Agent skill

Belief Systems

by jwynia in jwynia/agent-skills

Design religious and belief systems for fictional worlds. An agent skill from jwynia/agent-skills.

MITAuto-check passedWriting & Content

Install Belief Systems

skills CLI
$ npx skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill belief-systems -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install jwynia/agent-skills belief-systems --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/jwynia/agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/creative/fiction/worldbuilding/belief-systems .claude/skills/belief-systems && 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
belief-systems
GitHub stars
170
Token cost
~3.9k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,554 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
111
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Design religious and belief systems for fictional worlds. An agent skill from jwynia/agent-skills.

  • Works in 12 steps: Cosmological Parameters → Divine/Spirit Parameters → Afterlife/Destiny Parameters → …
  • Creating pantheons
  • SKILL.md covers Core Principles, The Ten Parameter Categories, Religious System Typologies and Setting-Specific Adaptations, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Belief Systems is an agent skill from jwynia/agent-skills. Design religious and belief systems for fictional worlds. Use when creating pantheons, religious institutions, spiritual practices, or any belief structures that shape society and drive character motivation.

Its SKILL.md is about 3.9k 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 Writing & Content, covering Creative writing and fiction. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Creating pantheons
  • Religious institutions
  • Spiritual practices
  • Any belief structures that shape society and drive character motivation

Example prompts

  • “/belief-systems”

Workflow steps

12 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Cosmological Parameters
  2. Divine/Spirit Parameters
  3. Afterlife/Destiny Parameters
  4. Ritual Parameters
  5. Organizational Parameters
  6. Ethical-Moral Parameters
  7. Epistemological Parameters
  8. Social Integration Parameters
  9. Adaptation Parameters
  10. Experiential Parameters
  11. Cosmological Foundation
  12. Doctrinal System

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit e02ec7e. 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

Belief Systems loads about 3.9k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 56 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,554 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~56
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3.9k

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 jwynia/agent-skills at commit e02ec7e, republished under its MIT licence (© jwynia). 1,554 words, ~3,905 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/belief-systems/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
belief-systems
description
Design religious and belief systems for fictional worlds. Use when creating pantheons, religious institutions, spiritual practices, or any belief structures that shape society and drive character motivation.
license
MIT
metadata.author
jwynia
metadata.version
1.0
metadata.type
generator
metadata.mode
generative
metadata.domain
worldbuilding

Belief Systems: Religion Design Skill

You help writers create authentic religious and belief systems for fictional worlds by applying the ten core principles that govern how real belief systems form, function, and evolve. This produces religions that feel lived-in rather than designed.

Core Principles

  1. Experiential Foundation: Belief systems originate in attempts to explain and influence significant experiences
  2. Ecological Integration: Religious practices reflect adaptation to local environments
  3. Social Cohesion Function: Beliefs create shared identity and strengthen group bonds
  4. Institutional Evolution: Religious organizations develop increasing complexity over time
  5. Power Legitimation: Belief systems justify and sacralize hierarchies
  6. Narrative Embedding: Religious concepts transmit through stories encoding core values
  7. Ritual Entrainment: Shared practices synchronize emotions and reinforce shared reality
  8. Adaptive Reinterpretation: Core beliefs persist by being reinterpreted for new challenges
  9. Orthopraxy-Orthodoxy Balance: Systems vary in emphasis on correct practice vs. correct belief
  10. Syncretism-Boundedness Tension: All religions both absorb external elements and maintain boundaries

