Agent skill

Directive

by andrew-yangy in andrew-yangy/gru-ai

Execute work through the directive pipeline — evaluate, plan, cast agents, build, review, and report.

MITAuto-check: warningsAgent Workflows

Install Directive

The automated check flagged lines worth reading first. See the safety section below.

skills CLI
$ npx skills add andrew-yangy/gru-ai --skill directive -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install andrew-yangy/gru-ai directive --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/andrew-yangy/gru-ai.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/directive .claude/skills/directive && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
directive
GitHub stars
155
Token cost
~2.8k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,092 words
Files
34
Skills in repo
9
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Execute work through the directive pipeline — evaluate, plan, cast agents, build, review, and report.

  • Works in 4 steps: Set pipeline.{stepId}.status to… → Set current_step to the next step's ID → Set updated_at to the current ISO… → …
  • The user requests non-trivial work that goes beyond a one-liner fix
  • SKILL.md covers Role Resolution — Read First, MANDATORY: Start with Triage —… and How to Use This Routing Map
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Directive is an agent skill from andrew-yangy/gru-ai. Execute work through the directive pipeline — evaluate, plan, cast agents, build, review, and report. Takes a directive name (matching .context/directives/), a project path, or an ad-hoc CEO request. TRIGGER: Use this skill whenever the user requests non-trivial work that goes beyond a one-liner fix. This includes: building features, running projects with project.json, executing multiple tasks, multi-file changes, or any work with defined DOD/reviewers. Route through this pipeline so reviews and verification…

Its SKILL.md is about 2.8k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 37 other files (for example `docs/pipeline/00-delegation-and-triage.md`, `docs/pipeline/01-checkpoint.md` and `docs/pipeline/02-read-directive.md`).

It sits in Agent Workflows. The repository describes itself as: Autonomous AI agent team for one-man companies. Context engineering + harness engineering drive a pipeline that brainstorms, builds, reviews, and ships. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • The user requests non-trivial work that goes beyond a one-liner fix

Example prompts

  • “/directive”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Set pipeline.{stepId}.status to "completed" with
  2. Set current_step to the next step's ID
  3. Set updated_at to the current ISO timestamp
  4. Use the Write tool to overwrite the full directive.json

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 8fba479. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Directive loads about 2.8k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 204 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,092 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~204
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.8k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check: warnings

The automated check found patterns that need a careful read before installing.

  • WarningTells the agent its actions are pre-authorized / not to stop for confirmationSKILL.md:65
    able below and execute it. Do NOT stop, do NOT pause, do NOT ask for confirmation between steps. The pipeline is designe

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from andrew-yangy/gru-ai at commit 8fba479, republished under its MIT licence (© andrew-yangy). 1,092 words, ~2,828 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/directive/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 33 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
directive
description
Execute work through the directive pipeline — evaluate, plan, cast agents, build, review, and report. Takes a directive name (matching .context/directives/), a project path, or an ad-hoc CEO request. TRIGGER: Use this skill whenever the user requests non-trivial work that goes beyond a one-liner fix. This includes: building features, running projects with project.json, executing multiple tasks, multi-file changes, or any work with defined DOD/reviewers. Route through this pipeline so reviews and verification steps fire. Do NOT spawn builder agents directly. For heavyweight/strategic work, create a directive file in .context/directives/ first. For medium work with an existing project.json, pass the project path. For quick multi-step tasks, pass an ad-hoc description — no directive file needed.

Execute Directive

Execute the CEO directive: $ARGUMENTS

Role Resolution — Read First

Before executing, read .claude/agent-registry.json to map roles to agent names. The pipeline uses role-based language throughout. Resolve roles to concrete agent names using the registry:

  • COO = the agent with "title": "COO" (plans projects, orchestrates execution)
  • CTO = the agent with "title": "CTO" (architecture, audits, reviews, technical decomposition)
  • CPO = the agent with "title": "CPO" (product strategy, UX review, user perspective)
  • CMO = the agent with "title": "CMO" (growth, SEO, content strategy)
  • Frontend Developer = the agent with "title": "FE" (React, Tailwind, components)
  • Backend Developer = the agent with "title": "BE" (server, API, infrastructure)
  • Full-Stack Engineer = the agent with "title": "FS" (cross-domain work)
  • Data Engineer = the agent with "title": "DE" (pipelines, parsers, indexing)
  • Content Builder = the agent with "title": "CB" (MDX, documentation, copywriting)
  • QA Engineer = the agent with "title": "QA" (testing, investigation, validation)
  • UI/UX Designer = the agent with "title": "UX" (design review, wireframes, visual quality)

Use each agent's id field as the subagent_type value when spawning. Use the agentFile field to locate personality files. The registry is the single source of truth for who fills each role.


