cflow-help

Files (3)

• SKILL.md
• prompting.md · references/
• recipes.md · references/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# cflow help

Answer the user's question about cflow, hand them a prompt they can send, and link the file the answer came from. For a help question, don't start the work. The user asked how, and a cflow run spends real tokens, so let them send the prompt.

A message that asks for work, such as "use cflow to fix this bug", is not a help question. Read [`cflow`](../cflow/SKILL.md), do the work under it, and mention once that the line `/setup-cflow` adds to `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` and `~/.codex/AGENTS.md` keeps it on.

This file maps questions to the skills and guide pages that hold the answers. Those files own the details. Read the file you route to before you quote it, and trust it when it disagrees with this map. The links here point into the installed plugin, which the user may not be able to open, so give the user the file's public copy: `https://github.com/caioba-codes/cflow/blob/main/` followed by its path.

## Find out what they need

Infer the need from the message and the conversation. A named situation, such as "which skill reviews a PR?", goes straight to its section. If the need is still unclear, ask one multiple-choice question with these options, then answer only the section they pick:

- Get set up
- Start a task with `/cflow`
- Pick a skill for a situation
- Fix a run that went wrong
- Make cflow my own

Check the state that changes the answer, and mention it only when it does:

- No `~/.claude/cflow-models.md` means `/setup-cflow` hasn't run for this user, so every role uses its default model.
- No `verify-*` skill or other app harness in the project means agents have no scripted way to drive the app. Mention `/create-verification-skill` when the question is about proving a change works.

When the model rule is missing and it matters, ask whether the user wants to pick a model for each role and a reasoning budget now. It matters when the user is new, the question is about setup or cost, or the answer depends on which models run. Ask at most once per chat. If the need is also unclear, ask both questions together. Offer two choices:

- Now: give them `/setup-cflow` to type, and answer their question too.
- Later: answer their question, and add one line saying every role keeps its default model until they run `/setup-cflow`.

## Get set up

1. Install by cloning cflow and running `cflow/scripts/install.sh`, per the README.
2. Run [`/setup-cflow`](../setup-cflow/SKILL.md). It asks for a reasoning budget, maps a model to each role, and writes a rule. The rule applies to new chats.
3. Start a real task with `/cflow`, a goal, and a check that can pass or fail.

Installing changes nothing until the user invokes a skill. Only `/setup-cflow` loads from the user's words. The [README](../../README.md) and [guide page 1](../../docs/guide/01-setup.md) have the details. Offer to word their first prompt with them, per [`references/prompting.md`](references/prompting.md).

If cost is the worry, say where the tokens go and how to spend fewer. cflow spends extra tokens on subagents and review panels. Rerun `/setup-cflow` and pick a smaller budget or cheaper models. A role set to `auto` or `inherit-parent` runs on the chat's model, which saves tokens when the chat runs on a cheaper model. A shorter panel list runs fewer subagents, one for each entry. Save `/cflow` for work that needs rigor.

cflow is built for Claude Code. Its skills use the Agent Skills format, so other tools can read them. But most workflow skills, including `/cflow`, `/how`, `/why`, and `/teach`, spawn Claude Code subagents with per-role models, and `/loop` is a Claude Code feature, so those parts may not work there.

## Start a task with `/cflow`

`/cflow` matches the task to a playbook, copies the playbook's steps into the todo list, and runs the other skills as the steps need them. A step it skips stays in the list as `skip: <reason>`. A good prompt states the goal and how to tell it's done. It doesn't list skills, because a hand-written sequence tends to drop or reorder steps the playbook would keep. Read [`references/prompting.md`](references/prompting.md) before you help word one. [Guide page 2](../../docs/guide/02-cflow.md) has examples.

Whether `/cflow` stays on depends on how the user starts it:

- Enter on `/cflow` attaches the skill to one message. It fades as the chat moves on.
- The line `/setup-cflow` adds to `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` and `~/.codex/AGENTS.md`, "load the `cflow` skill first for any build, fix or plan task", keeps it in context every turn, and it stays out of casual turns.
- Without that line, start each new task with `/cflow`.

Link [Claude Code's skills docs](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/skills) when this comes up. Mid-chat, "new task" makes the mode match a fresh playbook. `/cflow` already uses `cflow-agent` for the subagents its playbook steps spawn. To get the same style from a subagent of your own, spawn it with `subagent_type: "cflow-agent"`.

