core
Core development principles and guidelines covering security, QA, performance, documentation, and coding standards. Used by all agents to ensure consistent quality across the Orchestra system.
When & Why to Use This Skill
This Claude skill provides a comprehensive framework of core development principles and guidelines that serve as the foundational guardrails for the Orchestra agent system. It addresses the critical challenge of maintaining consistency and quality across multi-agent workflows by centralizing standards for security, quality assurance, performance, and documentation. By enforcing these protocols, the skill ensures that every agent output—from code generation to technical writing—adheres to professional engineering benchmarks while optimizing for token efficiency and system security.
Use Cases
- Security Compliance & Auditing: Agents automatically reference security.yaml to identify potential vulnerabilities and enforce secure coding practices during the development lifecycle.
- Standardized Quality Assurance: AI agents like Finn utilize qa.yaml and review-checklist.yaml to automate rigorous testing procedures and ensure high-quality pre-merge code reviews.
- Performance Optimization: Architecture-focused agents apply performance.yaml standards to guide system design, ensuring efficient resource allocation and minimized latency.
- Technical Documentation Excellence: Documentation agents follow documentation.yaml to produce consistent, clear, and professional technical manuals and API references across the system.
- Operational Cost Management: All agents implement token-efficiency.md strategies to minimize API consumption and reduce operational overhead without compromising response quality.
| name | core |
|---|---|
| description | Core development principles and guidelines covering security, QA, performance, documentation, and coding standards. Used by all agents to ensure consistent quality across the Orchestra system. |
Core Development Skills
This skill provides essential development principles and checklists that all Orchestra agents follow to maintain high-quality standards across security, testing, documentation, performance, and code quality.
Overview
The core skills provide:
- Security principles (security.yaml) - Secure coding practices and vulnerability prevention
- QA guidelines (qa.yaml) - Testing standards and quality assurance procedures
- Release procedures (release.yaml) - Deployment and release management
- Performance standards (performance.yaml) - Optimization and efficiency guidelines
- Documentation standards (documentation.yaml) - Technical writing and documentation best practices
- Coding standards (coding-standards.yaml) - Code style and structure conventions
- Review checklist (review-checklist.yaml) - Pre-merge code review requirements
- Clarification guidelines (clarify.yaml) - Requirements clarification procedures
- Token efficiency (token-efficiency.md) - Guidelines for minimizing token usage
When to Use
Agents automatically reference these guidelines when:
- Iris - Applies security.yaml for security audits
- Finn - Uses qa.yaml and review-checklist.yaml for testing
- Eden - Follows documentation.yaml for technical writing
- Kai - References performance.yaml and coding-standards.yaml for architecture
- Blake - Uses release.yaml for deployment coordination
- Riley - Applies clarify.yaml for requirements clarification
- All agents - Follow token-efficiency.md to optimize responses
Usage
Agents can reference specific guidelines:
See `skills/core/security.yaml` for security best practices
See `skills/core/qa.yaml` for testing requirements
See `skills/core/token-efficiency.md` for response optimization
File Structure
skills/core/
├── SKILL.md (this file)
├── security.yaml # Security principles
├── qa.yaml # QA and testing standards
├── release.yaml # Release management
├── performance.yaml # Performance optimization
├── documentation.yaml # Documentation standards
├── coding-standards.yaml # Code style conventions
├── review-checklist.yaml # Pre-merge checklist
├── clarify.yaml # Requirements clarification
└── token-efficiency.md # Token usage optimization
Best Practices
- Consistency - All agents follow the same core principles
- Reference, don't duplicate - Agents link to guidelines rather than copying them
- Update centrally - Guidelines are maintained in one place
- Agent-agnostic - Principles apply across all specialized agents
- Token efficient - Guidelines are concise and focused
Integration
These core skills are automatically available to all Orchestra agents. No explicit invocation is needed - agents reference them as part of their standard operating procedures.