Skills System

Overdeck’s skills system provides reusable workflows and best practices for AI agents. The dashboard’s Skills page lists every skill side by side per harness — here Overdeck (108) and Claude (123) — with each skill’s on-disk path, internal name, and a sync indicator linking to its SKILL.md. It’s the quickest way to confirm a skill landed where the agent (or the conversation you’re driving) can invoke it.

What Are Skills

Skills are reusable, shareable workflows that encode best practices for common development tasks. They are:

Universal - Work across all AI coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Google Antigravity)
Shareable - Distribute via pan sync to sync to all connected AI tools
Contextual - Invoked with /skill-name in AI tool prompts
Best-practice-driven - Encode proven workflows and checklists

Skills eliminate the need to repeatedly explain how to do common tasks. Instead of telling an agent “please review this code for security issues”, you invoke /code-review-security and the agent follows the established workflow.

Built-In Skills

Overdeck ships with 70+ built-in skills organized by category:

Development Workflows

Skill	Description
`feature-work`	Standard feature implementation workflow
`bug-fix`	Systematic bug investigation and fixing
`refactor`	Safe refactoring with tests first
`code-review`	Comprehensive code review checklist
`code-review-security`	OWASP Top 10 security analysis
`code-review-performance`	Algorithm and resource optimization
`release`	Step-by-step release process
`dependency-update`	Safe dependency updates
`incident-response`	Production incident handling
`onboard-codebase`	Understanding new codebases
`work-complete`	Checklist for completing agent work

AI Self-Monitoring

Skill	Description
`knowledge-capture`	Captures learnings when AI gets confused or corrected
`refactor-radar`	Detects systemic issues causing AI confusion
`session-health`	Detect and clean up stuck sessions

Overdeck Operations (pan-*)

Skill	Description
`pan-help`	Show all Overdeck commands
`pan-up`	Start dashboard and services
`pan-down`	Stop dashboard and services
`pan-status`	Show running agents
`pan-issue`	Spawn agent for an issue
`pan-plan`	Create execution plan for issue
`pan-tell`	Send message to running agent
`pan-kill`	Kill a running agent
`pan-approve`	Approve agent work and merge
`pan-health`	Check system health
`pan-sync`	Sync skills to AI tools
`pan-install`	Install prerequisites
`pan-setup`	Initial setup wizard
`pan-quickstart`	Quick start guide
`pan-projects`	Manage registered projects
`pan-tracker`	Issue tracker operations
`pan-logs`	View agent logs
`pan-rescue`	Recover crashed agents
`pan-diagnose`	Diagnose agent issues
`pan-docker`	Docker operations
`pan-network`	Network diagnostics
`pan-config`	Configuration management
`pan-restart`	Safely restart Overdeck dashboard and services
`pan-code-review`	Orchestrate parallel code review (3 reviewers + synthesis)
`pan-convoy-synthesis`	Synthesize convoy coordination
`pan-subagent-creator`	Create specialized subagents
`pan-skill-creator`	Create new skills (guided)
`pan-reopen`	Reopen completed issue for re-work
`pan-oversee`	Supervise agent through full work lifecycle
`pan-sync-main`	Sync latest main into workspace feature branch
`pan-docs`	Search Overdeck documentation
`pan-tldr`	Token-efficient codebase analysis

Utilities

Skill	Description
`beads`	Git-backed issue tracking with dependencies
`skill-creator`	Guide for creating new skills
`web-design-guidelines`	UI/UX review checklist
`clear-writing`	Proven rules for clearer prose in docs, commits, and UI text
`crash-investigation`	Investigate system crashes, OOM kills, and freezes
`opus-plan`	Opus-driven planning with PRD, STATE.md, and beads
`spec-readiness`	Evaluate issue requirements readiness (scored 0-100)
`check-merged`	Verify if a feature branch has been merged into main
`react-best-practices`	React/Next.js performance optimization from Vercel
`stitch-design-md`	Synthesize Stitch designs into DESIGN.md files

Using Skills

Skills are invoked via slash commands in any AI coding tool:

# In Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc:
/feature-work
/code-review-security
/bug-fix
/pan-help

When you invoke a skill, the AI tool injects the skill’s prompt into the conversation, giving the agent detailed instructions on how to proceed.

