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Agent skill

Skill Design Lineage

by nyldn in nyldn/claude-octopus

Persist design documents with branch tracking, revision chains, and cross-session discovery

MITAuto-check passedAgent Workflows

Install Skill Design Lineage

skills CLI
$ npx skills add nyldn/claude-octopus --skill skill-design-lineage -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install nyldn/claude-octopus skill-design-lineage --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/nyldn/claude-octopus.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/skill-design-lineage .claude/skills/skill-design-lineage && 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
skill-design-lineage
GitHub stars
4.2k
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~2.2k tokens
SKILL.md length
609 words
Files
2
Skills in repo
62
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Persist design documents with branch tracking, revision chains, and cross-session discovery

  • Works in 4 steps: Save Design → Discover Prior Designs → Link Revision Chain → …
  • Tasks that involve Session handoff
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, Storage Location, Filename Format and Design Document Template, plus 6 more sections
  • Calls git

What it does

Skill Design Lineage is an agent skill from nyldn/claude-octopus. Persist design documents with branch tracking, revision chains, and cross-session discovery

Its SKILL.md is about 2.2k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files (for example `agents/openai.yaml`).

It sits in Agent Workflows, covering Session handoff. The repository describes itself as: Run multiple AI models against the same research, design, or coding task. Surface disagreements before you ship. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Session handoff

Example prompts

  • “/skill-design-lineage”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Save Design
  2. Discover Prior Designs
  3. Link Revision Chain
  4. Cross-Session Discovery

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit b34780d. 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:

    • git

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    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

Skill Design Lineage loads about 2.2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 28 tokens; SKILL.md has 609 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~28
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.2k

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 nyldn/claude-octopus at commit b34780d, republished under its MIT licence (© nyldn). 609 words, ~2,227 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/skill-design-lineage/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
skill-design-lineage
description
Persist design documents with branch tracking, revision chains, and cross-session discovery
disable-model-invocation
true

Host: Codex CLI — This skill was designed for Claude Code and adapted for Codex. Cross-reference commands use installed skill names in Codex rather than /octo:* slash commands. Use the active Codex shell and subagent tools. Do not claim a provider, model, or host subagent is available until the current session exposes it. For host tool equivalents, see skills/blocks/codex-host-adapter.md.

Design Document Lineage

When a design introduces or changes domain terms, load skills/blocks/domain-modeling.md. Record each definition in the existing design lineage artifact with its evidence source, checked time, and scope. A changed definition invalidates dependent decisions. Link and reopen them instead of leaving stale implementation guidance marked current.

Overview

Persist design documents from brainstorming and planning sessions with branch tracking, revision chains, and cross-session discoverability. Design docs are immutable after creation -- new revisions supersede prior versions rather than editing in place.

Storage Location

All design documents are stored under:

~/.claude-octopus/designs/<project-slug>/

The project slug is derived from the current git repository name or working directory basename:

bash
SLUG=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)")
DESIGNS_DIR="${HOME}/.claude-octopus/designs/${SLUG}"
mkdir -p "$DESIGNS_DIR"

Filename Format

Design documents follow a strict naming convention:

{user}-{branch}-design-{datetime}.md

Where:

  • {user} -- the current OS username ($USER or whoami)
  • {branch} -- the current git branch, sanitized (slashes replaced with dashes)
  • {datetime} -- ISO 8601 compact timestamp (YYYYMMDD-HHmmss)

Example:

chris-feature-auth-refactor-design-20260321-143022.md

Resolution:

bash
BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null | tr '/' '-' || echo "no-branch")
DATETIME=$(date -u +"%Y%m%d-%H%M%S")
FILENAME="${USER}-${BRANCH}-design-${DATETIME}.md"

Design Document Template

Each design document contains YAML frontmatter followed by structured sections.

