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The funny part is, the vast majority of them are barely doing anything at all. All of these systems are for managing context. You can generally tell which one

The funny part is, the vast majority of them are barely doing anything at all. All of these systems are for managing context. You can generally tell which ones are actually doing something if they are using skills, with programs in them. Because then, you're actually attaching some sort of feature to the system. Otherwise, you're just feeding in different prompts and steps, which can add some value, but okay, it doesn't take much to do that. Like adding image generation to claude code with google nano banana, a python script that does it. That's actually adding something claude code doesn't have, instead of just saying "You are an expert in blah"

austinbaggio 10mo ago
It sounds like you've used quite a few. What programs are you expecting? Assuming you're talking about doing some inference on the data? Or optimizing for some RAG or something?
- AndyNemmity 10mo ago
  An example of a skill i gave, adding image generation to nano banana. another is one claude code ships with, using rip grep. Those are actual features. It's adding deterministic programs that the llm calls when it needs something.
  - austinbaggio 10mo ago
    Oh got it - tool use
    - AndyNemmity 10mo ago
      Exactly. That adds actual value. Some of the 1000s of projects do this. Those pieces add value, if the tool adds value which also isn’t a given
troupo 10mo ago
> You can generally tell which ones are actually doing something if they are using skills, with programs in them. > Otherwise, you're just feeding in different prompts and steps "skills" are literally just .md files with different prompts and steps. > That's actually adding something claude code doesn't have, instead of just saying "You are an expert in blah" It's not adding anything but a prompt saying "when asked to do X invoke script Y or do steps Z"
- AndyNemmity 10mo ago
  Skill are md files, but they are not just that. They are also scripts. That's what adding things are. You can make a skill that is just a prompt, but that misses the point of the value. You're packaging the tool with the skill, or multiple tools to do a single thing.
  - troupo 10mo ago
    In the end it's still an .md file pointing to a script that ends being just a prompt for the agent that the agent may or may not pick up, may or may not discover, may or may not forget after context compaction etc. There's no inherent magic to skills, or any fundamental difference between them and "just feeding in different prompts and steps". It literally is just feeding different prompt and steps.
    - AndyNemmity 10mo ago
      I find in my experience that it's trivial to have the skill systematically call the script, and perform the action correctly. This has not been a challenge to me. Also, the pick up or not pick up, or discover or may not discover is solved as well. It's handled by my router, which I wrote about here - https://vexjoy.com/posts/the-do-router/ https://vexjoy.com/posts/the-do-router/ So these are solved problems to me. There are many more problems which are not solved, which are the interesting space to continue with.

austinbaggio 10mo ago

It sounds like you've used quite a few. What programs are you expecting? Assuming you're talking about doing some inference on the data? Or optimizing for some RAG or something?

AndyNemmity 10mo ago
An example of a skill i gave, adding image generation to nano banana. another is one claude code ships with, using rip grep. Those are actual features. It's adding deterministic programs that the llm calls when it needs something.
- austinbaggio 10mo ago
  Oh got it - tool use
  - AndyNemmity 10mo ago
    Exactly. That adds actual value. Some of the 1000s of projects do this. Those pieces add value, if the tool adds value which also isn’t a given

troupo 10mo ago

> You can generally tell which ones are actually doing something if they are using skills, with programs in them. > Otherwise, you're just feeding in different prompts and steps "skills" are literally just .md files with different prompts and steps. > That's actually adding something claude code doesn't have, instead of just saying "You are an expert in blah" It's not adding anything but a prompt saying "when asked to do X invoke script Y or do steps Z"

AndyNemmity 10mo ago
Skill are md files, but they are not just that. They are also scripts. That's what adding things are. You can make a skill that is just a prompt, but that misses the point of the value. You're packaging the tool with the skill, or multiple tools to do a single thing.
- troupo 10mo ago
  In the end it's still an .md file pointing to a script that ends being just a prompt for the agent that the agent may or may not pick up, may or may not discover, may or may not forget after context compaction etc. There's no inherent magic to skills, or any fundamental difference between them and "just feeding in different prompts and steps". It literally is just feeding different prompt and steps.
  - AndyNemmity 10mo ago
    I find in my experience that it's trivial to have the skill systematically call the script, and perform the action correctly. This has not been a challenge to me. Also, the pick up or not pick up, or discover or may not discover is solved as well. It's handled by my router, which I wrote about here - https://vexjoy.com/posts/the-do-router/ https://vexjoy.com/posts/the-do-router/ So these are solved problems to me. There are many more problems which are not solved, which are the interesting space to continue with.