/howdoi
Search bassclef skills and rules for an adopter goal — LLM-assisted. Two modes — search (top matches) and compose (matches plus suggested chains). Ranks by semantic fit and cites what each match does.
/howdoi/howdoi search/howdoi composeType it bare, or paste it with loose context after — Claude figures out the rest.
Adopters know what they want to do but not which bassclef skill or rule fits.
One question in. A short list of the skills and rules that match your goal.
Takes in
- A one-sentence goal in plain English
Returns
- Ranked list of matching skills and rules
- One-line reason per match
What it does
Ask "how do I add auth?" or "how do I test my API?" or "which skill drafts a value prop?". I grep bassclef's skills, rules, and standards for your keywords, use Claude to rank the top 3 matches, and explain what each returns and why it matches. In compose mode, I also suggest 1-3 skill chains when your goal spans multiple skills.
Modeled on the Python howdoi CLI (github.com/gleitz/howdoi) which searches Stack Overflow from the terminal — same shape, adapted to bassclef.
Read the full skill
The complete instructions live at .claude/skills/howdoi/SKILL.md in your repo after bassclef-sync. Open with your editor for phases, rules, and worked examples.
Where in the SDLC
Also relevant in: Design, Build, Ship.
Why this phase: Search-anytime skill. Concept because fresh operator asks 'how do I do X' at session start.
Related
- Skills catalog — browse all skills grouped by lifecycle phase
- Tier system — what each tier gives you
FAQ
Terms from bassclef vocabulary that appear on this page.
- luminary
- A design or engineering thinker whose discipline bassclef borrows as a review lens — the practitioner in the cameo pattern above. Cooper for personas, Norman for signifiers, Feathers for characterization tests, Beck for TDD rhythm, plus about 90 others. Skills invoke a lens to check work against a specific discipline. `/luminary` browses the catalog. See: /docs/skills/luminary, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22145491
- rule
- A markdown file auto-loaded into every session's context. Rules pin discipline the agent applies to every response (plain-English writing, blocked-items protocol, temperance gates). Different from a hook — rules are steering; hooks are enforcement.
- skill
- A user-invocable command (like `/kiss` or `/temperance`) that runs a specific bassclef workflow. Every skill lives at `.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` with frontmatter + procedure. Adopters type the slash command; Claude Code loads the skill and runs it.
- adopter
- A repo that has bassclef installed — either via `bassclef init` (lite tier from npm) or via the symlink pattern (standard tier with an Anthropic key). Bassclef's discipline: never break adopters. Every change to a downstream-observable surface ships with a compat shim.
Shipped by @kingofrock · Read the essays
Author your own
How to write a bassclef skill from a paragraph, and how to propose it back to bassclef when it earns a place.
/interpret-input
Turn any input into a schema-valid InputArtifact. Modes: text, URL, image, repo, transcript, napkin, mixed. text + repo ship today. Others return valid stubs. First step of the cameo pipeline.