methodology

The Skill-Centric Workflow

Skills remember how. Primitives do the work. Loops decide when to start and when to stop.

In June 2026 the people who build coding agents started saying the same thing: stop prompting agents by hand — design the loops that prompt them (source). The agent runs the inner loop; you own the outer one.

This site has run on a skill file since its first line of code. Version 2 of the method keeps that memory layer and adds the two layers around it: the primitives an agent can rely on, and the loop that decides when it works and when it stops. Click any card to turn it over.

Three layers

Think of a restaurant kitchen: a recipe book, prepared stations, and the rhythm of service with a head chef tasting before anything leaves.

The workflow ladder

Move up only when the level below stops being enough. Each floor adds autonomy — and the verification to deserve it.

Other workflows worth knowing

They are not rivals; each fits a different kind of work. "This site" says honestly whether we run it.

Workflow	In one line	Fits	This site
Explore → plan → code → commit	Understand first, and give the agent a check it can run itself	Single tasks	Every task
Spec-driven (Spec Kit, Kiro)	Write the specification, then implement from a task list	Teams, large features	Not verified here
Compound engineering	Plan → work → review → compound the lessons	Long-lived projects	Yes, as skill write-back
Loop engineering (Ralph, goals, schedules)	Design loops that stop themselves; humans own the outer loop	Repeating, verifiable work	Yes, for the loops below

Loops this site actually runs

Each one: trigger → agent → primitive → check → stop or hand back.

Guardrails for any loop

01A hard cap on rounds, time and money — no loop without brakes.
02Exit when nothing changed between two rounds.
03"Done" is decided by a check that returns pass or fail, never by the agent's own assessment.
04The check comes from the system under test: its logs, exit codes and live output.
05Stop before anything irreversible — deleting, paying, publishing — and wait for a human.
06Every skipped, truncated or downgraded step is reported loudly, not hidden inside "done".

Starter skills

Original method, maintained by contact@antist.ai