---
name: automate-me
description: "Use for \"automate me\", \"create/update/refresh my -mode skill\", \"turn/capture my preferences or working style into a skill\", or wanting agents to follow how the user works. Drafts or revises a personal -mode skill from recent transcripts and explicit preferences."
---

# Automate me

A guided flow for turning the user's working conventions into a skill agents will follow. The output is one `-mode` skill tailored to them (e.g. `jay-mode`, `priya-mode`).

This skill orchestrates an inline mining pass, the active harness's skill-authoring guidance, and the **unslop** skill. Read `../pstack-harness/SKILL.md` first.

## Flow

### 0. Check for an existing skill

Look recursively for `.agents/skills/**/*-mode/SKILL.md` and `~/.agents/skills/*-mode/SKILL.md` matching the user's handle. Include any additional skill locations exposed by the current harness. If one exists, confirm intent through a structured question when available, unless the user already said "update my skill" or similar:

- Update the existing skill (default for repeat runs)
- Start fresh (rare; ask why before doing it)

Update mode changes the rest of the flow:
- Step 1 mines only history since the skill was last edited (`git log -1 --format=%cI <path>`).
- Step 2 asks what's changed or missing, not what to capture from zero.
- Step 4 edits the existing file in place. Preserve sections the user hasn't contradicted; revise ones with new evidence; add new sections only for genuinely new rules.

### 1. Mine their history

Locate the active workspace's transcripts using session metadata or the current harness's documented storage. Stay inside that workspace. If transcripts are unavailable, use the current conversation and say so.

Survey recent agent conversations within that scope for recurring patterns. Run multiple parallel subagents across slices of history (e.g. last 2-4 weeks, split into 3 slices so each has enough material). Each slice mining subagent reads transcripts from the workspace-scoped path the parent provides, looks for the signals below, and returns a short structured list of patterns it saw with evidence pointers. Default signals worth hunting:

- Response preferences (length, tone, format, "dumb it down" corrections)
- Delegation habits (subagents, models, specialized workflows, parallelism)
- Verification posture (what "done" means; unit tests vs live repro; reviewers)
- Code and prose discipline (style, principles cited, lint/format tools)
- Process conventions (worktrees, commits, PRs, review/merge tooling)
- Meta preferences (fixing skills mid-task, proposing new ones)

Cross-check across slices before elevating a signal. Patterns seen in 2+ slices are high-confidence; lone signals are weak and usually get dropped.

### 2. Ask the user directly

Mining misses intent that has not come up yet. Use a structured multi-choice question when the harness supports one. Otherwise ask concise plain-text questions.

Shape: one or two questions with 4-6 options each, `allow_multiple: true` for category questions. Start broad ("Which areas matter most?"), then follow up on selected areas with specific options. After the structured rounds, one free-form chat question catches anything the options missed.

Don't dump 20 questions. Two structured rounds plus one open question is usually enough.

### 3. Cluster findings

Group the combined signals into sections. Common ones (use only what applies):

- **Response style**: length, tone, format.
- **Autonomy**: how much to do without asking; MCP tool use.
- **Understand first**: which skills to reach for when scoping or investigating a change.
- **Subagents**: default, parallelism, model-to-task, specialized workflows.
- **Prose / code discipline**: principles, lint tools, style guides.
- **Review and verify**: repro posture, verification skills, live-testing tools.
- **Process**: git worktrees, commits, PRs, review/merge tooling.
- **Skills**: skill-authoring habits, fix-the-skill-first, proposing new skills.

The **poteto-mode** skill shows the shape. Read it for granularity. Don't copy its content; the user's rules are not the same as poteto-mode's.

### 4. Draft the skill

Use the active harness's skill-authoring guidance. Placement:

- Path: preserve an existing mode skill's location. For a new project skill, use `.agents/skills/<handle>-mode/SKILL.md`. For a personal skill, use `~/.agents/skills/<handle>-mode/SKILL.md`.
- Handle: the user's first name or chosen identifier.
- Frontmatter `description`: trigger on their name + `/<handle>-mode` + "work in their style", not on generic keywords like "write code" or "review PR".
- Frontmatter formatting: follow the Agent Skills rules. Keep `description` as one YAML scalar; quote it or use `description: >-` with indented continuation lines when punctuation or wrapping requires it.
- Legacy client invocation policy: mode skills are heavy and opinionated, so clients that support an explicit automatic-invocation setting should keep them user-invoked by default. Keep that client-specific setting out of canonical Agent Skills frontmatter; `scripts/install.sh` restores it for legacy installs.

### 5. Iterate on prose

Apply the **unslop** skill and the active skill-authoring guidance to every line. Both apply to any agent-read prose, not just skills.

Show the draft to the user and take feedback. Expect multiple iterations. Cut ruthlessly; a mode skill is not a manual.

### 6. Land it

Work in a worktree off main. Commit and open a PR so the user can review it. Don't push to main directly.

## Guardrails

- **Don't overfit to one conversation.** A preference stated once and contradicted another time is noise. Require multiple instances before codifying it.
- **Don't be clever.** Restating other skills' contents, inventing metaphors, or writing "poetic" prose for an agent reader is cost without benefit. Keep it operational.
- **Reference, don't inline.** Other skills the user relies on should appear as path references, not pasted excerpts. Same for any principle docs they maintain elsewhere.
- **Keep sections minimal.** Only add a section if the user has a specific, non-default rule there. "Communicate clearly" is not a section. "Short paragraphs. Tables when comparing options. Bullets only when items are genuinely parallel." is.
- **Name conventions generic.** Use "the user" or "the human" in imperatives, not the author's first name. Others may read or adopt the skill.
- **Don't force symmetry.** If a user has no process rules worth writing down, skip the Process section entirely. Sparse is fine; bloated is not.

## Evaluation

A `-mode` skill is subjective output. A structural benchmark loop is not useful here. Vibe-check with the user: does it read like them? Did it miss anything? Then ship.

Run a description-optimization loop only if the skill's trigger accuracy turns out to be a problem in practice.

## When not to use

- User wants a task-specific skill rather than working conventions: use skill-authoring guidance alone, with no mining pass.
- User wants to capture one narrow workflow (e.g. "how I write commit messages"): that's a regular skill, not a mode skill.

## Reference files

- The **poteto-mode** skill: example of the output shape.
- The **unslop** skill: prose discipline for every line.
- The active harness's skill-authoring guidance: skill authoring process and validation.