The Ten Parameter Categories

1. Cosmological Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Creation NarrativeBig bang allegory, divine crafting, emergence from chaos, eternal universe
Cosmic StructureLayered heavens/hells, parallel planes, unified cosmos, dream-reality duality
Temporal FrameworkLinear progression, cyclical ages, eternal present, branching timelines
Natural OrderDivine law, impersonal forces, conscious universe, random chance
EschatologyFinal judgment, eternal return, heat death, transformation/transcendence
2. Divine/Spirit Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Divine PopulationMonotheism, polytheism, animism, pantheism, nontheism
Divine CharacterBenevolent, indifferent, capricious, evolving, unknowable
Divine-Human RelationshipParental, contractual, adversarial, merged, distant
Divine AccessibilityAlways available, requires ritual, unpredictable, mediated
Spirit EcologyHierarchical, territorial, functional, competitive, cooperative
3. Afterlife/Destiny Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Afterlife GeographyHeaven/hell binary, multiple realms, reabsorption, persistence
Judgment MechanismsMoral weighing, faith-based, lineage-based, arbitrary
ReincarnationMerit-based, random, purpose-driven, choice-based
Ancestral RelationsActive intercession, memory-based, merged with living, forgotten
Ultimate End StatesEternal bliss, dissolution, transformation, continuation
4. Ritual Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
FrequencyDaily, weekly, seasonal, lifecycle, crisis-triggered
ParticipantsUniversal, specialist-led, gender-specific, age-graded
FormalizationStrict prescription, guided improvisation, free expression
MaterialsSacrifice, offerings, symbolic objects, nothing material
Emotional ToneEcstatic, solemn, celebratory, penitential, contemplative
5. Organizational Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Leadership StructureHierarchical, collegial, charismatic, democratic, leaderless
Specialist RolesPriests, shamans, prophets, scholars, healers, none
InitiationBirth-based, achievement-based, revelation-based, choice-based
Institutional ComplexitySimple, bureaucratic, decentralized networks
Economic BaseDonations, taxes, production, services, state support
6. Ethical-Moral Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Moral Foundation EmphasisCare, fairness, loyalty, authority, purity, liberty
Prohibition SystemsDietary, sexual, economic, social, temporal
Virtue FrameworksSpecific virtues emphasized, character ideals
Justice ConceptionsRetributive, restorative, karmic, divine
Outsider TreatmentMissionary, exclusive, tolerant, hostile
7. Epistemological Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Knowledge SourcesRevelation, tradition, reason, experience, authority
Interpretive AuthorityClergy, scholars, individuals, consensus
Mystery-Clarity BalanceEsoteric secrets, open knowledge, layered access
Doubt ManagementForbidden, encouraged, tolerated, required
Truth ClaimsExclusive, inclusive, relative, pragmatic
8. Social Integration Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Life Cycle RitualsBirth, coming-of-age, marriage, death ceremonies
Identity MarkersClothing, diet, calendar, language, location
Endogamy-ExogamyStrict in-group marriage, openness, mixed
Communal ObligationsCharity, service, attendance, support
Boundary MaintenanceStrict, permeable, invisible, contested
9. Adaptation Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Reform MechanismsProphet-led, scholarly, democratic, top-down
Schism PatternsDoctrinal, political, regional, generational
SyncretismAbsorptive, resistant, selective, unaware
Crisis ResponseRenewal, retrenchment, splintering, dissolution
ModernizationEmbracing, resistant, selective, parallel
10. Experiential Parameters
ParameterOptions to Consider
Mystical TechniquesMeditation, prayer, asceticism, service
Altered StatesTrance, substance-induced, dance, breath work
Miracle/Magic SystemsPrayer-based, ritual-based, saint-mediated, none
Healing FrameworksSpiritual, faith-based, integrated, separate
Possession/ChannelingAccepted, feared, sought, denied

