README

Generic AI agent skills for PHP projects and Composer packages. Authored once here, synced to every AI agent by the boost family.

boost-skills is a skill-bearing package. It ships AI agent skills under resources/boost/skills/ — code review, bug fixing, spec-driven implementation, release checklists, Jira workflows, and more — plus always-on guidelines under resources/boost/guidelines/. Most apply to any project; some are tagged for a specific capability — see Tags.

The package carries no runtime code; it's pure Markdown. A sync engine reads these skills and guidelines and writes them into each AI agent directory you've configured (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Codex, Gemini, and the rest) on every composer install or composer update. You get that engine through a boost family package.

The boost family

boost-skills ships the skills but does not sync them. Pair it with the package that matches your role:

sandermuller/package-boost-php if you write framework-agnostic Composer packages
sandermuller/package-boost-laravel if you write Laravel packages
sandermuller/project-boost if you build a PHP application
laravel/boost if you build a Laravel application

The three sandermuller/* packages bundle the sandermuller/boost-core sync engine, so you rarely install boost-core yourself. laravel/boost is Laravel's own engine and reads boost-skills just as well; follow its setup for that one. If none of these fit (a non-PHP package, say), install boost-core directly.

Install

Install boost-skills together with the family package for your role. For a framework-agnostic package author, that is package-boost-php:

composer require --dev sandermuller/boost-skills sandermuller/package-boost-php

Swap package-boost-php for package-boost-laravel or project-boost to match your role. The steps below use the boost-core engine's commands; on laravel/boost, follow its own setup instead and ensure sandermuller/boost-skills is among the packages it syncs.

boost-core, pulled in by the family package, ships an interactive setup command:

composer boost:install

boost:install generates a boost.php in your project root and lets you pick target agents and allowlisted vendors. Skills sync only from allowlisted vendors, so make sure sandermuller/boost-skills is selected. The result looks like:

return BoostConfig::configure()
    ->withAgents([
        Agent::CLAUDE_CODE,
        Agent::COPILOT,
        Agent::CODEX,
    ])
    ->withAllowedVendors([
        'sandermuller/boost-skills',
        'sandermuller/package-boost-php',
    ])
    ->withTags('php', 'github');

Declare your project's capabilities in ->withTags(...) — tagged skills and guidelines sync only to projects that opt in. Common starters are 'php' and 'github'; see the Tags registry for the full vocabulary. After a sync, vendor/bin/boost tags shows which tagged content is currently filtered out vs synced — handy for spotting capabilities you may want to declare.

Then fan the skills out:

composer boost:sync

After that, every composer install or composer update re-syncs automatically. The generated agent directories (.claude/skills/, .github/skills/, and the rest) stay out of version control; boost-core manages that .gitignore block.

Skills

Skill	What it does	Tags
`ai-guidelines`	Create and maintain AI skills and guideline files (`.ai/`, `CLAUDE.md`, `AGENTS.md`).	—
`autoresearch`	Autonomous performance loop: benchmark, change code, then keep or revert by measured result.	`php`
`backend-quality`	Two-tier PHP quality gate: Pint + related tests on every change, PHPStan + full suite on completion.	`php`
`bug-fixing`	Test-driven bug workflow: reproduce with a failing test, then fix it.	—
`code-review`	Review recent changes across functionality, code quality, security, and tests.	—
`codex-review`	Request an independent review from the OpenAI Codex CLI, then apply the warranted fixes.	—
`evaluate`	Self-review a full implementation and fix the issues it surfaces.	—
`frontend-quality`	Frontend quality gate: type-checking and linting for the project's frontend toolchain.	`frontend`
`github-issue-updates`	Append a user-facing description and QA testables to a GitHub issue after a feature ships.	`github-issues`
`humanizer`	Remove signs of AI-generated writing so text reads as natural and human.	—
`implement-spec`	Implement a specification file phase by phase with progress tracking.	—
`interview`	Structured Q&A to gather a complex feature's requirements before writing its spec.	—
`jira-create`	Create a Jira issue with a well-formed, user-facing description.	`jira`
`jira-rework`	Research a Jira issue sent back for rework, then propose fix options.	`jira` `github`
`jira-updates`	Update a Jira issue after its PR is created; post Blocked-by-Question comments.	`jira` `github`
`pr-review-feedback`	Apply PR review comments, evaluating each critically before acting.	`github`
`pre-release`	Pre-push gauntlet: Rector, Pint, full test suite, PHPStan, and a doc-staleness audit.	`php` `github`
`pull-requests`	Create and manage your own GitHub PRs via `gh`: write the description, verify, route by risk.	`github`
`resolve-conflicts`	Resolve git merge conflicts without dropping functionality from either side.	—
`test-writing`	Write specific, descriptively named tests that follow Arrange-Act-Assert.	—
`ux-review`	Weigh UX/UI options for a new feature, recommend an approach, and document the decision.	—
`write-spec`	Write implementation-ready specification files with progress-trackable phases.	—

