Tool Discovery Skill
Periodically audit for new community-built Claude Code tools worth installing.
Trigger
Activate when:
- User says "find new tools", "what's new", "update my setup", "tool discovery", "discover tools"
- Proactively before major tasks (check if last run was >7 days ago)
- User asks about a capability that might exist as a community tool
Workflow
1. Inventory Current Setup
Read and catalog what's already installed:
~/.claude/skills/ → installed skills
~/.claude/agents/ → installed agents
~/.claude/plugins/ → installed plugins + installed_plugins.json
~/.claude/hooks/ → installed hooks
~/.claude/settings.json → configured MCPs
Build a deduplicated list of installed tool names.
2. Search Sources
Search each source listed in references/sources.md using WebFetch and WebSearch:
- Awesome lists — fetch README from each repo, parse tool entries
- GitHub trending — search for repos tagged
claude-code,claude-mcp,claude-skillcreated/updated recently - npm — search for packages with keywords:
claude-code-skill,claude-code-plugin,claude-mcp - GitHub search — query:
claude code skill OR plugin OR agent OR mcpsorted by recently updated
For each source, extract:
- Tool name
- One-line description
- Type (skill / agent / plugin / MCP / CLI)
- Install method
- Last updated date
- Stars / downloads (if available)
3. Filter
Apply these filters in order:
- Already installed — skip anything matching current inventory
- General-purpose only — skip framework-specific tools (e.g., "Laravel debugger", "Rails migration helper") unless the user's current project uses that framework
- CLI-first philosophy — if a tool exists as both MCP and CLI, flag the CLI version. Prefer standalone CLIs over MCP wrappers when functionality is equivalent
- Quality threshold — skip repos with <10 stars and no recent commits (>6 months stale)
- Security check — flag tools that request broad permissions or shell access without justification
4. Categorize Results
Group findings into:
- High value — general-purpose, well-maintained, fills a gap in current setup
- Worth watching — interesting but early-stage or niche
- CLI alternatives — CLIs that could replace or supplement installed MCPs
5. Present Findings
Output a table per category:
## High Value
| Name | Type | What it does | Install | CLI Alt? | Stars |
|------|------|-------------|---------|----------|-------|
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
## Worth Watching
| Name | Type | What it does | Install | Stars | Note |
|------|------|-------------|---------|-------|------|
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
## CLI Alternatives to Installed MCPs
| Installed MCP | CLI Alternative | Difference | Install |
|---------------|----------------|------------|---------|
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
6. Install on Approval
When the user approves a tool:
- Skills: Clone/copy to
~/.claude/skills/<name>/ - Agents: Copy to
~/.claude/agents/<name>.md - Plugins: Run the plugin's install command, update
installed_plugins.json - MCPs: Add config to
~/.claude/settings.jsonundermcpServers - CLIs: Install via npm/pip/cargo as appropriate, verify with
--version
After install, verify the tool works by running a smoke test if possible.
7. Log
Append to ~/.claude/skills/tool-discovery/discovery-log.md:
## YYYY-MM-DD
- Searched: [sources checked]
- Found: N new tools
- Installed: [list]
- Skipped: [list with reasons]
Notes
- Rate-limit GitHub API calls — use WebFetch sparingly, batch where possible
- Cache results for 7 days in
~/.claude/skills/tool-discovery/cache/ - If a tool looks useful but risky, suggest it but do NOT auto-install
- Always check if a discovered MCP has a simpler CLI equivalent before recommending