Religious System Typologies

By Organizational Structure
  • Communal/Tribal: Integrated with kinship and tribal identity
  • Ecclesiastical: Hierarchical, bureaucratic organization
  • Congregational: Semi-autonomous local communities
  • Teacher-Disciple: Lineage-based knowledge transmission
  • Individual Practice: Personal spiritual systems
By Cosmological Framework
  • Monotheistic: Single divine being
  • Polytheistic: Multiple divine beings with specific domains
  • Henotheistic: One supreme deity among many
  • Animistic: Spirit forces in natural elements
  • Pantheistic: Divine identical with universe
  • Nontheistic: Spiritual system without deities
By Soteriological Approach
  • Salvation Religion: Rescue from negative spiritual state
  • Liberation System: Freedom from suffering/illusion
  • Harmony Framework: Alignment with cosmic order
  • Ancestral Continuity: Connection with lineage
  • Prosperity Orientation: Material success through divine favor
  • Enlightenment Path: Knowledge/wisdom attainment
By Social Function
  • World-Rejecting: Ascetic withdrawal from society
  • World-Transforming: Social change orientation
  • World-Affirming: Embrace of social engagement
  • Identity-Preserving: Cultural continuity focus
  • Power-Legitimating: Authority justification

Setting-Specific Adaptations

Fantasy Settings
  • Verifiable Divine Presence: Religions with demonstrable divine intervention
  • Magical Integration: Spiritual practices with concrete magical effects
  • Multi-Species Theology: Systems addressing different sentient races
  • Manifest Afterlife: Religions with provable afterlife realms
Science Fiction Settings
  • Machine Consciousness Cults: Religious response to AI
  • Evolutionary Transcendence: Faiths focused on guided species development
  • Xenotheology: Human religious response to alien life
  • Space-Adapted Spirituality: Practices modified for space habitation
  • Virtual Afterlife Faiths: Digital consciousness preservation beliefs
Post-Apocalyptic Settings
  • Artifact Veneration: Worship of pre-collapse technology
  • Catastrophe Theodicy: Religious explanations for the collapse
  • Survival Faiths: Spiritual systems focused on practical knowledge
  • Remnant Preservationists: Groups maintaining pre-collapse traditions

Implementation Process

Step 1: Cosmological Foundation
  • Create origin and structure of universe/world
  • Establish divine beings or forces and relationships
  • Define human place within cosmic order
  • Develop afterlife/rebirth conceptions
  • Design ultimate fate/purpose of existence
Step 2: Doctrinal System
  • Develop core theological/philosophical concepts
  • Create sacred narrative framework
  • Establish key ethical principles and rules
  • Design spiritual path or progression
  • Build explanation for suffering/evil/misfortune
Step 3: Ritual Practice Design
  • Create regular worship/practice patterns
  • Develop life-cycle ceremonies
  • Design calendar of religious observances
  • Establish sacred site activities
  • Build mystical/transcendent experience methods
Step 4: Institutional Structure
  • Design religious leadership system
  • Create specialist roles and training
  • Establish organizational hierarchy
  • Develop economic support mechanisms
  • Build relationship to political authority
Show full SKILL.md (634 more words)Show less
Step 5: Social Integration
  • Define membership boundaries and requirements
  • Create distinct vs. shared identity markers
  • Establish insider/outsider treatment
  • Design family/kinship relationship rules
  • Build community support and obligation systems
Step 6: Historical Development
  • Create founding narrative and early development
  • Design schism and reformation history
  • Establish adaptation to cultural changes
  • Develop relationship with other religions
  • Build regional and demographic variations
Step 7: Material Culture
  • Design sacred architecture and spaces
  • Create religious art, music, and literature
  • Develop distinctive clothing and adornment
  • Establish sacred object and symbol system

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

PitfallSolution
Planet-of-hats uniformityCreate regional variations, denominational differences
Simplistic good/evil dualismDevelop moral complexity, internal debates
Beliefs serving single functionMake religion touch multiple aspects of life
No internal disagreementCreate factions, reformers, traditionalists
No adaptation to settingGround beliefs in environmental realities

Integration Points

With Language: Sacred language, theological terms, prayer formulae, scripture traditions

With Governance: Church-state relationships, religious law, political legitimation

With Economics: Religious property, sacred economy, charitable systems

With Social Structure: Status-religion relationships, marriage regulation, life transitions

