Escoffier Labs Skill Roster

Skillet, skill by skill

A skillet full of production-tested agent skills: plain SKILL.md files that turn an idea into a shipped, reviewed change. 23 skills at v0.3.0, organized as a kitchen line — find work, design it, plan it, fire it, taste it, plate it, ship it.

skillet v0.3.023 skillsClaude Code pluginMIT
01

What Skillet Is

Skillet is a repo of reusable agent skills — "production-tested workflows for auditing, improving, and shipping repos with AI coding agents." Each skill is a plain SKILL.md (Markdown + a two-field YAML frontmatter) under skills/<name>/. It installs as a Claude Code plugin via a marketplace, but every skill is harness-agnostic: you can also copy a SKILL.md into any compatible tool or drop one into a repo’s .claude/skills/. Each skill was extracted from a real workflow that broke when done by hand.

What it is

  • A roster of SKILL.md filesMarkdown procedures an agent reads and follows, triggered by their description.
  • Harness-agnosticClaude Code plugin, copy-into-any-harness, or per-repo .claude/skills/ — three install paths.
  • A composed lineSkills hand off to each other: a chain (mise → recipe → fire) wrapped by disciplines and gates.
  • Opinionated disciplineSkills like check and taste exist to survive the moment they get skipped (under pressure).

What it is not

  • A framework or runtimeNo code to run; nothing executes on its own. Skills are instructions, not a library.
  • Auto-triggering magicA skill activates when its description matches the task; the agent still chooses to invoke it.
  • A grab bagNot loose tips — each skill has a defined scope, terminal handoff, and explicit negative scope.
02

The Kitchen-to-Codebase Glossary

Skillet shares Brigade’s kitchen vocabulary, applied to the build process. Each culinary name encodes when to reach for the skill.

misemise en place
Turn an idea into an approved design + a written spec, before any code.
recipethe recipe card
Turn the approved spec into a plan a zero-context engineer could execute exactly.
firethe expediter calls "fire"
Execute the plan task-by-task on a branch; the plan’s checkboxes are the board.
tastenothing leaves untasted
Test-first discipline before writing implementation code, especially under pressure.
checkthe chef’s look at the plate
Evidence before any "done": never claim it works without verifying.
pass / platethe pass / plating
PR-readiness gate (pass) and public-prose scrub gate (plate) before things leave the kitchen.
line-checkthe line check
Walk the stations and audit repo health, leverage-sorted.
stationskitchen stations
Fan independent work out to parallel agents.
expeditethe expediter
Drive an audit backlog to done — the step that closes the loop.
specialthe chef’s special
Propose net-new features / opportunities (not fixes).
demi / reducedemi-glace / reduction
Build the smallest useful path; later simplify without changing behavior.
refire / sendbacka plate refired / sent back
Debug a failure root-cause-first; handle incoming review feedback.
03

The Build Line: mise → recipe → fire

The spine of skillet is a three-skill chain, each with a terminal handoff to the next. special finds the work; mise designs it; recipe plans it; fire builds it. Nothing skips ahead — mise will not write code, recipe will not decide design, fire will not improvise off the ticket.

  1. special — find the workA read-only opportunity board proposes net-new features. A chosen special hands to mise. special stops at the board.
  2. mise — design + specTurn the idea into a design the user approved and a written spec at docs/specs/. The only next skill is recipe.
  3. recipe — the planTurn the spec into an executable plan at docs/plans/ that a zero-context session could run. The implementer makes no design decisions. Hands to fire.
  4. fire — executeRun the plan task-by-task on an isolated branch, ticking the plan’s checkboxes as a live worklist. Nothing leaves the pass unchecked.
04

The 23 Skills, by Role

The build line is the spine; the rest are the ribs — disciplines that wrap the chain and gates that guard the exit. Grouped by what they are for.

Find problems
  • line-check
  • bug-hunt
  • security-sweep
  • expedite
Find opportunities
  • special
Build line
  • mise
  • recipe
  • fire
Disciplines
  • pressure-test
  • demi
  • taste
  • refire
  • reduce
  • check
  • sendback
  • stations
Ship gates
  • pass
  • plate
  • publish-readiness
  • release-cut
Memory & meta
  • memory-handoff
  • skillify
  • brigade-handoffs
05

Anatomy of a SKILL.md

A skill is just Markdown with a two-field frontmatter. The description is the activation trigger — it always opens with "Use when..." and usually names negative scope ("not for X") and a terminal handoff. The body opens with the metaphor and the core principle, then Steps / Rules / Common mistakes.

skills/mise/SKILL.mdmarkdown
---
name: mise
description: Use before any creative or build work - to turn an idea
  into a design the user approved and a written spec, before a line of
  code. Pairs with pressure-test for hardening; hands off to recipe.
---

# mise

Mise en place for building: everything designed and in its place before
you cook. The deliverable is a written spec a separate session could
implement without re-deciding anything load-bearing.

## Steps
1. ...
## Rules
- No code, no scaffolding until a design is on the table and approved.
## Common mistakes
- Starting to build the thing that "looks too small to bother" designing.
  • name / description (only two fields)No separate when-to-use field — the trigger is folded into description.
  • description: Use when / Use before ...Doubles as the activation matcher; lists literal trigger phrases and negative scope.
  • Mise en place for building ...House style: open with the metaphor, then the one-sentence core principle.
  • hands off to recipeSkills declare a terminal next-step so the chain composes without guesswork.
06

One Report Contract for the Audit Trio

line-check, bug-hunt, and security-sweep are read-only and share one finding schema (docs/audit-report-format.md). Because every finding has the same shape and an effort estimate, the three audits merge into one leverage-sorted backlog that expedite then drains.

FieldWhat it captures
[SEVERITY] titleA short imperative title prefixed by severity.
Station / LensWhich audit dimension produced the finding.
Wherefile:line, directory, or "repo-wide".
WhatOne or two concrete sentences, no hedging.
Why it mattersThe consequence if ignored.
FixThe specific action, with commands or a sketch.
EffortS (<30 min) / M (<half day) / L (multi-day) — drives leverage sorting.
07

Disciplines: Rules vs Rationalizations

The discipline skills (check, taste, refire, sendback) are the ones most likely to get skipped exactly when they matter most. They are written as hard gates with named rationalizations, so the agent cannot talk itself out of them.

What they enforce

  • Evidence before "done"check: run the command, read the output, then claim it passes.
  • Test-first under pressuretaste: the failing test exists before the implementation, even for "quick fixes".
  • Root-cause-firstrefire: diagnose before proposing any fix, especially when CI is blocking everyone.
  • Verify the reviewersendback: technical rigor on feedback, not performative agreement.

What they refuse

  • Relaying a subagent’s "success"A tool or agent saying it worked is not evidence; check verifies independently.
  • Weakening tests to go greentaste forbids loosening assertions to make a build pass.
  • Blind retry fixesrefire refuses the "try something and see" loop without a diagnosis.
  • Implementing review blindlysendback questions unclear or wrong feedback wrapped in authority.
08

How Skillet Plugs Into the Fleet

Skillet is independent code, but one skill wires it to Brigade. brigade-handoffs drives the brigade-cli (operator quickstart, operator doctor, handoff draft/lint/doctor) to make agent memory boring: local drafts, linted routes, a review queue — never editing canonical memory directly. line-check is also Brigade-aware, auditing handoff/memory health when a repo uses Brigade.

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