## Pick a skill

The default answer is `/cflow`, which runs most of the others when its steps need them. Name a skill directly when the user wants more or less of something than the playbook gives. Read the skill before you recommend it, and give one example prompt.

| The user wants to | Skill |
|---|---|
| Do any non-trivial task with rigor | [`/cflow`](../cflow/SKILL.md) |
| Check that the agent understood their goal and the problem before it starts | [`/in-your-own-words`](../in-your-own-words/SKILL.md) |
| Aim a task higher before starting: more expert, more outcome-focused, not overspecified | [`/sharpen`](../sharpen/SKILL.md) |
| Know how code works now, or where new code should live | [`/how`](../how/SKILL.md) |
| Know why code is shaped this way, or where a number came from | [`/why`](../why/SKILL.md) |
| Understand a change or subsystem, explained plainly | [`/teach`](../teach/SKILL.md) |
| Catch up on their own recent work on a topic | [`/recall`](../recall/SKILL.md) |
| Catch up on what changed in this chat since their last message, in a few plain sentences and small visuals, with enough context to decide each action item | [`/ketchup`](../ketchup/SKILL.md) |
| Know what a small diff could break outside itself | [`/blast-radius`](../blast-radius/SKILL.md) |
| Settle types and module shape before code that crosses a function boundary | [`/architect`](../architect/SKILL.md) |
| Get several attempts at one brief, merged into the best one | [`/arena`](../arena/SKILL.md) |
| Run parallel checks over slices, or race workers, as background agents | [`/swarm`](../swarm/SKILL.md) |
| Be interviewed in rounds of numbered questions before a fuzzy idea is planned | [`/grilling`](../grilling/SKILL.md) |
| Have different models review a diff and try to break it | [`/interrogate`](../interrogate/SKILL.md) |
| Fix a bug test-first when a cheap local test exists | [`/tdd`](../tdd/SKILL.md) |
| Apply TypeScript rules to `.ts` or `.tsx` work | [`/typescript-best-practices`](../typescript-best-practices/SKILL.md) |
| Strip comments before review, using a reviewer that didn't write them | [`/no-comments`](../no-comments/SKILL.md) |
| Clean AI tells out of prose | [`/unslop`](../unslop/SKILL.md) |
| Write docs, an RFC, a README, a PR description, or a commit message to a standard | [`/technical-writing`](../technical-writing/SKILL.md) |
| Hear the last reply again in plain words | [`/bro`](../bro/SKILL.md) |
| Give agents a scripted way to drive the app and prove behavior | [`/create-verification-skill`](../create-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Bring a verification skill and its feature map back in line with the app | [`/maintain-verification-skill`](../maintain-verification-skill/SKILL.md) |
| Vet a performance number before reporting or acting on it | [`/benchmark-checklist`](../benchmark-checklist/SKILL.md) |
| Run a large or cross-cutting change, or one to review after stepping away | [`/figure-it-out`](../figure-it-out/SKILL.md) |
| Keep a decision log during a run, and review it afterward | [`/show-me-your-work`](../show-me-your-work/SKILL.md) |
| Get a setup guide and a one-screen cheat sheet for cflow or any workflow | `/explain-flow` |
| Understand a feature the agents shipped, as one page with a quiz | [`/explain-diff`](../explain-diff/SKILL.md) |
| Pick a model for each role and a reasoning budget | [`/setup-cflow`](../setup-cflow/SKILL.md) |
| Turn their own working habits into a personal mode skill | [`/automate-me`](../automate-me/SKILL.md) |
| Turn what a finished task taught into skill edits | [`/reflect`](../reflect/SKILL.md) |
| Stop agents from repeating the same mistakes in this repo | [`/correct`](../correct/SKILL.md) |
| Find their way around cflow | `/cflow-help` |

If a skill directory next to this one is missing from the table, read its frontmatter and route by its description. The `principle-*` directories are covered under principles below.

Close calls:

- `/how` explains what the code does. `/why` explains the reasons. `/teach` runs one or both and explains the result plainly.
- `/arena` gives every worker the same brief and merges the best parts. `/swarm` splits work into slices or a race and returns one report.
- `/architect` implements right after it settles the design. Add "with checkpoint" to review the design before it writes code.
- `/interrogate` reviews the diff. `/blast-radius` looks for breakage outside the diff and proves the one fact that makes the change safe.
- `/recall` rebuilds context across recent chats. `/ketchup` covers only this chat since the user's last message. Resuming one specific chat or branch is the Session pickup playbook.
- `/figure-it-out` designs one rigorous run. The Orchestrate playbook runs a program that spans days and many PRs. The Autonomous run playbook drives one task to a finish condition.

Not in cflow:

- `/simplify` and Claude in Chrome (`claude-in-chrome`) ship with Claude Code.
- `/loop` and the `skill-creator` skill are Claude Code built-ins.
- cflow has no `/orchestrate` skill. Orchestrate is a `/cflow` playbook. If the slash menu shows `/orchestrate`, another plugin provides it.

## Playbooks and principles

Playbooks are step lists inside `/cflow`, not skills, so they have no slash command. Inside `/cflow`, describing the task picks one, and these phrases name one directly:

- "babysit this pr" or "check on pr 123" runs Babysit. It drives the PR to merge-ready and stops there. It doesn't merge unless the user asks to merge, land, or ship.
- "land the stack" runs Shipping.
- "take over this branch" runs Session pickup.
- "pause safely" runs Pause safely.
- "full autopilot on this queue" runs Autopilot-full. "stack them, don't ship" runs Autopilot-stack, which is also what any build runs when no autopilot is named.
- "run the eval playbook" runs Eval.

From caioba-codes/cflow, MIT.

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