Agent skill

Software Engineering Standards

by kitchen-engineer42 in kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills

Reference and apply IEEE, ISO/IEC, and other software engineering standards for development, quality assurance, and project management.

No licenceAuto-check passedTesting & QA

Install Software Engineering Standards

skills CLI
$ npx skills add kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills --skill software-engineering-standards -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills software-engineering-standards --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/kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/'skills_samples/Steve McConnell Code Complete A Practical Handbook of Software Construction_output/software-engineering-standards' .claude/skills/software-engineering-standards && 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
software-engineering-standards
GitHub stars
134
Token cost
~921 tokens
SKILL.md length
355 words
Files
4 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
21
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
None found

At a glance

Reference and apply IEEE, ISO/IEC, and other software engineering standards for development, quality assurance, and project management.

  • Works in 3 steps: Reference: IEEE Std 830-1998 → Follow structure defined in standard → Include standard citation in document…
  • Selecting standards for specific activities
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use This Skill, Standard Naming Convention, Top-Level Framework Standard and Selecting Standards by Activity, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Software Engineering Standards is an agent skill from kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills. Reference and apply IEEE, ISO/IEC, and other software engineering standards for development, quality assurance, and project management. Use when selecting standards for specific activities, formatting standard references, establishing project frameworks, or creating documentation templates.

Its SKILL.md is about 920 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 4 other files, including reference files (for example `references/development-standards.md`, `references/management-standards.md` and `references/qa-standards.md`).

It sits in Testing & QA, covering Project management and QA and bug reports. The repository describes itself as: Convert a book into skills directly callable to Claude Code.

When your agent uses it

  • Selecting standards for specific activities
  • Formatting standard references
  • Establishing project frameworks
  • Creating documentation templates

Example prompts

  • “/software-engineering-standards”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Reference: IEEE Std 830-1998
  2. Follow structure defined in standard
  3. Include standard citation in document header

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0d70065. 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

Software Engineering Standards loads about 921 tokens when it runs, and up to ~1.6k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 81 tokens; SKILL.md has 355 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~81
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~921
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~1.6k

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 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

Without a licence we can't republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 355 words (~921 tokens).

“When multiple organizations adopt a standard, list all organizations:”

— opening of SKILL.md by kitchen-engineer42
name
software-engineering-standards

Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub

Files

SKILL.md and 3 other files (references) in skills_samples/Steve McConnell Code Complete A Practical Handbook of Software Construction_output/software-engineering-standards of kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/development-standards.md
  • references/management-standards.md
  • references/qa-standards.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0d70065

Compare with similar skills

Software Engineering Standards 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.

Software Engineering Standards compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Software Engineering Standards this skillkitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills134—~921Automated safety check: PassNone
GitHub Issuesgithub/awesome-copilot40k2 repos~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Build Scenario Teststamdogood/builder-essential-skills219—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Releasecodewhale-hq/Codewhale41k—~189Automated safety check: PassMIT
Raytsystem Run Reviewromarayt/raytsystem-public-os150—~523Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Milestone Project Managerfinna/project-manager-skill135—~4.3kAutomated safety check: PassNone

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Questions about Software Engineering Standards

What does Software Engineering Standards do?

Reference and apply IEEE, ISO/IEC, and other software engineering standards for development, quality assurance, and project management. Software Engineering Standards is an agent skill from kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills. Reference and apply IEEE, ISO/IEC, and other software engineering standards for development, quality assurance, and project management.

When should I use Software Engineering Standards?

Software Engineering Standards fits situations like: selecting standards for specific activities; formatting standard references; establishing project frameworks; creating documentation templates.

How do I install Software Engineering Standards in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills --skill software-engineering-standards -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills_samples/Steve McConnell Code Complete A Practical Handbook of Software Construction_output/software-engineering-standards in kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills) into .claude/skills/software-engineering-standards in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Software Engineering Standards in Codex?

Run `npx skills add kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills --skill software-engineering-standards -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills_samples/Steve McConnell Code Complete A Practical Handbook of Software Construction_output/software-engineering-standards in kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills) into .agents/skills/software-engineering-standards in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Software Engineering Standards 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 kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills --skill software-engineering-standards -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/software-engineering-standards, .gemini/skills/software-engineering-standards, .github/skills/software-engineering-standards and .opencode/skills/software-engineering-standards in your project.

What does Software Engineering Standards need to run?

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

Does Software Engineering Standards 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 Software Engineering Standards 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 Software Engineering Standards use?

No licence was found for Software Engineering Standards or its repository. Without one, default copyright applies: ask the author before reusing or redistributing it.

How many tokens does Software Engineering Standards use?

About 921 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.7k 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 660 tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Software Engineering Standards?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Software Engineering Standards: GitHub Issues (github/awesome-copilot, 40k stars), Build Scenario Tests (tamdogood/builder-essential-skills, 219 stars), Release (codewhale-hq/Codewhale, 41k stars) and Raytsystem Run Review (romarayt/raytsystem-public-os, 150 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Software Engineering Standards?

kitchen-engineer42 (a GitHub user) maintains it in kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills, which has 134 GitHub stars. The repository holds 21 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on February 24, 2026.

Source: kitchen-engineer42/pdf2skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.