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Agent skill

Theme Craft

by danjdewhurst in danjdewhurst/story-skills

This skill should be used when the user asks about "theme", "controlling idea", "thematic argument", "moral argument", "thematic arc", "flat arc", "negative arc", "the lie", "antagonist design"…

MITAuto-check: notesWriting & Content

Install Theme Craft

skills CLI
$ npx skills add danjdewhurst/story-skills --skill theme-craft -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install danjdewhurst/story-skills theme-craft --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/danjdewhurst/story-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/theme-craft .claude/skills/theme-craft && 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
theme-craft
GitHub stars
279
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~1.8k tokens
SKILL.md length
797 words
Files
6 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
24
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

This skill should be used when the user asks about "theme", "controlling idea", "thematic argument", "moral argument", "thematic arc", "flat arc", "negative arc", "the lie", "antagonist design"…

  • Works in 6 steps: Draft the working premise. Read story.md… → Build the lie/truth machinery. For the… → Design the antagonist as the… → …
  • Asks about theme
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, Prerequisites, Workflow and Conventions, plus 3 more sections
  • Calls node

What it does

Theme Craft is an agent skill from danjdewhurst/story-skills. This skill should be used when the user asks about "theme", "controlling idea", "thematic argument", "moral argument", "thematic arc", "flat arc", "negative arc", "the lie", "antagonist design", "motif", "symbolism", "theme audit", or wants to plan, track, or revise the thematic layer of a story, including the lie, truth, ghost-wound, and arc-type fields of a character file. NOT for finding or testing a story premise (use premise-workshop), or a character's profile, relationships, or "character arc" record (use…

Its SKILL.md is about 1.8k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 6 other files, including reference files (for example `references/antagonist-design.md`, `references/controlling-idea.md` and `references/lie-truth.md`).

It sits in Writing & Content, covering Creative writing and fiction. The repository describes itself as: Agent Skills for end-to-end story writing in markdown, packaged as Codex and Claude Code plugins. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Asks about theme
  • Controlling idea
  • Thematic argument
  • Antagonist design

Example prompts

  • “controlling idea”
  • “thematic argument”
  • “moral argument”
  • “/theme-craft”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Draft the working premise. Read story.md for genre and themes.
  2. Build the lie/truth machinery. For the protagonist and antagonist
  3. Design the antagonist as the counter-argument. Consult
  4. Plant motifs. Consult references/motif-symbolism.md; choose two or
  5. Use the premise while drafting. When a scene decision is unclear, ask
  6. Run the theme audit in revision. After a complete draft, consult

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 1df23f9. 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

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • node

    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

Theme Craft loads about 1.8k tokens when it runs, and up to ~6k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 138 tokens; SKILL.md has 797 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~138
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.8k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~6k

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: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:90
    `bunfig.toml` (which can run code) and `.env`, and a package script runs from the checkout's root. If no CLI is availab

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 danjdewhurst/story-skills at commit 1df23f9, republished under its MIT licence (© danjdewhurst). 797 words, ~1,779 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/theme-craft/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 5 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
theme-craft
description
This skill should be used when the user asks about "theme", "controlling idea", "thematic argument", "moral argument", "thematic arc", "flat arc", "negative arc", "the lie", "antagonist design", "motif", "symbolism", "theme audit", or wants to plan, track, or revise the thematic layer of a story, including the lie, truth, ghost-wound, and arc-type fields of a character file. NOT for finding or testing a story premise (use premise-workshop), or a character's profile, relationships, or "character arc" record (use character-management).

Theme Craft

Overview

Plan and audit theme as a working mechanism, not decoration. Covers the controlling idea (value + cause, in McKee's sense), the lie/truth machinery and the three canonical arc types, antagonist design as the embodied counter-argument, motif tracking, and a revision-time theme audit. Use at story start (working premise), during character design (lie/truth/arc-type), and after a complete draft (theme audit).

Prerequisites

A story project must already exist (created via the story-init skill). Character files (character-management) and a plot structure (plot-structure) should exist or be in progress.

Workflow

  1. Draft the working premise. Read story.md for genre and themes. Consult references/controlling-idea.md and write a one-sentence premise (value + cause) and counter-premise. Store them in story.md frontmatter:

    yaml
    premise: "{Value} triumphs because {cause}."
counter-premise: "{Opposing value} triumphs because {opposing cause}."

    If the user prefers discovering theme in the draft, record premise: tbd-discovery and skip to step 3.

  2. Build the lie/truth machinery. For the protagonist and antagonist (and any significant supporting character whose arc touches the theme), consult references/lie-truth.md and add to their character files:

    arc-type is one of change-positive, change-negative, or flat. Do not put that list in an inline comment: a command that rewrites the field drops the comment.

    yaml
    arc-type: change-positive
lie: "{The false belief}"
truth: "{The belief that resolves it}"
ghost-wound: "{The specific backstory event that planted the lie}"

    Check the character's turning points against the arc-type guidance: flat arcs need escalating tests of steadfastness, not growth beats; negative arcs need the truth visibly refused.

  3. Design the antagonist as the counter-argument. Consult references/antagonist-design.md: give the antagonist an edge, a defensible belief in the counter-premise, a want/wound/plan, and scenes they win. When the opposition is institutional, personify it.

  4. Plant motifs. Consult references/motif-symbolism.md; choose two or three concrete motifs, plant them literally, and track plantings, variations, and ending resonance in the motif ledger.

  5. Use the premise while drafting. When a scene decision is unclear, ask which choice engages the value continuum and costs the protagonist something. Feed the lie into scene sequels (see the scene-craft skill): the sequel is where the lie gets examined.

