Story Architect Agent Skill

Write complete, compelling stories from user prompts using John Truby's "Anatomy of Story" framework.

Context cost
59.7k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
17 files · 238.9 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
MITthe author’s own terms
Last change
—v1.0.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Write complete, compelling stories from user prompts using John Truby's "Anatomy of Story" framework. Applies all structural principles: premise development, designing principle, seven key structure steps, 22-step organic plot, character web with four-corner opposition, moral argument through structure, story world as character expression, symbol web, scene weave, scene construction, and symphonic dialogue. Use when writing stories, screenplays, narratives, fiction, short stories, novellas, scripts, or developing story ideas into full narratives.

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.

content

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.md16.1 kB · preview
--- name: story-architect version: 1.0.0 allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Task, Bash ---
18# Story Architect Skill
19
20You are a master story architect. When the user gives you a story prompt, idea, or concept, you develop it into a complete, compelling story by systematically applying John Truby's structural principles. Every element grows organically from character and conflict -- nothing is imposed mechanically from outside.
21
22## Core Workflow
23
24Follow these ten phases in order. Each phase builds on the previous. Do NOT skip phases -- the organic quality of the story depends on every phase informing the next.
25
26---
27
28### Phase 1: Premise & Designing Principle
29
30**From the user's prompt, extract and develop:**
31
321. **Story idea in one sentence** -- what changes, and what is the effect on the hero?
332. **Wish + Action + Changed Person (W-A-C)**: "I wish I could tell a story about [character type] who [key action], leading to [transformation]."
343. **Designing principle**: The unique internal logic or strategy that makes this story original. Not the theme -- the deep structural game the story plays. Ask: "What is the single causal process or unique pattern that will organically connect every element?"
35 - Examples: A man tries to solve a murder only to discover he is the killer. A woman fights for her family's survival and realizes the family was the cage all along.
364. **Central moral choice**: What is the single moral problem the story explores?
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md2,428 words
Files17
LicenceMIT
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.

≈210
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
59,515
on trigger
The instruction body and 16 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
29.9%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would not fit in the window together.
050k100k150k200k context window

59.7k 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.

It asks the agent to write files, using whatever file access your client already has. Whether it reaches the network is not declared.

What it asks for
Writes filesyes
Network accessnot declared

Read from the allowed-tools line of this skill’s own SKILL.md. It also asks for Bash, which could do either, so what is not named there is not ruled out. 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

17 files, 238.9 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in. 1 file of its source is not in the download — listed after these, with why.

  • SKILL.md16.1 kB
  • LICENSE1.1 kB
  • llms.txt8.6 kB
  • README.md22.0 kB
  • assets/banner.svg9.1 kB
  • assets/phases.svg14.9 kB
  • references/ch01_story_space.md12.1 kB
  • references/ch02_premise.md14.1 kB
  • references/ch03_seven_steps.md12.9 kB
  • references/ch04_character.md14.4 kB
  • references/ch05_moral_argument.md15.7 kB
  • references/ch06_story_world.md18.8 kB
  • references/ch07_symbol_web.md14.1 kB
  • references/ch08_plot.md16.8 kB
  • references/ch09_scene_weave.md13.4 kB
  • references/ch10_scene_construction.md14.7 kB
  • references/truby-complete-framework.md20.1 kB

Not in the download

Not carried is a type a skill download does not hold. Take it from its source.

  • .gitignorenot carried
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the download is 17 files — not the whole of its source: 1 file is left out. It is listed under the files, with why. The MIT 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.

# Story Architect · 59.7k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/story-architect/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/story-architect" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/story-architect ] || { mv .claude/skills/story-architect "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/story-architect" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/story-architect"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add neuracerebra-ai/story-architect

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/story-architect/ 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/story-architect/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/story-architect" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/story-architect ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/story-architect "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/story-architect" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/story-architect" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/story-architect/ 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. Not in this download: 1 file of its source (which one, and why). Take it from its source.

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
Version1.0.0
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referenceneuracerebra-ai/story-architect

Versions

v1.0.0 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.

v1.0.0
  • 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 — v1.0.0 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

Reviews

—no reviews yet

Nobody has reviewed this skill yet. The rating is the mean of the reviews written here, so there is none until somebody writes the first.

Sign in to review it

A review is tied to an account so it can be answered, edited and taken down by the person who wrote it.

Sign in
Who can post

Anybody with an account, one review each. It carries the version that was current when you wrote it, and the publisher may reply once.

Who wrote it

NA
NeuraCerebra-AI

Publishes on mcprush.

0 servers listed2 skills listednot claimed
Profile
Publisher
Servers0
Claim this skill