The builder's path
For: Developers can't easily keep track of which agent skills they have installed or whether they still work.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ
Routes to a solution
Each route is a different kind of journey, with real people and organisations to contact at each step, starting with those in every country.
Step 1
Build in the open
Publish the code and invite contributors from the community.
Let the people a free tool helps fund its maintainer directly.
Raise and spend money in the open for a community project.
Grants for open source that makes the internet better.
Network of civic tech groups in many countries; find the one near the problem.
Step 2
Fund the maintainers
Sponsors, collectives and open source grants.
Let the people a free tool helps fund its maintainer directly.
Raise and spend money in the open for a community project.
Grants for open source that makes the internet better.
Network of civic tech groups in many countries; find the one near the problem.
Step 3
Get it adopted
Civic tech groups and public bodies take it up.
Y Combinator's free course and co-founder matching.
Raise and spend money in the open for a community project.
Network of civic tech groups in many countries; find the one near the problem.
Volunteer data scientists working with social-sector organisations.
Ideas, sources and tools for this problem, from first interviews to funding.
the SKILL.md format a checker would validate
maintains the open format and discusses tooling
Starter prompt
Built from this problem's brief. Paste it into Claude or any AI assistant.
Help me design and build a first working prototype for this problem in Anywhere. Problem: Developers can't easily keep track of which agent skills they have installed or whether they still work. Who it hurts: Developers and companies who collect skill files for AI coding agents. The moment it hurts: When a skill silently stops being used, conflicts with another, or a team wants everyone on the same set. What people do today: People keep skills in dotfiles with symlinks between agent folders, in private repos, or push them with company bootstrap scripts. Why it is still unsolved: Skills are plain folders shared across many different agents, so no single tool owns listing, checking and distributing them. What solved looks like: A command-line tool that lists every skill installed across agents on a machine, flags duplicates and broken file references, checks each SKILL.md against the spec, and runs each skill's example prompts as a smoke test. Demonstrated on a folder of 20 community skills. Where: Anywhere First, list what you would need to learn from the people affected before building, as interview questions. Then propose the simplest version that would help, the screens or messages it needs, and the data it would use. Keep it cheap to run, accessible, and respectful of people's privacy. Flag anything you are unsure about instead of guessing.
Talk to the people who live it before you build.
“Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control.”
Get a working version in front of people fast.
Using AI is not cheating. Every tool carries the work of the people who made it, and using it well is how knowledge has always moved forward. The thinking, the care for the people who live the problem, and the judgement are still yours.
“The Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.”
Open data that fits this problem.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Tools matched to what this problem needs.
“Let a person lift themselves up by their own self.”
उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं
uddhared ātmanātmānaṃ
Ship it responsibly, and find help and funding.
“Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”
δός μοι πᾶ στῶ καὶ τὰν γᾶν κινάσω
Kit written for this problem from its brief; every link was checked. Links go to each provider's own site. Zetema is not paid for any listing.