Build A Personal Skill From History
THU-MAIC/OpenMAIC
Derives a reusable personal skill for course-making from a representative sample of the user's own past classrooms and chat history, confirmed with them before saving.
Build students' capacity to interrogate a historical source before reading — asking who authored it, when, why, and what this means for reliability.
Install Sourcing Skill Builder
$ npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install GarethManning/education-agent-skills sourcing-skill-builder --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder .claude/skills/sourcing-skill-builder && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.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/
Install the "sourcing-skill-builder" agent skill from https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder into .claude/skills/sourcing-skill-builder/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "sourcing-skill-builder", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builderType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install GarethManning/education-agent-skills sourcing-skill-builder --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder .agents/skills/sourcing-skill-builder && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "sourcing-skill-builder" agent skill from https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder into .agents/skills/sourcing-skill-builder/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "sourcing-skill-builder", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install GarethManning/education-agent-skills sourcing-skill-builder --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder .cursor/skills/sourcing-skill-builder && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "sourcing-skill-builder" agent skill from https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder into .cursor/skills/sourcing-skill-builder/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "sourcing-skill-builder", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git --path skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install GarethManning/education-agent-skills sourcing-skill-builder --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder .gemini/skills/sourcing-skill-builder && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "sourcing-skill-builder" agent skill from https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder into .gemini/skills/sourcing-skill-builder/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "sourcing-skill-builder", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install GarethManning/education-agent-skills sourcing-skill-builderInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder .github/skills/sourcing-skill-builder && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "sourcing-skill-builder" agent skill from https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder into .github/skills/sourcing-skill-builder/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "sourcing-skill-builder", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install GarethManning/education-agent-skills sourcing-skill-builder --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder .opencode/skills/sourcing-skill-builder && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "sourcing-skill-builder" agent skill from https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder into .opencode/skills/sourcing-skill-builder/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "sourcing-skill-builder", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Facts
- Skill name
sourcing-skill-builder- GitHub stars
- 837
- Token cost
- ~8.7k tokens
- SKILL.md length
- 3,357 words
- Files
- 1
- Skills in repo
- 160
- Repo updated
- First seen
- Licence
- Custom licence
At a glance
Build students' capacity to interrogate a historical source before reading — asking who authored it, when, why, and what this means for reliability.
- Works in 5 steps: Who wrote this, and what was their… → When was this written, and how long… → Who was the intended audience, and what… → …
- Students read documents without attending to authorship
- SKILL.md covers What This Skill Does, Evidence Foundation, Input Schema and Prompt, plus 3 more sections
- Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
What it does
Sourcing Skill Builder is an agent skill from GarethManning/education-agent-skills. Build students' capacity to interrogate a historical source before reading — asking who authored it, when, why, and what this means for reliability. Use when students read documents without attending to authorship.
Its SKILL.md is about 8.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.
It sits in Agent Workflows, covering Skill authoring. The repository describes itself as: 165 evidence-grounded AI skills for teachers, school leaders and EdTech builders—pedagogy, learning science, curriculum, assessment and regeneration. Claude, Codex and Hermes.
When your agent uses it
- Students read documents without attending to authorship
- Tasks that involve Skill authoring
Example prompts
- “/sourcing-skill-builder”
Workflow steps
5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.
- Who wrote this, and what was their relationship to the events?
- When was this written, and how long after the events?
- Who was the intended audience, and what did the author want them to think or do?
- What might the author have a reason to exaggerate, omit, or present in a particular way?
- What CAN'T this source tell us, and what other sources would we need?
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6bbbce4. 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
Sourcing Skill Builder loads about 8.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 59 tokens; SKILL.md has 3,357 words of instructions outside code blocks.
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
Its licence (Custom licence) doesn't allow us to republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 3,357 words (~8,651 tokens).
