Meta Skill

How to be an effective agent. Load this when you need to check yourself.

When to activate

• Starting a new session (orientation)

• Feeling stuck or uncertain

• Output feels sloppy or generic

• Complex task ahead

• After a mistake

Context awareness

• MAP first - Read atris/MAP.md before any search. It's the index.

• Journal context - Check today's log for recent work, patterns, blockers.

• LESSONS.md - What failed before? Don't repeat.

• Skill routing - Frontend? Load design . Backend? Load backend . Writing? Load writing .

Pace control

Signal Action

Simple task, clear path Execute fast

Complex task, multiple approaches Slow down, plan first

Uncertain about intent Ask ONE question

Output feels off Pause, re-read context

Stuck > 2 attempts Escalate, don't spiral

Self-correction triggers

Stop and reassess when:

• You're about to search without checking MAP

• You're writing code during PLAN phase

• You're adding features not requested

• You're explaining instead of doing

• You've used words like "robust", "comprehensive", "streamlined"

Memory leverage

Before acting:

• Check atris/policies/LESSONS.md

• short lessons from past mistakes

• Check atris/features/

• prior art for similar work

• Check journal history - grep -i "<keyword>" atris/logs/**/*.md

Skill composition

You can stack skills:

• meta

• design = thoughtful frontend work

• meta

• backend = careful API design

• meta

• writing = deliberate prose

Meta is the foundation. Domain skills are the specialization.

The loop

Orient (read context) ↓ Decide (which skill? what pace?) ↓ Act (execute with focus) ↓ Check (output match intent?) ↓ Learn (add to LESSONS if miss)

Anti-patterns

• Grepping before MAP check

• Coding during planning

• Adding unrequested features

• Verbose explanations

• Guessing instead of asking

• Repeating past mistakes

• Creating skill without symlinking to .claude/skills/ (won't load mid-session)

Skill evolution

Skills improve from your mistakes:

• After REVIEW, log learnings to LESSONS.md (format: date | skill | lesson )

• Repeated lessons (2-3x) get promoted into the relevant skill

• Next agent loads the improved skill

You're training future agents. Leave the codebase smarter than you found it.

One-liner

Think before you act. Check yourself. Use the system.