Discovery session: 2026-03-12
Status: v1 scope confirmed
The Holochain developer ecosystem lacks a comprehensive AI coding assistant skill that covers the full development cycle in one place. Existing documentation is scattered across developer.holochain.org, GitHub repos, and community channels. New developers face steep learning curves; experienced developers lack a fast co-pilot for implementation patterns. This skill addresses both by providing a structured, context-aware assistant that works across the full spiral: architecture, design, scaffolding, implementation, testing, and deployment.
A secondary goal is enabling the wider Holochain community to benefit from AI-assisted development without requiring PAI (Personal AI Infrastructure) — the skill must work as a standalone agent skill with zero external dependencies.
Persona Context Primary Need
Junior Holochain developer Learning the framework, first hApp Guided workflows, explanations, scaffold commands Experienced Holochain developer Active project, knows the patterns Fast pattern lookup, CRUD generation, debugging help Full-stack developer new to Holochain Knows Rust/TypeScript, learning DHT concepts Architecture explanation, data model design, TypeScript client integration
ID Requirement Priority Acceptance Criteria
FR-01 Skill must cover Architecture domain Must Architecture.md loads on request; covers coordinator/integrity split, DNA structure, Nix, progenitor, multi-DNA, private entriesFR-02 Skill must cover Design domain Must Workflows/DesignDataModel.md guides entry/link type design with output artifactsFR-03 Skill must cover Scaffold domain Must Scaffold.md + Workflows/Scaffold.md cover: Holonix setup, Nix flake, hc CLI, hc scaffold commands, new project workflow, add-domain-to-existing workflowFR-04 Scaffold workflow follows official Holochain documentation Must Commands and patterns reference developer.holochain.org; version pins current (hdk=0.6.1, hdi=0.7.1) FR-05 Skill must cover Implementation domain Must Patterns.md covers entry types, link types, CRUD, cross-zome calls, signals, validation, HDK 0.6 APIFR-06 Skill must cover Testing domain Must Testing.md covers Tryorama setup, two-agent scenarios, dhtSync, update/delete patternsFR-07 Skill must cover Deployment domain Must Deployment.md + Workflows/PackageAndDeploy.md cover Kangaroo-Electron packaging, CI/CD, versioningFR-08 Skill must be PAI-independent Must No voice notification curl, no SKILLCUSTOMIZATIONS hook, no PROJECTS.md references, no Algorithm routing; works in vanilla Claude Code FR-09 Skill must include installation documentation Must README.md with 3 installation options (global, project-local, symlink), quick start examplesFR-10 Domain correspondence with PAI version Should Same sections, same knowledge depth, same workflow structure — different wrappers FR-11 Skill routing covers all 5 workflows Must SKILL.md routing table maps natural language triggers to correct workflowsFR-12 Context files load on demand Must SKILL.md specifies which context file to load for each topic; not all pre-loaded
ID Category Requirement Target
NFR-01 Portability Works with zero PAI infrastructure Verified by install in fresh Claude Code with no ~/.claude/PAI/ NFR-02 Currency Version pins match current stable Holochain hdk=0.6.1, hdi=0.7.1, holonix ref=main-0.6 at release NFR-03 Completeness All 6 domains have content No stub files in v1 release NFR-04 Accuracy Code examples compile and run correctly Examples tested against real hAppenings/Nondominium codebase
v1 conforms to Agent Skills Open Standard — compatible with Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Augment, and CodexEcosystem expansion deferred to v2 — hREA, unyt, holochain-open-dev, ADAM, Wind Tunnel not in scopeTwo independent codebases for v1 — PAI version and vanilla version developed separately; integration/merge post-v1No GUI in v1 — visual tooling, diagram generation, and no-code interfaces are v3+ visionOfficial docs anchor — Scaffold workflow must follow developer.holochain.org, not invent conventions
Public repo location: Personal GitHub or a community org (Holochain Foundation, holochain-open-dev)?Community discovery: How to publicize the skill to the Holochain developer community?PAI merge trigger: Time-based (3 months) or milestone-based (X workflows proven stable)?Contribution model: Solo-maintained or open contributions from day one?
Feature Target Version Description
hREA / ValueFlows sub-skill v2 Scaffold and implement ValueFlows-compatible zomes holochain-open-dev patterns v2 Profiles, links to other happs, linked devices ADAM (coasys) integration v2 AD4M perspectives and expression languages Wind Tunnel testing v2 Performance testing for Holochain apps unyt integration v2 Unit-aware numeric types for resource tracking Holo hosting / edge nodes v2 HTTP gateway, HolOS, Holo Node ISO setup Cross-LLM portability v2 Adapt for GLM 5, other AI clients with skill support Skill graph / ecosystem orchestrator v2 Parent skill routing to domain sub-skills GUI / visual programming v3+ No-code interface with DHT model explorer Diagram generation v3+ Visual architecture and data flow diagrams Progressive disclosure UI v3+ Junior/senior mode switching