Feature Specifier Agent Skill

Use when someone wants a feature, change, or improvement in an existing codebase and what to build is not yet pinned down: a rough idea, a…

Context cost
3.6k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
3 files · 14.3 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0the author’s own terms
Last change
—v1.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Use when someone wants a feature, change, or improvement in an existing codebase and what to build is not yet pinned down: a rough idea, a complaint about missing capability, a "can we make X better", or a request where "done" is undefined. Asks the few questions whose wrong answers would waste implementation time, then writes agent-engineer-skills/<name>/what-to-build.md with locked decisions, scope walls, and observable done-when checks. Covers UI, API, CLI, jobs, libraries, and mixed work. Use even when the user does not say "spec", "PRD", "requirements", or "acceptance criteria".

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.

productivity

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.md8.2 kB · preview
--- name: feature-specifier compatibility: >- Works in any Agent Skills host. Uses the host's clickable multiple-choice UI for the question batch when one exists (for example Cursor AskQuestion), and falls back to lettered options in chat. Writes files. No network access or system packages required. license: PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 metadata: author: Lucas Winter version: "1.0" family: feature-builder ---
29# feature-specifier
30
31Core job: understand the idea, problem, or feature. Ask the questions whose wrong answers would waste implementation time. Hand feature-developer one concept so the developer cannot invent a different product.
32
33Do not write code. Do not produce a multi-file PRD pack.
34
35Output: <root>/<feature-name>/what-to-build.md from [assets/what-to-build.md](assets/what-to-build.md). Resolve <root> as in Gotchas.
36
37## Gotchas
38
39- **Write-up root.** <root> is the docs **directory** named on the Feature-folder write-ups line in the repo's AGENTS.md. If that line is missing, use the same line in .cursor/rules/agent-engineer-skills.mdc. If both are missing, <root> is agent-engineer-skills. Create <root> as a folder if needed. Never create or read a file named aes-write-up-root. Write <root>/<kebab-name>/what-to-build.md. If docs/features/<kebab-name>/ already exists for that name and <root>/<kebab-name>/ does not, write there instead. Never create both trees for one name.
40- concept.md is the old filename for this artifact, and the downstream skills still read it. Always write what-to-build.md. Never create a concept.md.
41- locked-default binds the developer. Writing one means you decided on the user's behalf and the developer may not choose otherwise. Use it only after the user declined to answer, never to save a round of questions.
42- A new project, prototype, MVP, or pitch belongs to mvp-specifier, even when the user phrases it as a feature. pitch-to-spec is that skill's old name, not this one's.
43- The repo already answers some of these questions. Read it before asking, and drop anything the request or the codebase has settled.
44
45## How
46
471. **Restate** the request in a few lines. Add nothing. Name the kind of work (UI, API, CLI, job, library, mixed) from the request and the repo, not from habit.
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md1,326 words
Files3
LicencePolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0
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.

≈360
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
3,215
on trigger
The instruction body and 2 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
1.8%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 18% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

3.6k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Middling. Fine to keep on in a project where you use it weekly, worth unloading in one where you never do.

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

3 files, 14.3 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md8.2 kB
  • assets/what-to-build.md1.3 kB
  • evals/evals.json4.8 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 3 files you can review in full before installing. The PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 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.

# Feature Specifier · 3.6k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/feature-specifier/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/feature-specifier" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/feature-specifier ] || { mv .claude/skills/feature-specifier "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/feature-specifier" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/feature-specifier"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add lucas-winter-berlin/feature-specifier

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/feature-specifier/ 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/feature-specifier/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/feature-specifier" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/feature-specifier ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/feature-specifier "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/feature-specifier" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/feature-specifier" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/feature-specifier/ 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
Version1.0
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencelucas-winter-berlin/feature-specifier

Versions

v1.0 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v1.0
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v1.0 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

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