tool-discovery

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:

1. Awesome lists — fetch README from each repo, parse tool entries
2. GitHub trending — search for repos tagged claude-code, claude-mcp, claude-skill created/updated recently
3. npm — search for packages with keywords: claude-code-skill, claude-code-plugin, claude-mcp
4. GitHub search — query: claude code skill OR plugin OR agent OR mcp sorted 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:

1. Already installed — skip anything matching current inventory
2. General-purpose only — skip framework-specific tools (e.g., "Laravel debugger", "Rails migration helper") unless the user's current project uses that framework
3. 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
4. Quality threshold — skip repos with <10 stars and no recent commits (>6 months stale)
5. 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.json under mcpServers
• 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