Bootstrap Skill - Self-Hosting (v3.6.0)

Version: 3.6.0 Feature: Bootstrap Skill (Dogfooding) Status: ✅ Production Ready Last Updated: 2026-02-18

Overview

The Bootstrap Skill feature allows Skill Seekers to analyze itself and generate a Claude Code skill containing its own documentation, API reference, code patterns, and usage examples. This is the ultimate form of "dogfooding" - using the tool to document itself.

What You Get:

• Complete Skill Seekers documentation as a Claude Code skill
• CLI command reference with examples
• Auto-generated API documentation from codebase
• Design pattern detection from source code
• Test example extraction for learning
• Installation into Claude Code for instant access

Use Cases:

• Learn Skill Seekers by having it explain itself to Claude
• Quick reference for CLI commands while working
• API documentation for programmatic usage
• Code pattern examples from the source
• Self-documenting development workflow

Quick Start

One-Command Installation

# Generate and install the bootstrap skill
./scripts/bootstrap_skill.sh

This script will:

1. ✅ Analyze the Skill Seekers codebase (C3.x features)
2. ✅ Merge handcrafted header with auto-generated content
3. ✅ Validate YAML frontmatter and structure
4. ✅ Create output/skill-seekers/ directory
5. ✅ Install to Claude Code (optional)

Time: ~2-5 minutes (depending on analysis depth)

Manual Installation

# 1. Run codebase analysis
skill-seekers codebase \
  --directory . \
  --output output/skill-seekers \
  --name skill-seekers

# 2. Merge with custom header (optional)
cat scripts/skill_header.md output/skill-seekers/SKILL.md > output/skill-seekers/SKILL_MERGED.md
mv output/skill-seekers/SKILL_MERGED.md output/skill-seekers/SKILL.md

# 3. Install to Claude Code
skill-seekers install-agent \
  --skill-dir output/skill-seekers \
  --agent-dir ~/.claude/skills/skill-seekers

How It Works

Architecture

The bootstrap skill combines three components:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Bootstrap Skill Architecture               │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                         │
│  1. Handcrafted Header (scripts/skill_header.md)       │
│     ├── YAML frontmatter                                │
│     ├── Installation instructions                       │
│     ├── Quick start guide                               │
│     └── Core concepts                                   │
│                                                         │
│  2. Auto-Generated Content (codebase_scraper.py)       │
│     ├── C3.1: Design pattern detection                 │
│     ├── C3.2: Test example extraction                  │
│     ├── C3.3: How-to guide generation                  │
│     ├── C3.4: Configuration extraction                 │
│     ├── C3.5: Architectural overview                   │
│     ├── C3.7: Architectural pattern detection          │
│     ├── C3.8: API reference + dependency graphs        │
│     └── Code analysis (9 languages)                    │
│                                                         │
│  3. Validation System (frontmatter detection)          │
│     ├── YAML frontmatter check                         │
│     ├── Required field validation                      │
│     └── Structure verification                         │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Step 1: Codebase Analysis

The codebase_scraper.py module analyzes the Skill Seekers source code:

skill-seekers codebase --directory . --output output/skill-seekers

What Gets Analyzed:

• Python source files (src/skill_seekers/**/*.py)
• Test files (tests/**/*.py)
• Configuration files (configs/*.json)
• Documentation (docs/**/*.md, README.md, etc.)

C3.x Features Applied:

• C3.1: Detects design patterns (Strategy, Factory, Singleton, etc.)
• C3.2: Extracts test examples showing real usage
• C3.3: Generates how-to guides from test workflows
• C3.4: Extracts configuration patterns (CLI args, env vars)
• C3.5: Creates architectural overview of the codebase
• C3.7: Detects architectural patterns (MVC, Repository, etc.)
• C3.8: Builds API reference and dependency graphs

Step 2: Header Combination

The bootstrap script merges a handcrafted header with auto-generated content:

# scripts/bootstrap_skill.sh does this:
cat scripts/skill_header.md output/skill-seekers/SKILL.md > merged.md

Why Two Parts?

• Header: Curated introduction, installation steps, core concepts
• Auto-generated: Always up-to-date code patterns, examples, API docs

Header Structure (scripts/skill_header.md):

---
name: skill-seekers
version: 3.6.0
description: |
  Documentation-to-AI skill conversion tool. Use when working with
  Skill Seekers codebase, CLI commands, or API integration.
tags: [documentation, scraping, ai-skills, mcp]
---

# Skill Seekers - Documentation to AI Skills

## Installation
...

## Quick Start
...

## Core Concepts
...

<!-- AUTO-GENERATED CONTENT STARTS HERE -->

Step 3: Validation

The bootstrap script validates the final skill:

# Check for YAML frontmatter
if ! grep -q "^---$" output/skill-seekers/SKILL.md; then
    echo "❌ Missing YAML frontmatter"
    exit 1
fi

# Validate required fields
python -c "
import yaml
with open('output/skill-seekers/SKILL.md') as f:
    content = f.read()
    frontmatter = yaml.safe_load(content.split('---')[1])
    required = ['name', 'version', 'description']
    for field in required:
        assert field in frontmatter, f'Missing {field}'
"

Validated Fields:

• ✅ name - Skill name
• ✅ version - Version number
• ✅ description - When to use this skill
• ✅ tags - Categorization tags
• ✅ Proper YAML syntax
• ✅ Content structure

Step 4: Output

The final skill is created in output/skill-seekers/:

output/skill-seekers/
├── SKILL.md                    # Main skill file (300-500 lines)
├── references/                 # Detailed references
│   ├── api_reference/          # API documentation
│   │   ├── doc_scraper.md
│   │   ├── github_scraper.md
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── patterns/               # Design patterns detected
│   │   ├── strategy_pattern.md
│   │   ├── factory_pattern.md
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── test_examples/          # Usage examples from tests
│   │   ├── scraping_examples.md
│   │   ├── packaging_examples.md
│   │   └── ...
│   └── how_to_guides/          # Generated guides
│       ├── how_to_scrape_docs.md
│       ├── how_to_package_skills.md
│       └── ...
└── metadata.json               # Skill metadata

Advanced Usage

Customizing the Header

Edit scripts/skill_header.md to customize the introduction:

---
name: skill-seekers
version: 3.6.0
description: |
  YOUR CUSTOM DESCRIPTION HERE
tags: [your, custom, tags]
custom_field: your_value
---

# Your Custom Title

Your custom introduction...

<!-- AUTO-GENERATED CONTENT STARTS HERE -->

Guidelines:

• Keep frontmatter in YAML format
• Include required fields: name, version, description
• Add custom fields as needed
• Marker comment preserves auto-generated content location

Validation Options

The bootstrap script supports custom validation rules:

# scripts/bootstrap_skill.sh (excerpt)

# Custom validation function
validate_skill() {
    local skill_file=$1

    # Check frontmatter
    if ! has_frontmatter "$skill_file"; then
        echo "❌ Missing frontmatter"
        return 1
    fi

    # Check required fields
    if ! has_required_fields "$skill_file"; then
        echo "❌ Missing required fields"
        return 1
    fi

    # Check content structure
    if ! has_proper_structure "$skill_fi