Skills reference
A SpecWeave skill is a short instruction file that walks an agent through one step of the loop. Every skill calls the specweave CLI for the actual work, so the result is the same in every tool. The commands reference lists what each command does.
You rarely need to name a skill. AGENTS.md tells every agent the loop, so plain words such as "plan this", "keep going", "hand off" or "pick up" are enough.
The skill set
| Skill | What it does | Plain words that trigger it |
|---|---|---|
increment | Plans a unit of work: creates the increment and writes spec.md with Problem, Scope, numbered acceptance criteria, Approach and Tasks. | "plan a feature", "new increment", "let's build X" |
do | Works the increment task by task: task next, claim, implement, commit, task done --run with the test. | "implement", "start working", "continue", "keep going" |
auto | Runs an increment unattended. The Stop hook sends the session back into the loop until every task is done. | "auto mode", "run until done" |
team | Runs one increment with several agents in parallel: a worktree each, claims through the ledger, one close. | "team", "parallel agents" |
review | Adversarial review in a fresh context before shipping. Every finding cites path:line and is checked again. | "review", "grill this", "critique the implementation" |
done | Closes an increment: ledger check, specweave verify, optional review, specweave complete. | "close the increment", "we are done", "finish up" |
sync | GitHub, Jira and Azure DevOps: push progress, pull or import issues, check status, run setup. | "sync", "push to GitHub", "import issues" |
handoff | Writes a secret-scrubbed handoff and pushes it, so the work continues in another tool, account or session. | "hand off", "handoff", "I'm out of tokens", "switching accounts" |
project | Coordinates ongoing work across tools with shared goals, context, artifacts and worker briefs. | "set up a project", "brief a worker" |
brainstorm | Compares options on stated criteria and ends with a pick, before a spec is written. | "brainstorm", "ideate", "explore approaches", "what are our options" |
jev | Hands closed-set decisions (routing, command safety, screening, failure triage) to Jev. | "jev", "system one" |
These eleven are the whole set. In 3.0 qa folded into review and task into do. The CLI still has specweave qa for a risk score.
Reach for /sw:brainstorm when the problem is clear but the approach is not. It ends with one pick and hands it to increment, so the brainstorm never replaces the spec.
There is no pickup skill. AGENTS.md tells every agent to run specweave pickup at the start of a session and when you say "pick up" or "continue". In Claude Code the SessionStart hook also prints a short pickup on its own.
How to invoke them
| Where you work | How skills are installed | How you call one |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code with the plugin | claude plugin install sw@specweave | /sw:do, /sw:handoff, /sw:increment "Add login form" |
| Claude Code without the plugin (a Claude Code Projects thread, another cloud session) | specweave init writes them to .claude/skills/sw-<name>/ in the repo; commit that folder | /sw-do, /sw-handoff, or ask in plain words |
| Codex (CLI, desktop, cloud) | The same specweave init writes .agents/skills/sw-<name>/ too, whatever the adapter | $sw-do, $sw-handoff, $sw-increment |
| Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot and other tools | specweave init --adapter <tool> writes the skills where that tool looks for them | The tool's own skill syntax, or plain words |
| Any tool, no SpecWeave install | npx vskill install anton-abyzov/specweave/sw-do (see below) | The tool's own skill syntax, or plain words |
No skill is hidden from the model, so plain words start any of them: "hand off", "we are done" or "run until done". AGENTS.md also tells the agent to run specweave handoff --reason "<your words>" whenever it stops, so a tool without skills does the same.
Handing off in a few words
You do not need to write a long prompt to move work between tools or accounts.
- In the session that is stopping, say "hand off" (or "I'm out of tokens"). The agent runs
specweave handoff, which releases its claims and pushes the branch and a snapshot of uncommitted work. - In the new session (another tool, a cloud thread, a second account), say "pick up". The agent runs
specweave pickup, which fetches that handoff, applies it when the working tree is clean, and prints the next task with its acceptance criteria.
specweave report then writes an HTML timeline of who did what, as evidence of the handover.
See cross-tool handoff and Claude Code Projects.
Portable skills for any tool
The same eleven skills live in the skills/sw-<name>/ folders of the SpecWeave repo, which are the one source the plugin and project copies are generated from. They install into other tools with vskill. Each one spells out the file formats and a manual shell procedure, so they work even where the CLI is not installed.
npx vskill install anton-abyzov/specweave/sw-increment
npx vskill install anton-abyzov/specweave/sw-do
npx vskill install anton-abyzov/specweave/sw-review
npx vskill install anton-abyzov/specweave/sw-handoff
npx vskill install anton-abyzov/specweave/sw-jev
| Skill | Use it when | Writes |
|---|---|---|
sw-increment | Planning a feature, before any code | metadata.json, spec.md |
sw-do | Implementing an increment task by task, including claiming, finishing or skipping a task | Commits, ledger events, reports/verify.json |
sw-review | Reviewing before shipping | reports/review.md |
sw-handoff | Stopping: out of tokens, switching tools or machines | handoff.md, handoff.diff |
sw-jev | A decision whose possible answers can all be listed in advance | Nothing; it answers and you act |
For tools that only read AGENTS.md, see generic AI tools.
Writing your own
Custom skills go in your own plugin or are installed with vskill; they are not added to the sw plugin. See installing skills and the skills overview.