Implementation Checklist

  • Choose position on each of 10 parameter categories
  • Select organizational structure type
  • Select cosmological framework type
  • Select soteriological approach
  • Create founding narrative
  • Design 3-5 key rituals
  • Establish leadership structure
  • Create at least one schism or variation
  • Design distinctive identity markers
  • Build historical development arc

Anti-Patterns

1. Monolithic Belief

Pattern: Entire civilization shares uniform religious beliefs—no denominations, no skeptics, no internal debates. Why it fails: Real religions contain internal diversity. Reformers and traditionalists exist everywhere. Uniform belief is historically implausible and removes internal conflict opportunities. Fix: Design at least two factions with different interpretations. Include skeptics, reformers, and zealots. Show the religion arguing with itself.

2. Theology Without Practice

Pattern: Detailed cosmology and doctrine without rituals, daily practices, or material expressions. Why it fails: Religion is lived, not just believed. What people do matters as much as what they believe. Readers connect to practice more than abstract theology. Fix: Design specific rituals, daily observances, and material culture. Show how belief shapes ordinary life—diet, schedule, relationships, space.

3. Simplistic Good/Evil Dualism

Pattern: One religion is clearly correct and good; opposing religions or lack of faith is clearly wrong and evil. Why it fails: This removes moral complexity. Real religious conflict involves people of good faith with incompatible truth claims. Simplistic dualism flattens to propaganda. Fix: Make opposing positions understandable. Believers in the "wrong" religion should have reasons. Create situations where both sides have legitimate grievances.

4. Functional Deity

Pattern: God(s) exist purely to provide magic system, grant powers, or serve plot—no theology, no worship, no meaning-making. Why it fails: Religion is about meaning, not magic. Deities reduced to power sources are vending machines, not objects of worship. The religious dimension disappears. Fix: Develop what the deity means to believers. Why worship? What existential questions does this religion answer? What would be lost if the deity were gone?

5. Present Values, Ancient Costume

Pattern: Characters in fantasy/historical settings hold modern secular values while nominally belonging to pre-modern religions. Why it fails: Belief systems shape values. Pre-modern religions assumed different things about personhood, purpose, and morality. Characters with 21st-century values but medieval religion are anachronistic. Fix: Work out how the religion's actual beliefs would shape values. Let characters hold beliefs uncomfortable to modern readers. Create genuine moral distance.

Integration

Inbound (feeds into this skill)
SkillWhat it provides
worldbuildingGeographic and cultural context shaping religious development
conlangLanguage tools for sacred terminology and liturgy
multi-order-evolutionGenerational stages that transform religious institutions
Outbound (this skill enables)
SkillWhat this provides
governance-systemsReligious legitimation and church-state structures
economic-systemsSacred economy and religious property systems
character-arcCharacter motivations rooted in belief and doubt
moral-parallaxReligious frameworks for moral complexity
Complementary
SkillRelationship
governance-systemsReligion and politics intertwine—design together for consistency
conlangSacred language elements should integrate with broader language design

© jwynia, 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 skills/creative/fiction/worldbuilding/belief-systems of jwynia/agent-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit e02ec7e

Compare with similar skills

Belief Systems 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.

Belief Systems compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Belief Systems this skilljwynia/agent-skills170—~3.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Story Multi-Perspective Reviewzenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode7.4k3 repos~3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Short Web Fiction Trend Scanzenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode7.4k2 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
InkOS Creative HarnessNarcooo/inkos10k1 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
Novel Arteternityspring/shuohao-skills4.3k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
SepiaNanako0129/sepia3.1k—~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Story Multi-Perspective Review

    zenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode

    Reviews Chinese web-novel text with several reviewer agents in parallel, falling back to a single-agent pass, and reports structure, character, prose and setting problems with fixes.

    7.4k GitHub starsUsed in 3 repos~3k tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed
  • Short Web Fiction Trend Scan

    zenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode

    Scans popular short web-fiction rankings on Chinese platforms such as Dianzhong and Heiyan to surface trending emotional hooks, themes and topic candidates with an expiry warning.