Creating Custom Skills

Skills are markdown files stored in ~/.overdeck/skills/. Create your own with:

# Use the guided skill creator
/pan-skill-creator

# Or manually create a skill
mkdir -p ~/.overdeck/skills/my-custom-skill
cat > ~/.overdeck/skills/my-custom-skill/skill.md <<'EOF'
# My Custom Skill

Brief description of what this skill does.

## When to Use

Describe when this skill should be invoked.

## Steps

1. Step 1 description
2. Step 2 description
3. Step 3 description

## Best Practices

- Tip 1
- Tip 2
EOF

# Sync to all AI tools
pan sync

Skill anatomy:

# Skill Title

One-line description.

## When to Use

When to invoke this skill (triggers).

## Steps

1. Detailed step-by-step instructions
2. With specific commands or patterns
3. And expected outcomes

## Checklist

- [ ] Item 1
- [ ] Item 2
- [ ] Item 3

## Examples

\`\`\`bash
# Example command
\`\`\`

## Related Skills

- /other-skill - When to use instead
- /complementary-skill - Use together with this

See the skill-creator skill or use /pan-skill-creator for guided creation.

Skill Distribution

Skills can be distributed via:

Project-specific - Store in .overdeck/skills/ in your repo
User-specific - Store in ~/.overdeck/skills/ (synced to AI tools)
Team-shared - Commit to version control and share via git
Public packages - Distribute via npm or GitHub

Syncing Skills

# Sync all skills to AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.)
pan sync

# Only sync skills (skip agents, hooks)
pan sync --skills-only

# Verify sync status
pan sync --dry-run

The pan sync command:

Copies skills from ~/.overdeck/skills/ to each AI tool’s config directory
Updates existing skills if versions differ
Preserves local customizations (doesn’t overwrite modified files)

Subagents

Overdeck includes specialized subagent templates for common development tasks. Subagents are invoked via the Task tool or convoy orchestration for parallel execution.

Code Review Subagents

Subagent	Model	Focus	Output
`code-review-correctness`	haiku	Logic errors, edge cases, type safety	`.claude/reviews/<timestamp>-correctness.md`
`code-review-security`	sonnet	OWASP Top 10, vulnerabilities	`.claude/reviews/<timestamp>-security.md`
`code-review-performance`	haiku	Algorithms, N+1 queries, memory	`.claude/reviews/<timestamp>-performance.md`
`code-review-synthesis`	sonnet	Combines all findings into unified report	`.claude/reviews/<timestamp>-synthesis.md`

Usage Example:

/pan-code-review --files "src/auth/*.ts"

This spawns all three reviewers in parallel, then synthesizes their findings into a prioritized report.

Planning & Exploration Subagents

Subagent	Model	Focus	Permission Mode
`planning-agent`	sonnet	Codebase research, execution planning	`plan` (read-only)
`codebase-explorer`	haiku	Fast architecture discovery, pattern finding	`plan` (read-only)
`triage-agent`	haiku	Issue categorization, complexity estimation	default
`health-monitor`	haiku	Agent stuck detection, log analysis	default

Usage Examples:

# Explore codebase architecture
Task(subagent_type='codebase-explorer', prompt='Map out the authentication system')

# Triage an issue
Task(subagent_type='triage-agent', prompt='Categorize and estimate ISSUE-123')

# Check agent health
Task(subagent_type='health-monitor', prompt='Check status of all running agents')

Best Practices

When creating skills:

Be specific - Include exact commands, not just concepts
Include examples - Show concrete usage patterns
Add checklists - Help agents verify completion
Cross-reference - Link to related skills and guides
Test thoroughly - Verify skills work end-to-end

When using skills:

Invoke early - Start with a skill, don’t switch mid-task
Follow fully - Don’t skip steps or customize on-the-fly
Report issues - If a skill doesn’t work, improve it
Combine wisely - Some skills complement each other, others conflict

Creating Skills - Detailed skill creation guide
Convoys - Parallel subagent execution
Subagents - Custom subagent templates

​Skills System

​What Are Skills

​Built-In Skills

​Development Workflows

​AI Self-Monitoring

​Overdeck Operations (pan-*)

​Utilities

​Using Skills

​Creating Custom Skills

​Skill Distribution

​Syncing Skills

​Subagents

​Code Review Subagents

​Planning & Exploration Subagents

​Best Practices

​Related Guides