Build with an AI assistant

Wardian ships two skills for AI coding assistants such as Claude Code. A skill is a folder of instructions and tools that the assistant reads when a task matches. With them, you can say "make me an app that tracks my reading list" in any folder, and the assistant builds a Wardian package, checks it and tries it in a browser, by the same rules as these docs.

Install them#

cd my-wardian-apps
wardian skills

Wardian writes the skills into ./.claude/skills/. Claude Code finds them there the next time it starts in that folder.

Each skill carries its own references/: the package format and the docs pages it needs, copied from the Wardian that installed it. So the skills work offline, in any folder, and always match your version of Wardian.

Keep them current#

After you update Wardian, install the skills again:

wardian skills --force

Without --force, Wardian keeps any skill file you changed and says which. With --force, it replaces them all. wardian skills --list names the skills.

What the factory does#

1. It finds Wardian ($WARDIAN_BIN, then target/release/wardian in a checkout, then wardian on PATH) and the folder your Wardian serves.
2. It chooses the kind: a module for numbers, a page for one job, a suite for several. It tells you which and why.
3. It starts from wardian new, adds components with wardian add, and builds the app.
4. It runs wardian check and fixes every error.
5. It runs a smoke test: a private Wardian on a free port with a throwaway data folder, the app opened the way you would open it, and every fault reported.
6. It tells you what it built, how to open it, and what it could not verify.

The smoke test needs Node with the playwright package, and Google Chrome or Playwright's Chromium. Without them, the skill says the browser test was skipped instead of claiming success.

What the doctor does#

It collects evidence in a fixed order (the check, the smoke test, the kernel's faults and trace, the browser console, the server log), stops at the first thing that is wrong, matches it to a known cause, fixes it, and proves the fix with the check and the smoke test again.

Other assistants#

The skills are Markdown with a short front matter, plus one Node script. An assistant that does not read .claude/skills/ can still use them: point it at SKILL.md and its references/.

Make apps inside Wardian instead#

You do not need an assistant of your own. Make an app in Wardian builds apps with Claude on the server, by the same rules. See Make apps with Claude.

This page is docs/site/ai-skills.md in the repository. Something wrong or missing? Change that file.