A skill your agent uses when deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC or should be routed to DISC, SPAA, OPODIS/SIROCCO/SSS, STOC/FOCS/SODA, a systems venue…

MITAuto-check passed

Install Podc Topic Selection

skills CLI
$ npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill podc-topic-selection -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills podc-topic-selection --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/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/PODC-Skills/skills/podc-topic-selection .claude/skills/podc-topic-selection && 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
podc-topic-selection
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
737 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
2,387
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC or should be routed to DISC, SPAA, OPODIS/SIROCCO/SSS, STOC/FOCS/SODA, a systems venue…

  • Deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC
  • SKILL.md covers The naming trap, first, The routing question that…, Sibling-venue routing table and Contribution shapes PODC rewards, plus 4 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
  • Should be routed to DISC

What it does

Podc Topic Selection is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC or should be routed to DISC, SPAA, OPODIS/SIROCCO/SSS, STOC/FOCS/SODA, a systems venue (ICDCS/DSN/OSDI/NSDI), a blockchain-theory venue (AFT/FC), or a journal (JACM / Distributed Computing) — and how to avoid the PODC-vs-PODS naming trap by reasoning about the distributed model and the cost measure.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

The repository describes itself as: Journal-specific Claude Code/Codex skill packs covering mainstream journals — AER, QJE, Nature, Cell, 管理世界, 经济研究 & 200+ more — your fast track to getting published. | 覆盖主流期刊的… The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC
  • Should be routed to DISC
  • OPODIS/SIROCCO/SSS
  • A systems venue (ICDCS/DSN/OSDI/NSDI)

Example prompts

  • “/podc-topic-selection”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 932eb23. 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

Podc Topic Selection loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 100 tokens; SKILL.md has 737 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~100
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k

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 passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

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 brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills at commit 932eb23, republished under its MIT licence (© brycewang-stanford). 737 words, ~1,748 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/podc-topic-selection/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
podc-topic-selection
description
Use when deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC or should be routed to DISC, SPAA, OPODIS/SIROCCO/SSS, STOC/FOCS/SODA, a systems venue (ICDCS/DSN/OSDI/NSDI), a blockchain-theory venue (AFT/FC), or a journal (JACM / Distributed Computing) — and how to avoid the PODC-vs-PODS naming trap by reasoning about the distributed model and the cost measure.

PODC Topic Selection

Decide the venue before drafting. PODC — the ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing — is the SIGACT-SIGOPS home for the theory of distributed computing. Reviewers read for a provable guarantee in a precisely stated distributed model: an algorithm with a complexity bound, an impossibility, or a matching lower bound. A technically strong paper whose real contribution is a sequential algorithm, a measured system, or a database result is respected and then rejected as out of scope.

The naming trap, first

PODC is not PODS. PODS is the ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (SIGMOD week); its theory is query languages, dependencies, and database complexity. If your result is about data management rather than distributed processes, agents, or memory, you want PODS, not PODC. One letter, two communities — check before you submit.

The routing question that matters most

PODC, DISC, and SPAA overlap heavily in scope and share much of a reviewer pool, so the decisive question is rarely "is this distributed theory?" but "which model, which cost measure, and which calendar fit this result now?" Use the finer signals below and the live deadlines to choose.

Sibling-venue routing table

Signal in your projectBetter homeWhy
Provable guarantee in a distributed model (consensus, shared memory, LOCAL/CONGEST, self-stabilization, population protocols), ready now, PODC's Feb deadline is nearerPODCThe ACM distributed-theory flagship; proofs-centric
Same distributed-theory flavor but DISC's fall cycle lands better, or the result is very European-community-facingDISCThe EATCS distributed-theory flagship; LIPIcs proceedings; shares the Dijkstra Prize and Dissertation Award with PODC
Core is parallel algorithms/architectures, work-span/PRAM, shared-memory throughput, schedulingSPAAParallelism is its named center; co-located with PODC 2026 but a distinct scope
Networks, mobile agents, self-stabilization with a specific community fitOPODIS / SIROCCO / SSSFocused distributed-theory venues; often a better match for niche models
The algorithm is sequential — the distribution is incidentalSTOC / FOCS / SODASequential theory flagships; no distributed model to reward
A built system with measurements and no analyzed guaranteeICDCS / DSN / OSDI / NSDI / SOSPSystems venues reward implementation and evaluation, not a proof
Blockchain/DeFi with a financial-mechanism or cryptographic-protocol coreAFT / FC / CCSFinancial-technology and security venues; PODC takes distributed-ledger theory but not applied crypto engineering
A result too long/deep for 10 pages, or a definitive journal statementJACM / Distributed ComputingThe journals PODC papers are invited to; some results are journal-first
Show full SKILL.md (345 more words)Show less

Contribution shapes PODC rewards

  • A distributed algorithm with a complexity bound — round, message, bit, or space complexity in a named model, against the best prior bound.
  • An impossibility result — a proof that no algorithm in a model solves a problem (FLP-style arguments, valency, indistinguishability, covering).
  • A matching lower bound — turning an algorithm into an optimality result, the venue's most prized shape (see the exemplars library).
  • A new model or paradigm — defining a minimal model and characterizing its power (the population protocols lineage).
  • A shared-memory / concurrency result — wait-free/lock-free constructions, consensus numbers, the complexity of concurrent objects.
  • Distributed-ledger / BFT theory — consensus under Byzantine faults, agreement complexity, provable properties of blockchain protocols — as theory, not as a deployed system.