MANDATORY: Start with Triage — DO NOT SKIP

YOU MUST read and execute 00-delegation-and-triage.md BEFORE doing anything else.

DO NOT read source code. DO NOT edit files. DO NOT start solving the problem. The pipeline exists to ensure quality — every shortcut you take skips a review, a gate, or a verification step.

Your FIRST action must be: Read the triage doc, classify the directive weight, output the triage block, and create directive.json. Only then proceed to the next pipeline step.

If you catch yourself wanting to "just fix it quickly" — STOP. That impulse is exactly what the pipeline prevents. Even lightweight directives have a defined process (triage → context → audit → plan → build → review → digest → completion). The COO plans for ALL weights.


How to Use This Routing Map

This file is a routing table. Each row points to a modular doc containing full instructions for that step. Read only the docs you need for the current step — don't load everything at once.

Pipeline Progress Protocol

After completing each pipeline step, update .context/directives/{id}/directive.json:

  1. Set pipeline.{stepId}.status to "completed" with:
    • agent: who performed this step (e.g. "CEO", "COO", "CTO, full-stack engineer")
    • output: REQUIRED object with at least a summary string (1-2 sentences of what happened/decided). Add other keys as relevant (e.g. decision, weight, projects).
    • artifacts: array of file paths produced (if any)
  2. Set current_step to the next step's ID
  3. Set updated_at to the current ISO timestamp
  4. Use the Write tool to overwrite the full directive.json

When starting a step, set pipeline.{stepId}.status to "active" and pipeline.{stepId}.agent to the array of participating agent first names (lowercase, e.g. ["sarah", "marcus", "morgan"]). This is critical for the dashboard game view — the game reads step agents to route characters to the meeting room during brainstorm/plan/clarification steps. Without this, characters won't move.

Why output is mandatory: The dashboard renders pipeline step details directly from directive.json. Without output.summary, the UI shows empty steps — the CEO can't see what happened. Every step must leave a trace.

The server's directive-watcher reads directive.json directly (NOT current.json) and pushes pipeline state to the dashboard via WebSocket. Keeping pipeline updated is what makes the stepper UI show real-time progress.

Step Execution Loop

After completing a step and updating directive.json, immediately read the next step's doc from the routing table below and execute it. Do NOT stop, do NOT pause, do NOT ask for confirmation between steps. The pipeline is designed to run end-to-end in a single pass.

STOP gates — the only points where you must stop and wait for the CEO:

  1. clarification — heavyweight/strategic: STOP and present synthesized intent for CEO verification. Lightweight/medium: still run the step (synthesize intent) but auto-approve without stopping. Do NOT skip this step — the verified_intent output feeds the COO planner.
  2. approve — heavyweight/strategic: STOP and present plan for CEO approval. Lightweight/medium: auto-approve without stopping.
  3. completion — all weights. The CEO must approve, amend, extend, or redirect the directive.

At every other step, transition directly to the next step without delay. If a step is skipped for the current weight class (brainstorm for lightweight/medium), set its status to "skipped" in directive.json and advance to the next step.

Show full SKILL.md (393 more words)Show less
Pipeline Steps
#Step IDDocPurposeDepends On
1triage00-delegation-and-triage.mdTriage directive weight + select process—
2checkpoint01-checkpoint.mdCheck for existing checkpoint, resume if found—
3read02-read-directive.mdRead directive file + create directive.jsontriage
4context03-read-context.mdRead all context files before planningread
5audit06-technical-audit.mdTechnical codebase auditcontext
6brainstorm04-brainstorm.mdApproach brainstorm (includes challenge for heavyweight/strategic)audit
7clarification04b-clarification.mdSynthesize verified intent (auto-approve for lightweight/medium)audit
8plan05-planning.mdCOO strategic planningclarification
9approve07-plan-approval.mdPresent plan to CEO for approvalplan
10project-brainstorm07b-project-brainstorm.mdCTO + builder decompose projects into tasks with DODapprove
11setup08-worktree-and-state.mdWorktree isolation + directive state initproject-brainstorm
12execute09-execute-projects.mdExecute all tasks (phases, agents, UX)setup
13review-gate09-execute-projects.mdReview verification gate (end of doc)execute
14wrapup10-wrapup.mdOKRs, follow-ups, stale doc detection, digest, lessons, reportreview-gate
15completion11-completion-gate.mdCEO completion gate -- approve, amend, extend, or redirectwrapup
Reference Docs — Schemas
DocContent
plan-schema.mdCOO plan output JSON schema
audit-output.mdArchitect output JSON schema (design recommendations — second phase of two-agent audit)
investigation-output.mdQA Engineer's investigation output JSON schema (pure data — first phase of two-agent audit)
checkpoint.mdCheckpoint JSON schema (deprecated — merged into directive-json.md)
directive-json.mdDirective JSON schema (THE source of truth — includes pipeline progress for dashboard)
brainstorm-output.mdBrainstorm output JSON schema (proposals + rebuttals + challenge)
Reference Docs — Templates
DocContent
planner-prompt.mdFull COO planning prompt
investigator-prompt.mdInvestigation prompt template for the QA Engineer (pure data gathering — first phase of audit)
architect-prompt.mdArchitect prompt template (design recommendations — second phase of audit)
auditor-prompt.mdCombined audit prompt for the CTO (single-agent path for simple tasks)
brainstorm-prompt.mdBrainstorm agent prompt template (Phase 1 proposals + challenge + Phase 2 deliberation)
digest.mdDigest report template
Reference Docs — Rules
DocContent
casting-rules.mdAgent casting: delegation, auditing, reviewing, specialists
phase-definitions.mdPhase building blocks + common patterns
scope-and-dod.mdScope format + Definition of Done rules
failure-handling.mdFailure handling table
Validation Scripts
ScriptContent
validate-cast.shMechanical casting validation — checks reviewer present, builder != reviewer, complex/moderate has C-suite reviewer, no self-review of own prompts, depends_on valid, no circular deps
validate-project-json.shPre-execution gate — blocks execute step if project.json missing or incomplete (no tasks, no DOD, no scope)
detect-stale-docs.shPost-directive — scans docs for references to modified files, flags potentially stale docs
validate-gate.shPipeline step gate — validates prerequisites before advancing to next step
validate-reviews.shReview-gate hard gate — blocks completion if reviews missing, detects self-review and self-certification

