Skills page · concept board · round 01
Four ways to hold a growing shelf of skills
The same skills in all four. Click any of them to open it, and press + Add a skill a few times to see how each concept copes at 10 or 20.
The four real skills come first: two public (craft-component, ask-clarifier) and two that only live in the portfolio repo so far (share-my-work, linkedin-teaser). Added ones are placeholders. The copy is rough; this round is about the idea.
Guitar · the signal chain
The pedalboard
Your prompt is the guitar, the agent is the amp, and each skill is a pedal in between. Stomp one on and you hear the difference: the amp shows what the agent says with the pedal off and with it on. Pedals chain, the way skills stack.
stomp a pedal ↓
Pedal off
Pedal on
Why it means something
Guitar is yours, and the metaphor is exact: a skill doesn't replace the agent, it shapes its sound. "Pairs with" becomes a chain.
How it scales
Pedals wrap into rows, like a real board. Categories are pedal colours. At 20+ a second board, or a filter by colour.
Watch out
Every skill needs an off/on pair of lines. That's the proof slot, and the most work per skill, but it's what makes the page worth visiting.
Kitchen · anjarai petti
The spice tin
The round steel masala box in every Tamil kitchen: seven cups, one in the middle. Each skill is a spice. Taste is what you add to an agent a pinch at a time, and a recipe is a mix. Click a cup for its recipe card.
open a cup ↓
Why it means something
The most personal of the four: home, cooking, the Tamil kitchen. "Taste" stops being a buzzword and becomes a spice.
How it scales
Seven cups to a tin. Skill eight opens a second tin, and tins line up on a shelf, one per category if you like.
Watch out
Circles hold little text, so names live on paper tags. At 4+ tins it starts to feel like a lot of steel.
Garden · sow it in your agent
Seed packets
Each skill is a seed packet in a rack: you plant it in someone else's agent and it grows into something. Flip a packet for the back: when to sow, when not to, companion plants (pairs with), what it grows into, and how to sow it.
flip a packet ↓
Why it means something
A skill is a seed: small, passed on, grows in someone else's soil. Sits next to Thenga (a coconut is a seed too) without being Thenga.
How it scales
The rack just gets longer. Numbered packets (Nº 01, Nº 02…) make the growth itself the story. Rows by category.
Watch out
The back of a packet is small, so copy has to be tight. Flipping is great on desktop, a little fiddly to read on a phone.
Library · the card catalogue
The card drawer
An old library drawer, open. Each skill is an index card with a coloured tab by category, typed on ruled lines. Filter by the tabs on the drawer front, pull a card to read it.
pull a card ↓
Why it means something
A catalogue is a knowledge base: the "skill and knowledge base" the agent-clarifier story promised. Quiet and archival.
How it scales
Best of the four: alphabetical, filterable, and fine at 50. Closed cards are one line each.
Watch out
The least personal and the least playful. Closest to Emil's list, just dressed up.