The model-swap and re-label tests

Two quick tests sharpen a borderline verdict:

  • Model-swap / de-distribute test: if you removed the distribution (ran it on one machine), would a result remain? If the whole contribution survives as a sequential algorithm, it is a STOC/SODA paper. PODC's value must live in the distributed difficulty (faults, asynchrony, locality, concurrency).
  • Re-label test: could this be submitted to SPAA or a systems venue unchanged and read as native there? If its heart is parallel throughput, route to SPAA; if it is an implemented system measured on a cluster, route to a systems venue. PODC rewards the proved guarantee.

Evidence maturity, theory-style

Fit is necessary but not sufficient. The same idea sits at different doors depending on how finished the proof is. An algorithm with a plausible-but-unproved bound is a Brief Announcement or a work-in-progress talk, not a regular paper; a construction with an upper bound but no lower bound is publishable but stronger with the matching bound; a result too long for 10 pages of merits belongs in a journal. Submitting a regular paper with a proof gap earns a fast rejection, because the proof is the paper.

Cheap reconnaissance before committing

text
[Scope]    scan the last two PODC programs (dblp db/conf/podc, podc.org) for your model
           -> 3+ recent papers in your subarea = a reviewer pool exists; 0 = opening or mismatch
[Citations] is your bibliography majority PODC/DISC/SPAA/JACM/Distributed Computing?
           -> majority STOC/FOCS or majority systems venues => reviewers read you as a visitor
[Calendar] compare the next PODC (Feb) deadline with DISC (spring), SPAA, and journal timelines
           -> route to the nearest honest fit rather than waiting a year for a marginal preference

Decision procedure

text
[Model] state it: network (message-passing/shared-memory), timing, faults, adversary, cost measure
[Contribution] algorithm+bound / impossibility / matching lower bound / new model / concurrency object
[De-distribute test] does the value survive removing distribution? no => STOC/SODA
[Sibling check] parallelism core -> SPAA; built system -> ICDCS/DSN/OSDI; database -> PODS; ledger-as-system -> AFT/FC
[PODC vs DISC] both fit? -> choose by calendar and community; the prize/award ecosystem is shared
[Verdict] PODC regular / PODC Brief Announcement / sibling venue / journal-first, with a one-line reason

Run this before the writing skills; a wrong venue decision wastes every later step. When the verdict is PODC, continue with podc-workflow for the calendar and podc-writing-style for the paper shape.

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

Files

Just SKILL.md in PODC-Skills/skills/podc-topic-selection of brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 932eb23

Compare with similar skills

Podc Topic Selection 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.

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Podc Topic Selection this skillbrycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills1.2k—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
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Distributed Triagepytorch/pytorch104k—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Debug Distributed Hangsgl-project/sglang37k2 repos~2.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
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Senior Computer Visionalirezarezvani/claude-skills28k2 repos~3.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Podc Topic Selection

What does Podc Topic Selection do?

A skill your agent uses when deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC or should be routed to DISC, SPAA, OPODIS/SIROCCO/SSS, STOC/FOCS/SODA, a systems venue…. Podc Topic Selection is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC or should be routed to DISC, SPAA, OPODIS/SIROCCO/SSS, STOC/FOCS/SODA, a systems venue (ICDCS/DSN/OSDI/NSDI), a blockchain-theory venue (AFT/FC), or a journal (JACM / Distributed Computing) — and how to avoid the PODC-vs-PODS naming trap by reasoning about the distributed model and the cost measure.

When should I use Podc Topic Selection?

Podc Topic Selection fits situations like: deciding whether a distributed-computing result belongs at ACM PODC; should be routed to DISC; OPODIS/SIROCCO/SSS; A systems venue (ICDCS/DSN/OSDI/NSDI).

How do I install Podc Topic Selection in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill podc-topic-selection -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (PODC-Skills/skills/podc-topic-selection in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .claude/skills/podc-topic-selection in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Podc Topic Selection in Codex?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill podc-topic-selection -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (PODC-Skills/skills/podc-topic-selection in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .agents/skills/podc-topic-selection in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Podc Topic Selection 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 brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill podc-topic-selection -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/podc-topic-selection, .gemini/skills/podc-topic-selection, .github/skills/podc-topic-selection and .opencode/skills/podc-topic-selection in your project.

What does Podc Topic Selection need to run?

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

Does Podc Topic Selection 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 Podc Topic Selection safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Podc Topic Selection use?

Podc Topic Selection 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 Podc Topic Selection use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 7k 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 Podc Topic Selection?

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Who maintains Podc Topic Selection?

brycewang-stanford (a GitHub user) maintains it in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, which has 1,219 GitHub stars. The repository holds 2,387 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 27, 2026.

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.