Frontmatter Metadata
yaml
branch: feature/auth-refactor
user: chris
created: 2026-03-21T14:30:22Z
supersedes: chris-feature-auth-refactor-design-20260320-091500.md

Fields:

  • branch -- the git branch at time of creation
  • user -- the OS username who created the document
  • created -- ISO 8601 timestamp of creation
  • supersedes -- filename of the prior design document this revision replaces (omitted if this is the first design for the branch)
Document Sections
markdown
# Design: [Title]

## Problem Statement
[What problem does this design solve? Why does it matter?]

## Constraints
[Technical, timeline, resource, or organizational constraints that bound the solution space.]

## Approaches Considered
[List each approach evaluated, with brief pros/cons for each.]

### Approach A: [Name]
- **Pros:** ...
- **Cons:** ...

### Approach B: [Name]
- **Pros:** ...
- **Cons:** ...

## Recommendation
[Which approach is recommended and why. Include the key trade-off that drove the decision.]

## Open Questions
[Unresolved questions that may affect implementation or require follow-up.]

Step 1: Save Design

After a brainstorm, planning, or define workflow produces design output, save it to the standard location with metadata.

bash
SLUG=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)")
DESIGNS_DIR="${HOME}/.claude-octopus/designs/${SLUG}"
mkdir -p "$DESIGNS_DIR"

BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null | tr '/' '-' || echo "no-branch")
DATETIME=$(date -u +"%Y%m%d-%H%M%S")
FILENAME="${USER}-${BRANCH}-design-${DATETIME}.md"
FILEPATH="${DESIGNS_DIR}/${FILENAME}"

cat > "$FILEPATH" <<EOF
branch: $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo "no-branch")
user: ${USER}
created: $(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
${SUPERSEDES:+supersedes: ${SUPERSEDES}}

# Design: [Title]

## Problem Statement
[Content from brainstorm/planning session]

## Constraints
[Identified constraints]

## Approaches Considered
[Evaluated approaches]

## Recommendation
[Selected approach and rationale]

## Open Questions
[Unresolved items]
EOF

Design docs are read-only after creation. To revise a design, create a new document with a supersedes reference to the prior version.

Step 2: Discover Prior Designs

Before writing a new design, search for related prior designs using keyword matching.

bash
SLUG=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)")
DESIGNS_DIR="${HOME}/.claude-octopus/designs/${SLUG}"

# Search for designs matching keywords (case-insensitive)
KEYWORDS="auth refactor"
grep -li "$KEYWORDS" "${DESIGNS_DIR}"/*.md 2>/dev/null | head -10

Constraints:

  • Keyword search is limited to 10 results to avoid overwhelming context
  • Search is case-insensitive via grep -li
  • Only searches within the current project slug's directory

When prior designs are found, present them to the user:

Found 2 prior designs related to "auth refactor":
  1. chris-feature-auth-refactor-design-20260320-091500.md (2026-03-20)
  2. chris-main-design-20260315-140000.md (2026-03-15)

Would you like to review any of these before creating a new design?
Show full SKILL.md (253 more words)Show less

If a prior design exists for the same branch, the new design document includes a supersedes field in its frontmatter pointing to the prior filename.

bash
BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null | tr '/' '-' || echo "no-branch")

# Find the most recent design for this branch
PRIOR=$(ls -t "${DESIGNS_DIR}"/*-${BRANCH}-design-*.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)

if [[ -n "$PRIOR" ]]; then
  SUPERSEDES=$(basename "$PRIOR")
fi

This creates a linked chain of revisions:

v3 (supersedes: v2) -> v2 (supersedes: v1) -> v1 (no supersedes)

To walk the full revision history for a branch:

bash
current="$FILENAME"
while [[ -n "$current" ]]; do
  echo "$current"
  current=$(grep '^supersedes:' "${DESIGNS_DIR}/${current}" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/supersedes: *//' || true)
done

Step 4: Cross-Session Discovery

Downstream commands (deliver, review, develop) auto-discover design context by checking the designs directory before starting work.

bash
SLUG=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)")
DESIGNS_DIR="${HOME}/.claude-octopus/designs/${SLUG}"
BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null | tr '/' '-' || echo "no-branch")

