Getting Started

Get up and running with claude-skill-tools in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Notes
Node.js >= 18	Required
Git	Required
Claude Code CLI	`claude` command must be in your PATH (install guide )
Azure CLI	Optional — only needed for ADO work item fetching and PR creation
tmux	Optional — enables split-pane execution with live status

Installation

From npm


npm install -g claude-skill-tools

From source


git clone https://github.com/anthropics/claude-skill-tools.git
cd claude-skill-tools
npm install
npm run build
npm link

Verify Installation


composer list          # Shows available composition types
sandbox roles          # Shows available role prompts
session-explorer --help

You should see output listing the 5 composition types (full, ralph-only, manual, role, headless) and the 6 role prompts (analyst, architect, developer, developer_single, reviewer, tester).

Your First Composition

The fastest way to see composer in action is ralph-only — it skips the analyst/architect planning steps and goes straight to automated dev/review:


composer compose ralph-only --context "Add a health check endpoint that returns 200 OK at GET /health"

Here’s what happens:

Sandbox creation — A git worktree is created in a sibling directory with its own branch. Your feature-request.md is seeded with the context you provided.
Ralph loop — The developer agent implements the feature, then the reviewer agent reviews the code. If the reviewer finds issues, the developer gets another pass. This repeats until the review is clean or max iterations are reached.
PR step — You’re prompted to preview and create a pull request.

The Stepper UI

During execution, each step pauses with an interactive prompt:


Step 2/4: Run Ralph Loop
  [n] run  [s] skip  [p] prev  [q] quit  [?] status

Key	Action
n / Enter	Run the current step
s	Skip this step
p	Go back to the previous step
q	Quit (session is saved — resume with `composer resume`)
?	Show current session status and pipeline

After the first manual prompt, subsequent steps use a 10-second countdown with auto-run.

Understanding the Output

After a composition runs, you’ll find these artifacts in the sandbox worktree:

File	Created by	Purpose
`feature-request.md`	Sandbox create	Your original context, seeded at creation
`requirements.md`	Analyst role	Clarified requirements (full composition only)
`spec.md`	Architect role	Technical specification (full composition only)
`comments.md`	Reviewer role	Latest code review feedback
`ralph-log.md`	Ralph loop	Iteration history with timestamps
`ignored-comments.txt`	User	Comments you chose to skip

Session Management


# List all sessions
composer sessions
 
# Resume a paused session (use the short ID shown in 'sessions')
composer resume a1b2
 
# Clean up completed sessions
composer clean --completed
 
# Clean everything (sessions + sandboxes)
composer clean --all

Gitignore Setup

Add the state directory to your .gitignore:


.claude/.skill-state/

Next Steps

Usage Guide — Full command reference for composer, sandbox, and session-explorer
Concepts — Understand compositions, roles, ralph, and distill in depth
Cookbook: Your First Feature — End-to-end walkthrough with the full composition