  6. Run the theme audit in revision. After a complete draft, consult references/theme-audit.md: trace the value through the draft, check the ending against the opening's value-question, verify theme is dramatized through consequence not commentary, and confirm motifs are paid off. Record findings in continuity/theme-audit.md with a theme-holds / theme-broken verdict. Hand structural findings to the revision-continuity skill as a developmental revision plan.

Conventions

  • premise: / counter-premise: live in story.md frontmatter and are the single source of truth for the story's theme; plot/_index.md theme tracking maps themes to arcs and chapters as before.
  • Character arc-type values are kebab-case from the fixed set (change-positive, change-negative, flat); lie, truth, and ghost-wound are one-line strings.
  • Motif ids are kebab-case and tracked in the motif ledger with planned / planted / paid-off status.
  • Theme is dramatized through choices and consequences. Never add a character speech, narration summary, or mentor lecture explaining the theme to satisfy an audit finding — rework the choices instead.
Show full SKILL.md (332 more words)Show less

CLI Maintenance

Use the Story CLI when it is available. If story is not installed, use the bundled fallback node ../story-maintenance/scripts/story.js with the same arguments. Use node <checkout>/bin/story.js instead only when the user names a Story Skills repository checkout or you are working in one. Write the script as an absolute path (resolve the fallback relative to this skill folder) and run it from the folder you would run story from, so . and other relative paths keep their meaning. Use Node, not Bun or a package script: Bun would load that folder's bunfig.toml (which can run code) and .env, and a package script runs from the checkout's root. If no CLI is available, perform the registry, backlink, and word-count checks manually.

After adding or changing premise fields, character arc fields, or the theme audit:

shell
story reindex .
story wordcount . --write
story check .

The motif ledger (continuity/motifs.md or the motif table in an arc file) and continuity/theme-audit.md are prose revision notes: the CLI does not scan, validate, link-check, or reindex them. Audit motif payoff and the theme verdict manually per references/theme-audit.md.

Reference Files

  • references/controlling-idea.md - The controlling idea as value + cause (McKee), counter-premise, working-premise workflow
  • references/lie-truth.md - Lie, truth, ghost wound, and the three arc types (change-positive, change-negative, flat)
  • references/antagonist-design.md - Worthy opponent, antagonist as counter-argument, plan-the-antagonist-as-protagonist, personified institutions
  • references/motif-symbolism.md - Plant-and-vary, object-symbol resonance with the ending, motif ledger
  • references/theme-audit.md - Revision audit: ending vs. opening value-question, consequence vs. commentary, motif payoff

Shared Conventions

Every story skill follows the shared conventions in ../story-maintenance/references/conventions.md, resolved relative to this skill folder. Read it before creating, renaming, or linking story files. If that file is missing because this skill was installed without story-maintenance, the essentials are: kebab-case ids and filenames, YAML frontmatter on every story-project file, _index.md registry tables that story reindex rebuilds (never edit them by hand), bidirectional links between entities, characters for who is on the page and mentions for who is only referred to, status: deceased plus died-in: chapter-{NN} for deaths, and no project-local generator or build scripts (run only the installed or bundled Story CLI).

© danjdewhurst, 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 5 other files (references) in skills/theme-craft of danjdewhurst/story-skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/antagonist-design.md
  • references/controlling-idea.md
  • references/lie-truth.md
  • references/motif-symbolism.md
  • references/theme-audit.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 1df23f9

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in danjdewhurst/story-skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Theme Craft 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.

Theme Craft compared with similar skills
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Story Toolbox Routerzenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode7.4k1 repos~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Short Web Fiction Trend Scanzenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode7.4k3 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
InkOS Creative HarnessNarcooo/inkos10k1 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
Novel Arteternityspring/shuohao-skills4.2k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0

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Categories

Questions about Theme Craft

What does Theme Craft do?

This skill should be used when the user asks about "theme", "controlling idea", "thematic argument", "moral argument", "thematic arc", "flat arc", "negative arc", "the lie", "antagonist design"…. Theme Craft is an agent skill from danjdewhurst/story-skills. This skill should be used when the user asks about "theme", "controlling idea", "thematic argument", "moral argument", "thematic arc", "flat arc", "negative arc", "the lie", "antagonist design", "motif", "symbolism", "theme audit", or wants to plan, track, or revise the thematic layer of a story, including the lie, truth, ghost-wound, and arc-type fields of a character file.

When should I use Theme Craft?

Theme Craft fits situations like: asks about theme; controlling idea; thematic argument; antagonist design.

How do I install Theme Craft in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add danjdewhurst/story-skills --skill theme-craft -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/theme-craft in danjdewhurst/story-skills) into .claude/skills/theme-craft in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Theme Craft in Codex?

Run `npx skills add danjdewhurst/story-skills --skill theme-craft -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/theme-craft in danjdewhurst/story-skills) into .agents/skills/theme-craft in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Theme Craft 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 danjdewhurst/story-skills --skill theme-craft -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/theme-craft, .gemini/skills/theme-craft, .github/skills/theme-craft and .opencode/skills/theme-craft in your project.

What does Theme Craft need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Theme Craft needs the command-line tools its instructions call (node).

Does Theme Craft 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 Theme Craft safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (mentions a .env file), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Theme Craft use?

Theme Craft 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 Theme Craft use?

About 1.8k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 7.1k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 4.2k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Theme Craft?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Theme Craft: Story Multi-Perspective Review (zenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode, 7.4k stars), Story Toolbox Router (zenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode, 7.4k stars), Short Web Fiction Trend Scan (zenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode, 7.4k stars) and InkOS Creative Harness (Narcooo/inkos, 10k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Theme Craft?

danjdewhurst (a GitHub user) maintains it in danjdewhurst/story-skills, which has 279 GitHub stars. The repository holds 24 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.

Source: danjdewhurst/story-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.