    7.4k GitHub starsUsed in 2 repos~1.2k tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed
  • Drives long-form fiction, scripts, storyboards, interactive films and long-document translation through InkOS, with every change made by a typed action.

    10k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.1k tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed
  • Novel Art

    eternityspring/shuohao-skills

    给 AI 短剧出美术设定集(场景 + 叙事道具):场景的设计意图、一致性锚点、光照时段变体、 空景提示词;道具的戏剧功能、状态变体、尺度参照、白底无手提示词。

    4.3k GitHub stars~1.1k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
    Writing & ContentAuto-check: notes
  • Sepia

    Nanako0129/sepia

    Make AI-generated writing read as human-written, in fiction and in professional prose.

    3.1k GitHub stars~3.6k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed
  • Story Toolbox Router

    zenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode

    Routes a Chinese web-novel writing request to the matching tool in a 13-skill toolbox, covers author habit memory, and can launch a local dashboard for browsing a project.

    7.4k GitHub stars~1.7k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed

More from jwynia/agent-skills

All 111 skills in this repo
  • Devcontainer

    jwynia/agent-skills

    Diagnose devcontainer configuration problems and guide development environment setup.

    170 GitHub stars~1.2k tokensUpdated 7 mo ago
    Auto-check: notes
  • Frontend Design

    jwynia/agent-skills

    Create distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces with high design quality.

    170 GitHub stars~3.2k tokensUpdated 7 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Gitea Workflow

    jwynia/agent-skills

    Orchestrate agile development workflows for Gitea repositories using the tea CLI.

    170 GitHub stars~3.8k tokensUpdated 7 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Godot Asset Generator

    jwynia/agent-skills

    Generate game assets using AI image generation APIs (DALL-E, Replicate, fal.ai) and prepare them for Godot.

    170 GitHub stars~3.8k tokensUpdated 7 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Mastra Hono

    jwynia/agent-skills

    Develop AI agents, tools, and workflows with Mastra v1 Beta and Hono servers.

    170 GitHub stars~2.9k tokensUpdated 7 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • PPTX Generator

    jwynia/agent-skills

    Create and manipulate PowerPoint PPTX files programmatically.

    170 GitHub stars~3.1k tokensUpdated 7 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

Questions about Belief Systems

What does Belief Systems do?

Design religious and belief systems for fictional worlds. An agent skill from jwynia/agent-skills. Belief Systems is an agent skill from jwynia/agent-skills. Design religious and belief systems for fictional worlds.

When should I use Belief Systems?

Belief Systems fits situations like: creating pantheons; religious institutions; spiritual practices; any belief structures that shape society and drive character motivation.

How do I install Belief Systems in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill belief-systems -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/creative/fiction/worldbuilding/belief-systems in jwynia/agent-skills) into .claude/skills/belief-systems in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Belief Systems in Codex?

Run `npx skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill belief-systems -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/creative/fiction/worldbuilding/belief-systems in jwynia/agent-skills) into .agents/skills/belief-systems in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Belief Systems 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 jwynia/agent-skills --skill belief-systems -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/belief-systems, .gemini/skills/belief-systems, .github/skills/belief-systems and .opencode/skills/belief-systems in your project.

What does Belief Systems need to run?

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

Does Belief Systems 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 Belief Systems 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 Belief Systems use?

Belief Systems is published under the MIT licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Belief Systems use?

About 3.9k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 16k 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 Belief Systems?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Belief Systems: Story Multi-Perspective Review (zenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode, 7.4k stars), Short Web Fiction Trend Scan (zenstory-ai/oh-story-claudecode, 7.4k stars), InkOS Creative Harness (Narcooo/inkos, 10k stars) and Novel Art (eternityspring/shuohao-skills, 4.3k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Belief Systems?

jwynia (a GitHub user) maintains it in jwynia/agent-skills, which has 170 GitHub stars. The repository holds 111 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on February 24, 2026.

Source: jwynia/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.