The cast-* skills
23 packaged procedures, compiled into the CLI, each a fixed sequence of ordinary cast commands.
A snippet teaches an agent that a command exists. It does not teach a procedure. "Hand this work over" is a procedure: write down the decisions, pin the state, file a doc, then fork, spawn or message the right session. An agent that rebuilds that sequence from memory each time does it differently each time, and skips steps.
A skill is a packaged set of instructions for one kind of task. It is a directory with a SKILL.md file: a name, a description that says when to use it, and the steps. Claude Code lists each skill by its description and loads the body only when the skill is invoked, as a slash command (/cast-handoff) or because the task matches the description. A skill you never invoke costs the description line and nothing more.
The cast-* skills are the procedures that need what one session cannot see: the task board, the team's session history, other live sessions, pull requests, calls and chat. Each one is a sequence of ordinary cast commands. A skill adds no capability of its own. It fixes the order, the checks, and what evidence to leave behind.
cast install skills # write all 23 skills
cast install skills --disable # remove them
ls ~/.claude/skills/ # cast-pickup/SKILL.md, cast-ship/SKILL.md, and the rest
/cast-pickup ct-4102
/cast-why src/sync.ts:212 why is this debounced
/cast-bakeoff a queue table | an in memory buffer
How the skills ship and install
The skill files are compiled into the CLI binary as text imports. A compiled binary has no source tree beside it, so an installer that looks for files next to the executable finds nothing on a release install. With the bytes inside the binary, a Homebrew install and a run from source write the same files.
The whole set installs as one catalog snippet named skills (how snippets work). The wizard, cast install skills, and the toggle on the web Settings page all reach the same installer. It writes each skill to ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. An install with no interactive terminal turns skills on by default, the same as memory.
The installer compares each file byte for byte. A file that already matches is not touched. After a CLI update, the refresh of enabled snippets rewrites only the skills whose text changed, so a revised skill reaches the machine without a version bump. --disable removes the 23 cast-* directories and nothing else, so your own skills in ~/.claude/skills/ are safe. The orchestrate skill is separate: it belongs to the orchestration snippet, which also installs three agent types and two hooks (orchestration).
The catalog
Start, stop, and hand over:
| Skill | What it does | Built on |
|---|---|---|
/cast-pickup | Reads the bound task or plan, the pinned state, recent team work and the repository, then names the work and the next three actions | cast task, cast plan, cast state, cast feed |
/cast-handoff | Writes decisions, verified work, open questions and ordered next steps as a shared doc, pins the state, and can fork, spawn or message a session | cast doc, cast state, cast fork, cast spawn, cast send |
/cast-pass | Hands this session to a teammate: pins where it stands, adds them as an owner, sends the brief | cast state, cast send, cast chat |
/cast-ask-team | Posts a question to the team channel, parks the session as dormant, and continues when an answer arrives | cast chat, cast state, cast trigger |
/cast-worktree | Moves the work into an isolated worktree with its own env files, ports and setup | cast ws |
Plan and reconsider:
| Skill | What it does | Built on |
|---|---|---|
/cast-plan | Explores the code, searches earlier sessions and decisions, interviews the user, then writes a plan with tasks and dependencies | cast plan, cast task, cast search, cast decisions |
/cast-rethink | Rebuilds the history of a piece of work from sessions, decisions and tasks before touching code | cast search, cast context, cast task, cast plan |
/cast-bakeoff | Forks the conversation once for each approach, waits for the branches, and compares diff, evidence and cost | cast fork, cast sessions -w, cast diff, cast read |
/cast-conflicts | Finds live sessions on this repository that change the same files, shows what they changed, and warns them | cast sessions, cast diff, cast send |
Prove and ship:
| Skill | What it does | Built on |
|---|---|---|
/cast-verify | Runs the repository's checks, exercises the change in the browser or on the command line, and attaches the evidence to the task | cast browser, cast image, cast task comment |
/cast-ship | Commits in topical pieces, opens the pull request, and binds the session to it so reviews and failing checks wake it until merge | cast pr shepherd, cast task, cast state |
/cast-review | Reviews another session from its transcript and diff, and sends findings with file and line | cast read, cast diff, cast summary, cast send |
/cast-second-opinion | Gives a different model the intent, the plan and the diff in a fresh context, then verifies its findings | cast exec --agent |
/cast-why | Traces a line of code to the session that wrote it and the message where it was decided | cast blame, cast read, cast link |
Run the fleet:
| Skill | What it does | Built on |
|---|---|---|
/cast-loop | Arms a recurring trigger that spawns one fresh session for each ready task, with a precheck that skips the run when the queue is empty | cast trigger add --every --spawn --precheck, cast task ready, cast decide |
/cast-triage | Reads every session by who acts next, stashes the finished, kills the dead, and surfaces the few that need a person | cast sessions, cast stash, cast kill, cast send |
/cast-morning | Lists what waits on the human: sessions that need input, pull requests, ready tasks, overnight trigger runs, unread chat | cast sessions, cast pr, cast task, cast trigger, cast chat |
/cast-eod | Checks each live session for an honest pinned state, writes handoffs, arms overnight follow ups, tidies the inbox | cast state, cast trigger, cast stash, cast kill |
/cast-standup | Builds a digest for a time window from sessions, commits, tasks, pull requests, calls and chat | cast feed, cast task, cast pr, cast calls, cast publish |
Learn, and keep the records true:
| Skill | What it does | Built on |
|---|---|---|
/cast-learn | Turns this session's corrections, decisions and gotchas into repository guidance, recorded decisions, or a doc | cast decisions, cast doc |
/cast-lessons | Collects the corrections humans made across the team's sessions in a window and proposes the guidance that would have prevented each | cast search, cast read, cast decisions |
/cast-from-call | Checks each action item of a call against the transcript and files it as a task marked as decided in a meeting | cast call, cast task create --from-meeting |
/cast-org | Reads what the code and sessions show, proposes seats, scopes and record fixes with evidence, and posts the result for the person to accept | cast org |
How a skill composes the primitives
/cast-bakeoff shows the pattern. It runs one cast fork --tip --label bakeoff-<topic> with one direction for each approach, so every branch keeps the whole thread (forks and spawn). It tells each branch to work in its own worktree. It then watches cast sessions --label bakeoff-<topic> -w --json, a stream that prints nothing until a branch changes state. When the branches settle it reads cast diff and cast read for each one, puts the results in a table, gives a verdict, and stashes the branches that lost.
/cast-loop is built on triggers and tasks. The task board is the queue. A recurring --spawn trigger starts a fresh session for each run, and the --precheck command exits with a failure when cast task ready returns nothing, so an idle loop spends no session. Each run claims one task, works in a worktree, runs /cast-verify, and opens a pull request with /cast-ship. It does not merge. The skill also states when to cancel the trigger: when the queue is empty, when two runs in a row fail the same way, or at the time limit given with --for.
/cast-ask-team combines three primitives so that a question does not block a session. It posts to a channel with cast chat send and mentions its own short session ID, so a reply on the thread arrives as a session message (messaging). It declares cast state --status dormant and names the thread as the wake (thread state). When the default answer is safe to reverse, it arms a cast trigger add --in <time> that takes the default if nobody replies.
Skills call each other by name, as /cast-loop does with /cast-verify and /cast-ship. That works because every skill in the set installs together.