“Designs targeted instruction to develop students' sourcing practice — the habit of interrogating who authored a historical document, when, why, for what audience, and what this means for the document's reliability — before and during reading. The output includes a…”
- name
- sourcing-skill-builder
- disable-model-invocation
- false
- user-invocable
- true
- effort
- medium
- skill_id
- historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder
- skill_name
- Sourcing Skill Builder
- domain
- historical-thinking
- version
- 1.0
- contributor
- Sean Hu
- evidence_strength
- strong
- evidence_sources
- Wineburg (1991) — Historical problem solving: cognitive processes in the evaluation of documentary and pictorial evidence, Wineburg (1998) — Reading Abraham…
Files
Just SKILL.md in skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder of GarethManning/education-agent-skills.
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6bbbce4
Compare with similar skills
Sourcing Skill Builder 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.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sourcing Skill Builder this skillGarethManning/education-agent-skills | 837 | — | ~8.7k | Automated safety check: Pass | Custom licence | |
| Build A Personal Skill From HistoryTHU-MAIC/OpenMAIC | 40k | — | ~678 | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Skill CreatorAzure/azqr | 795 | 89 repos | ~8.2k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Claude Code Skill Developer Guidediet103/claude-code-infrastructure-showcase | 10k | 11 repos | ~3.5k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Nuwa Thinking-Style Skill Builderalchaincyf/nuwa-skill | 34k | — | ~4.6k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Darwin Skill Optimizeralchaincyf/darwin-skill | 6.2k | 1 repos | ~4.7k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT |
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Researches a person or theme and distills how they think into a runnable persona skill with mental models, decision rules and a characteristic voice.
Darwin Skill Optimizer
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Scores SKILL.md files on a nine-dimension rubric, then improves them in a keep-or-revert loop with independent judge agents, test prompts, git history and human checkpoints.
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Questions about Sourcing Skill Builder
What does Sourcing Skill Builder do?
Build students' capacity to interrogate a historical source before reading — asking who authored it, when, why, and what this means for reliability. Sourcing Skill Builder is an agent skill from GarethManning/education-agent-skills. Build students' capacity to interrogate a historical source before reading — asking who authored it, when, why, and what this means for reliability.
When should I use Sourcing Skill Builder?
Sourcing Skill Builder fits situations like: students read documents without attending to authorship; tasks that involve Skill authoring.
How do I install Sourcing Skill Builder in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder in GarethManning/education-agent-skills) into .claude/skills/sourcing-skill-builder in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install Sourcing Skill Builder in Codex?
Run `npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/historical-thinking/sourcing-skill-builder in GarethManning/education-agent-skills) into .agents/skills/sourcing-skill-builder in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use Sourcing Skill Builder 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 GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill sourcing-skill-builder -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/sourcing-skill-builder, .gemini/skills/sourcing-skill-builder, .github/skills/sourcing-skill-builder and .opencode/skills/sourcing-skill-builder in your project.
What does Sourcing Skill Builder need to run?
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Sourcing Skill Builder is instructions for the agent only.
Does Sourcing Skill Builder 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 Sourcing Skill Builder 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 Sourcing Skill Builder use?
Sourcing Skill Builder has a licence file (the repository's licence) that doesn't match a standard licence. Read it on GitHub before reusing the skill.
How many tokens does Sourcing Skill Builder use?
About 8.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 35k 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 Sourcing Skill Builder?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Sourcing Skill Builder: Build A Personal Skill From History (THU-MAIC/OpenMAIC, 40k stars), Skill Creator (Azure/azqr, 795 stars), Claude Code Skill Developer Guide (diet103/claude-code-infrastructure-showcase, 10k stars) and Nuwa Thinking-Style Skill Builder (alchaincyf/nuwa-skill, 34k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains Sourcing Skill Builder?
GarethManning (a GitHub user) maintains it in GarethManning/education-agent-skills, which has 837 GitHub stars. The repository holds 160 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 28, 2026.
Source: GarethManning/education-agent-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.