Tags

Most skills and guidelines are universal — they sync to every project. Some carry capability tags naming what the project needs (or has opted in to) for the content to be useful. A project declares its capabilities in boost.php via ->withTags(...), and only matching content syncs. The table below is the family-wide registry of tag values; Owner names the boost-family package that ships the content using each tag.

Tag	Meaning	Owner
`boost-extension`	opt-in — extending boost-core (custom skills + FileEmitters)	`package-boost-php`
`database`	project has a database	`boost-skills`
`frontend`	frontend toolchain — type-checking, linting	`boost-skills`
`github`	hosted on GitHub	`boost-skills`
`github-issues`	issue tracking in GitHub Issues	`boost-skills`
`jira`	issue tracking in Jira	`boost-skills`
`php`	PHP toolchain — Pint, PHPStan, Rector	`boost-skills`
`release-automation`	opt-in — CI release-automation convention	`package-boost-php`
`single-issue-scope`	opt-in — enforce single-issue PR/branch/session discipline	`boost-skills`

github and github-issues are independent. github covers any GitHub-hosted repo (used by PR and release skills); github-issues is the narrower tag for projects that track issues in GitHub Issues specifically. A repo hosted on GitHub but tracking issues in Jira declares github but not github-issues. Both are independently declarable in ->withTags(...).

A skill or guideline can carry more than one tag, and then applies only where the project declares all of them — jira-rework is jira + github. Skill tags live inline in the skill's SKILL.md frontmatter (metadata.boost-tags); guideline tags live in a sidecar .boost-tags.yaml manifest (guidelines stay frontmatter-free for laravel/boost compatibility). Filtering needs boost-core 0.5+ for skills and 0.6+ for the guideline manifest; on older versions or under laravel/boost, the tags are inert and everything in this package syncs.

Guidelines

Alongside skills, the package ships guidelines under resources/boost/guidelines/ — short Markdown files of project-wide conventions that the sync engine folds into CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md. Unlike skills, guidelines are always active — no on-demand activation.

Guidelines can be tagged, like skills, so one ships only to projects with the matching capability. But a guideline file stays frontmatter-free (for laravel/boost compatibility — it has no guideline frontmatter parser), so the tags live in a sidecar resources/boost/guidelines/.boost-tags.yaml manifest instead. boost-core 0.6.0+ reads it; on older boost-core and under laravel/boost the manifest is inert and every guideline ships.

Guideline	What it covers	Tags
`database-safety`	Never run destructive database commands; treat the test database as test-runner-owned.	`database`
`javascript`	JS/TS control-structure style — always use curly braces, no single-line conditionals.	`frontend`
`migrations`	Self-contained migration files; append columns instead of positioning them mid-table.	`database`
`phpstan-fixing`	Fixing a PHPStan error — write a failing test first when it maps to a runtime bug.	`php`
`single-issue-scope`	Keep each session, branch, and PR focused on exactly one issue.	`single-issue-scope` (opt-in)
`verification-before-completion`	Run the verification command and read its output before claiming work is done.	—

Editing skills and guidelines

Each skill is a Markdown file at resources/boost/skills/<name>/SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter — name and description, plus optional metadata (a skill's boost-tags live here) and argument-hint. Guidelines are plain Markdown at resources/boost/guidelines/<name>.md with no frontmatter — they must start directly at a heading, so they render correctly under both boost-core and laravel/boost. Edit both here in this repository, not in a consuming project's synced copy, which boost-core overwrites on the next sync. The ai-guidelines skill documents the frontmatter contract and authoring conventions.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

Security

Found a vulnerability? Email github@scode.nl rather than opening a public issue. See SECURITY.md for the disclosure policy.

Credits

Sander Muller

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

sandermuller / boost-skills

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