opportunity-awareness

Triggers after completing substantive work (finishing a todo, returning from subagent, applying non-obvious convention, receiving user correction). Also: 'what should we capture', 'reusable pattern', 'should this be a skill', 'AGENTS.md update', 'knowledge gap'. Behavioral skill loaded at natural pause points.

5 stars

Best use case

opportunity-awareness is best used when you need a repeatable AI agent workflow instead of a one-off prompt.

Triggers after completing substantive work (finishing a todo, returning from subagent, applying non-obvious convention, receiving user correction). Also: 'what should we capture', 'reusable pattern', 'should this be a skill', 'AGENTS.md update', 'knowledge gap'. Behavioral skill loaded at natural pause points.

Teams using opportunity-awareness should expect a more consistent output, faster repeated execution, less prompt rewriting.

When to use this skill

  • You want a reusable workflow that can be run more than once with consistent structure.

When not to use this skill

  • You only need a quick one-off answer and do not need a reusable workflow.
  • You cannot install or maintain the underlying files, dependencies, or repository context.

Installation

Claude Code / Cursor / Codex

$curl -o ~/.claude/skills/opportunity-awareness/SKILL.md --create-dirs "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/axiomantic/spellbook/main/skills/opportunity-awareness/SKILL.md"

Manual Installation

  1. Download SKILL.md from GitHub
  2. Place it in .claude/skills/opportunity-awareness/SKILL.md inside your project
  3. Restart your AI agent — it will auto-discover the skill

How opportunity-awareness Compares

Feature / Agentopportunity-awarenessStandard Approach
Platform SupportNot specifiedLimited / Varies
Context Awareness High Baseline
Installation ComplexityUnknownN/A

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this skill do?

Triggers after completing substantive work (finishing a todo, returning from subagent, applying non-obvious convention, receiving user correction). Also: 'what should we capture', 'reusable pattern', 'should this be a skill', 'AGENTS.md update', 'knowledge gap'. Behavioral skill loaded at natural pause points.

Where can I find the source code?

You can find the source code on GitHub using the link provided at the top of the page.

SKILL.md Source

<analysis>
Behavioral nudge to capture reusable patterns, skills, and project knowledge at natural pause points after substantive work.
</analysis>

<reflection>
Did I surface an observation without interrupting urgent work, and was the suggestion specific enough to act on?
</reflection>

# Opportunity Awareness

**Type:** Discipline (behavioral nudge)

## Invariant Principles

1. **Pause Points Only** - Surface observations after phases complete or at "what's next" moments, never mid-task or during urgent work.
2. **Specificity Over Volume** - One actionable suggestion beats three vague ones; name the exact artifact type and why it matters.
3. **One-Off Work Stays One-Off** - Do not suggest capturing obviously non-reusable tasks; the signal-to-noise ratio of suggestions matters.

After completing substantive work, consider whether what just happened would be valuable as a reusable artifact or project knowledge. Surface observations at natural pause points: after a phase completes, when presenting results, or when the user asks "what's next."

Do not suggest artifacts for obviously one-off tasks. Do not interrupt urgent work.

## Artifact Candidates

Mention briefly, offer to draft via background agent:

| Type | Signal |
|------|--------|
| **Skill** | Non-obvious technique or undocumented convention that future sessions need. |
| **Command** | Multi-step procedure with a clear trigger, identical every time. |
| **Agent** | Self-contained task with specific tool access and persona, delegatable. |

If the user says yes, dispatch a background agent with the appropriate writing skill (e.g., `writing-skills`, `writing-commands`).

## Project Knowledge Candidates

Offer to add to AGENTS.md when:

- You searched for build/test/run info that was undocumented
- You made a mistake from an undocumented convention (especially after user correction)
- You discovered a non-obvious dependency or read 5+ files for a one-sentence pattern
- The user explained something not written anywhere

## Subagent Observations

Subagents should append a `## Skill Observations` section to output when they notice reusable patterns. Check for this section and relay suggestions to the user.

Related Skills

writing-skills

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment. Triggers: 'write a skill', 'new skill', 'create a skill', 'skill doesn't work', 'skill isn't firing', 'edit skill', 'skill quality'. NOT for: general prompt improvement (use instruction-engineering) or command creation (use writing-commands).

writing-plans

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when you have a spec, design doc, or requirements and need a detailed implementation plan before coding. Triggers: 'write a plan', 'create implementation plan', 'plan this out', 'break this down into steps', 'convert design to tasks', 'implementation order'. Also invoked by develop during planning. NOT for: reviewing existing plans (use reviewing-impl-plans).

writing-commands

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when creating new commands, editing existing commands, or reviewing command quality. Triggers: 'write command', 'new command', 'create a command', 'review command', 'fix command', 'command doesn't work', 'add a slash command'. NOT for: skill creation (use writing-skills).

verifying-hunches

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when about to claim discovery during debugging. Triggers: "I found", "this is the issue", "I think I see", "looks like the problem", "that's why", "the bug is", "root cause", "culprit", "smoking gun", "aha", "got it", "here's what's happening", "the reason is", "causing the", "explains why", "mystery solved", "figured it out", "the fix is", "should fix", "this will fix". Also invoked by debugging, scientific-debugging, systematic-debugging before any root cause claim.

using-skills

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

System skill loaded at session start to initialize skill routing. Not invoked directly by users. Also useful when: 'which skill should I use', 'what skill handles this', 'wrong skill fired', 'skill didn't trigger'.

using-lsp-tools

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when mcp-language-server tools are available and you need semantic code intelligence. Triggers: 'find definition', 'find references', 'who calls this', 'rename symbol', 'type hierarchy', 'go to definition', 'where is this used', 'where is this defined', 'what type is this'. Provides navigation, refactoring, and type analysis via LSP.

using-git-worktrees

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when starting feature work that needs isolation from current workspace, or setting up parallel development tracks. Triggers: 'worktree', 'separate branch', 'isolate this work', 'don't mess up current work', 'work on two things at once', 'parallel workstreams', 'new branch for this', 'keep my current work safe'.

tooling-discovery

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when looking for available tools, MCP servers, or CLI utilities for a task. Triggers: 'what tools do I have', 'is there an MCP for this', 'what's available', 'find a tool for', 'discover tooling', 'what CLI tools exist'. NOT for: documenting existing tools (use documenting-tools).

testing-strategy

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Test selection strategy and scope guidance. Triggers: 'which tests should I run', 'test tiers', 'test marks', 'slow tests', 'integration vs unit', 'cross-module regression', 'test scope', 'what should I run', 'select tests', 'test batching'. NOT for: writing tests (use test-driven-development) or fixing broken tests (use fixing-tests).

test-driven-development

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when user explicitly requests test-driven development. Triggers: 'TDD', 'write tests first', 'red green refactor', 'test-first', 'start with the test'. Also invoked by develop and executing-plans for implementation tasks. NOT for: full feature work (use develop, which includes TDD internally).

tarot-mode

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Use when session returns mode.type='tarot', user says '/tarot', or requests roundtable dialogue with archetypes. Triggers: '/tarot', 'use tarot mode', 'roundtable with archetypes', 'tarot personas'. Session-level mode, not task-level.

smart-reading

5
from axiomantic/spellbook

Behavioral protocol for reading files or command output of unknown size. Loaded automatically for all file reading operations. Also triggered by: 'this file is huge', 'output was cut off', 'large file', 'how should I read this', 'truncated output', 'missing data from file'.