# Find designs for current branch
BRANCH_DESIGNS=$(ls -t "${DESIGNS_DIR}"/*-${BRANCH}-design-*.md 2>/dev/null | head -3)

if [[ -n "$BRANCH_DESIGNS" ]]; then
  echo "Design context found for branch ${BRANCH}:"
  for design in $BRANCH_DESIGNS; do
    echo "  - $(basename "$design")"
  done
  # Read the most recent design for context
  LATEST_DESIGN=$(echo "$BRANCH_DESIGNS" | head -1)
  DESIGN_CONTEXT=$(<"$LATEST_DESIGN")
fi

Downstream skills should check for designs before starting work:

  • flow-discover: Check for existing designs to avoid duplicate research
  • flow-define: Incorporate prior design constraints into requirements
  • flow-develop: Read the recommended approach from the latest design
  • skill-brainstorm: Surface prior designs as starting context

Caps and Limits

  • Max 50 design docs per project slug -- when the limit is reached, warn the user and suggest archiving old designs
  • Keyword search limited to 10 results -- prevents context overload
  • Design doc template max 500 lines -- encourages concise, actionable designs

Cap enforcement:

bash
DOC_COUNT=$(ls "${DESIGNS_DIR}"/*.md 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
if [[ "$DOC_COUNT" -ge 50 ]]; then
  echo "Warning: ${DOC_COUNT} design docs in ${DESIGNS_DIR}. Consider archiving old designs."
fi

Integration Notes

Works With
  • flow-discover -- Design docs capture research findings for persistence
  • flow-define -- Design constraints feed into requirement definitions
  • skill-brainstorm -- Brainstorm output can be saved as a design document
  • skill-thought-partner -- Exploration sessions can produce design artifacts
Downstream Discovery
  • flow-develop -- Reads latest design before implementation
  • flow-deliver -- References design decisions during review
  • skill-code-review -- Checks implementation against design recommendations
Immutability Rule

Design docs are read-only after creation. To update a design:

  1. Create a new design document
  2. Set supersedes to the prior document's filename
  3. The prior document remains unchanged for audit trail

This ensures a complete history of design evolution is always available.

© nyldn, 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 1 other file in skills/skill-design-lineage of nyldn/claude-octopus.

  • SKILL.md
  • agents/openai.yaml

Open the folder on GitHubat commit b34780d

Used in 1 other repository

We found 2 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in nyldn/claude-octopus, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

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Categories

Questions about Skill Design Lineage

What does Skill Design Lineage do?

Persist design documents with branch tracking, revision chains, and cross-session discovery. Skill Design Lineage is an agent skill from nyldn/claude-octopus.

When should I use Skill Design Lineage?

Skill Design Lineage fits situations like: tasks that involve Session handoff.

How do I install Skill Design Lineage in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add nyldn/claude-octopus --skill skill-design-lineage -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/skill-design-lineage in nyldn/claude-octopus) into .claude/skills/skill-design-lineage in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Skill Design Lineage in Codex?

Run `npx skills add nyldn/claude-octopus --skill skill-design-lineage -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/skill-design-lineage in nyldn/claude-octopus) into .agents/skills/skill-design-lineage in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Skill Design Lineage 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 nyldn/claude-octopus --skill skill-design-lineage -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/skill-design-lineage, .gemini/skills/skill-design-lineage, .github/skills/skill-design-lineage and .opencode/skills/skill-design-lineage in your project.

What does Skill Design Lineage need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Skill Design Lineage needs the command-line tools its instructions call (git).

Does Skill Design Lineage access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Skill Design Lineage 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 Skill Design Lineage use?

Skill Design Lineage 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 Skill Design Lineage use?

About 2.2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.9k 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 Skill Design Lineage?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Skill Design Lineage: Orca CLI (stablyai/orca, 89k stars), Beads Task Memory (gastownhall/beads, 28k stars), Session History Search (slopus/happy, 24k stars) and Paseo Agent Handoff (getpaseo/paseo, 20k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Skill Design Lineage?

nyldn (a GitHub user) maintains it in nyldn/claude-octopus, which has 4,198 GitHub stars. The repository holds 62 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

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