© andrew-yangy, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 33 other files in .claude/skills/directive of andrew-yangy/gru-ai.

  • SKILL.md
  • docs/pipeline/00-delegation-and-triage.md
  • docs/pipeline/01-checkpoint.md
  • docs/pipeline/02-read-directive.md
  • docs/pipeline/03-read-context.md
  • docs/pipeline/04-brainstorm.md
  • docs/pipeline/04b-clarification.md
  • docs/pipeline/05-planning.md
  • docs/pipeline/06-technical-audit.md
  • docs/pipeline/07-plan-approval.md
  • docs/pipeline/07b-project-brainstorm.md
  • docs/pipeline/08-worktree-and-state.md
  • docs/pipeline/09-execute-projects.md
  • docs/pipeline/10-wrapup.md
  • docs/pipeline/11-completion-gate.md
  • docs/reference/rules/casting-rules.md
  • docs/reference/rules/failure-handling.md
  • … and 17 more

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 8fba479

Compare with similar skills

Directive next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Directive compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Directive this skillandrew-yangy/gru-ai155—~2.8kAutomated safety check: WarnMIT
Htmlvspecdisler/pi-agent-observability145—~4.7kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Rtl Aware DevelopmentSeeRay11/OpenFlow108—~1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Agent Instructionsmurphytrueman/design-system-ops206—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Planning With Files DeOthmanAdi/planning-with-files27k—~3.7kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Cp Exploretangziwen/CubeMiniGame359—~535Automated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Directive

What does Directive do?

Execute work through the directive pipeline — evaluate, plan, cast agents, build, review, and report. Directive is an agent skill from andrew-yangy/gru-ai. Execute work through the directive pipeline — evaluate, plan, cast agents, build, review, and report.

When should I use Directive?

Directive fits situations like: the user requests non-trivial work that goes beyond a one-liner fix.

How do I install Directive in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add andrew-yangy/gru-ai --skill directive -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/directive in andrew-yangy/gru-ai) into .claude/skills/directive in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Directive in Codex?

Run `npx skills add andrew-yangy/gru-ai --skill directive -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/directive in andrew-yangy/gru-ai) into .agents/skills/directive in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Directive in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add andrew-yangy/gru-ai --skill directive -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/directive, .gemini/skills/directive, .github/skills/directive and .opencode/skills/directive in your project.

What does Directive need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Directive is instructions for the agent only.

Does Directive access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Directive safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md flagged 1 warning(s): tells the agent its actions are pre-authorized / not to stop for confirmation. Read the flagged lines before installing; the check is not a guarantee either way.

What licence does Directive use?

Directive is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Directive use?

About 2.8k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 11k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Directive?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Directive: Htmlvspec (disler/pi-agent-observability, 145 stars), Rtl Aware Development (SeeRay11/OpenFlow, 108 stars), Agent Instructions (murphytrueman/design-system-ops, 206 stars) and Planning With Files De (OthmanAdi/planning-with-files, 27k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Directive?

andrew-yangy (a GitHub user) maintains it in andrew-yangy/gru-ai, which has 155 GitHub stars. The repository holds 9 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on March 11, 2026.

Source: andrew-yangy/gru-ai on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.