Mimicry Agent Skill

Apply the principle of Mimicry — borrowing the form, behavior, or visual language of something familiar to make a new design recognizable.

Context cost
5.5k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
2 files · 21.8 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
Apache-2.0the author’s own terms
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Apply the principle of Mimicry — borrowing the form, behavior, or visual language of something familiar to make a new design recognizable. Use when introducing a novel feature whose function would be opaque without an analogy, choosing between metaphor and convention, designing for a category your users already know, or evaluating whether a "skeuomorphic" element helps or hurts. Mimicry comes in surface (visual resemblance), behavioral (acts like the source), and functional (does what the source does) forms.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

design
Filed under

Design & Media

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md14.1 kB · preview
--- name: mimicry ---
6# Mimicry
7
8> **Definition.** Mimicry is the design strategy of borrowing the appearance, behavior, or function of something the user already knows in order to make a new design recognizable and learnable. The desktop metaphor (folders, files, trash can) is mimicry of office tools. The "card" pattern in mobile UIs is mimicry of physical cards. The page-turn animation in early e-readers is mimicry of physical books. Each borrows from a familiar source to give users an instant mental model for an unfamiliar medium.
9
10The principle is the same one that early software pioneers used to onboard users into a fundamentally new medium: borrow visual and behavioral language from the physical world so users had something to ground their understanding. The desktop metaphor of the original Macintosh mimicked the world of paper documents and folders that office workers already understood. Hypertext mimicked the cross-references in a book. The mouse pointer mimicked the index finger pointing.
11
12Mimicry works because it short-circuits learning. The user doesn't have to be told what a "trash can" does because they already know what a trash can does. The interface borrows the user's existing knowledge.
13
14## The three layers of mimicry
15
16Mimicry can happen at one or several layers. The distinction matters because the layers come with different costs and benefits.
17
18**Surface mimicry.** The new design *looks like* the source. A button styled to look like a physical button (with a 3D bevel, shadow, and pressed state). A note app styled to look like a yellow legal pad. A music player styled to look like an analog mixer. Surface mimicry is the strongest form for first-encounter recognition — users can see at a glance what the thing references — but it can feel dated or kitschy if the visual reference becomes anachronistic.
19
20**Behavioral mimicry.** The new design *behaves like* the source. The page-turn animation in an e-reader. The drag-to-rearrange gesture that follows physical-world manipulation. The springy bounce when a list reaches its end (Apple's "rubber band" scrolling). Behavioral mimicry is often subtler than surface mimicry but more durable — the behavior carries the recognition without depending on visual style.
21
22**Functional mimicry.** The new design *does what* the source does. A "shopping cart" in an e-commerce site mimics the function of a supermarket cart: collect items, decide what to buy, check out. A "notebook" in a journaling app mimics the function of a paper notebook: record thoughts, organize by date or topic. The mimicry is conceptual — the user understands the new tool because they understand the source's function.
23
24A successful mimicry usually combines layers: a shopping cart is functionally a cart, looks at least vaguely like a cart (icon), and behaves like one (you add items, then check out). The layers reinforce each other.
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md2,182 words
Files2
LicenceApache-2.0
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈170
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
5,280
on trigger
The instruction body and 1 supporting file, read only when the skill fires.
2.7%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 27% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

5.5k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

2 files, 21.8 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md14.1 kB
  • references/lineage.md7.7 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 2 files you can review in full before installing. The Apache-2.0 licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Mimicry · 5.5k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/mimicry/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/mimicry" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/mimicry ] || { mv .claude/skills/mimicry "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/mimicry" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/mimicry"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add hashgraph-online/mimicry

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/mimicry/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/mimicry/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/mimicry" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/mimicry ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/mimicry "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/mimicry" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/mimicry" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/mimicry/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencehashgraph-online/mimicry

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

Reviews

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Publisher
Servers1
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