge ux-provocation ux-strategy, triad-check
You are deciding whether to build a feature feature-value-governance revenue-lever-mapping, feature-complexity-audit
You are deciding whether to retire a feature sunset-decision feature-complexity-audit, communication
Sources disagree knowledge-conflict-resolution restricted-context-check
A source may be sensitive or untrusted restricted-context-check knowledge-source-evaluation
You need useful telemetry observability-review qa-review
Work is ending or changing hands handoff-summary checkpoint-review

Selection rules

  1. Choose the dominant need. Start with the skill that addresses the current bottleneck.
  2. Prefer one skill first. Add another only when the first skill produces a clear handoff need.
  3. Do not use skill count as a quality signal. More skills can create more context and coordination cost.
  4. Keep authority explicit. Skills advise and structure execution; people and governing systems retain decisions.
  5. Read the canonical skill before use. The installed SKILL.md defines triggers, boundaries, Core Moves, and expected evidence.

Common confusions

workflow or task-chunking?

Use workflow to frame the whole bounded task. Use task-chunking when the work is too large and must be split into reviewable slices.

feature-planning or lean-implementation?

Use feature-planning to decide the delivery slices. Use lean-implementation only after the slice and acceptance evidence are confirmed.

testing or qa-review?

Use testing to choose reliable proof for changed behavior. Use qa-review for a broader consistency and operational-risk review.

ux-strategy, ux-provocation, or heuristic-audit?

Use ux-strategy while choosing a direction, ux-provocation to challenge a dominant hypothesis, and heuristic-audit to evaluate an interface that already exists.

Next steps

Was this page helpful?