I don't think a general public set of skills like this is going to work. I see value in vendors producing skills for their own products, and end users maintaining skills to influence agents according to their preferences, but too much in these skills files is opinion. Where does this end? Ordering of skills by specificity, such as org > user > workspace? And we know that skills aren't reliably picked up anyway. And then there's the additional attack surface area for prompt injection.
Readit NewsI use a common README_AI.md file, and use CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md to direct the agent to that common file. From README_AI.md, I make specific references to skills. This works pretty well - it's become pretty rare that the agent behaves in a way contrary to my instructions. More info on my approach here: https://www.appsoftware.com/blog/a-centralised-approach-to-a... ... There was a post on here a couple of days ago referring to a paper that said that the AGENTS file alone worked better than agent skills, but a single agents file doesn't scale. For me, a combination where I use a brief reference to the skill in the main agents file seems like the best approach.
Location: Wiltshire, UK
Remote: Yes (Remote or London)
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: .NET 9/Core, C#, JavaScript, Cloud, Database, APIs + lots (see CV)
Resume/CV: https://www.appsoftware.com/cv
Email: gareth.brown@appsoftware.com
I am a Senior Software Engineer and Solutions Architect with over 18 years of experience building enterprise-grade systems for the public sector, FTSE 100 companies, and fintech startups.
I specialize in the .NET ecosystem and AWS cloud infrastructure, with a focus on building performant, secure, and maintainable systems. I’m equally comfortable leading a development team through complex technical migrations or being a hands-on individual contributor. I bring a pragmatic, "builder" mindset to software—focused on solving business problems with clean code and robust DevOps practices.
Outside of software, I’m an active and practical person who enjoys woodworking, art, literature and fitness including hiking and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Looking for senior or lead roles where I can take ownership of technical strategy and delivery.
appsoftware commented on Ask HN: Anyone else struggle with how to learn coding in the AI era? · Posted by u/44Bulldog
We're all ultimately just learning what we need to to get the job done. After 20 years programming, it is very clear that nobody knows everything. Everyone just knows their own little slice of the software world, and even then you have to 'use it or loose it'. If you're feeling imposter syndrome, keep a study side project going where you don't use any AI, something like NAND to Tetris that forces you to learn low level concepts, and then just stay productive using AI for the rest of your work.
appsoftware commented on Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions? · Posted by u/item007
That’s a really solid workflow: keep capture friction low in Logseq, then do “topic export → LLM consolidation” when you actually need a brief.
The wiki-link mismatch problem also sounds like a naming/alias layer issue more than retrieval itself.
If you were to take this one step further, would you want the output to be:
1.a consolidated brief you can re-enter later, or
2.a small set of next-actions / open questions extracted from the brief?
This “export + consolidate” pattern is very close to what I’m exploring (details in my HN bio/profile if you’re curious).
Neither really. I don't want a tool to guide me or to generate content. My notes only have meaning to me if I know I wrote them, from my brain. I'm a fan of learning by proximity to the problems I have. Maybe a LLM based tool that highlighted conceptual connections to other notes, but in my mind these associations can be quite disparate and from sometimes completely different disciplines
appsoftware commented on Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions? · Posted by u/item007
Yep, that matches my experience. Logseq’s block tree gives you “structure by default” (parent/child context), so you can get away with being a bit looser with explicit linking. In Obsidian, because the unit is the note (not the block), you often have to be more intentional about creating/maintaining the links and structure.
Out of curiosity: do you find Logseq’s block hierarchy alone is enough for re-entry, or do you still rely heavily on consistent wikilink naming/tags to avoid the “I swear I linked this but used a different term” problem?
Details in my HN profile/bio if you want the angle I’m exploring around minimizing organization overhead while improving re-entry.
Yes the block hierarchy is enough for re-entry. There is a natural 'pruning' process where I return to notes and realise I need to rework them to make surfacing the information I need easier. I often adjust titles and aliases (and often find I have two notes with similar names that need 'refactoring' to one - but Logseq makes this easy). If I don't find the note straight away I can usually remember adjacent terms to find it, and then when I do, I tag it with the first terms I searched on (as acceptance of the associations my brain had naturally made). I'll keep an eye on your project. What I do struggle with with Logseq is there isn't an easy means to just dump ideas to organise later, partly because the mobile app is so slow. It really needs two UIs that integrate with the same base format for two different modes of note collection. I disagree with others that taking or 'hoarding' notes is more work than its worth. The benefit of being able to dump info quickly and pick it up again and being able to find it easily is so valuable. Sure some notes get written and never see the light of day again, but then they never consume further time because I just don't work on them, but they are there if I need them. There's no way to know what info will definitely be useful in the future.
appsoftware commented on The history of C# and TypeScript with Anders Hejlsberg [video] youtube.com/watch?v=uMqx8... · Posted by u/doppp
We need Anders to make one final language.
A MINIMAL memory safe language. The less it has the better.
Rust without the crazy town complexity.
The distilled wisdom from C# and Delphi and TypeScript.
A programming language that has less instead of more.
What would you take out of C# etc?
appsoftware commented on Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions? · Posted by u/item007
I just use Logseq and put double brackets around my key terms. Whenever I need to revisit a topic, I can quickly review what I've a already learned about it, when, and what else it was connected to.
My understanding is that Obsidian is pretty similar? The point of my PKM isn't to turn my notes into shipped things. The point of my PKM is that when I do want to work on something, I don't have to repeat all my old mistakes to get back to where I was before, or reinvent all my own wheels.
Obsidian is similar but without the block structure you have to be very specific about linking notes rather than using parent child relationships.
Claude also doesn't let you use a worse model after you reach your usage limits, which is a bit hard to swallow when you're paying for the service.