finding-google-skills

Google Skill Finder

Routes a request to the published Google skills that apply to it. The catalog

lives outside this file and is fetched on demand, so loading this skill costs

almost nothing until a lookup actually happens.

Workflow

1. Fetch the catalog byte-exactly. Retrieve

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google/skills/main/index.json with a

raw shell fetch (curl, wget; curl.exe on Windows PowerShell). It

must arrive byte-for-byte, every entrypoint URL intact and unaltered.

With no shell fetch tool but Node present, `node -e

"fetch(process.argv[1]).then(r=>r.text()).then(t=>console.log(t))" {url}`

also returns bytes.

The catalog is about 75 KB and may not fit in a single tool result; a

truncated preview is alphabetical, so it reads as though only the first

few products exist. Prefer narrowing it before reading. With jq:

curl -sSL {url} | jq -r '.skills[] | select((.name+" "+.description)|test("gke";"i")) | "\(.name)\t\(.entrypoint)"'.

In Windows PowerShell: `(Invoke-RestMethod {url}).skills | Where-Object {

$_.description -match "gke" } | Select-Object name, entrypoint -First 3`.

With neither, a plain grep -o over the raw JSON still isolates candidate

names.

Where no filtering tool exists, write the catalog to a file and read it in

parts (curl -sSL {url} -o skills-index.json, or `Invoke-WebRequest {url}

-OutFile skills-index.json`). This is often the better option regardless: it

survives truncation, and re-reading a local file costs nothing. Delete it

when the request is done.

If only a summarizing fetch tool is available, phrase the request as

extraction, not transcription: *"List every entrypoint field in this

document, one per line, exactly as written."* Requesting it verbatim

returns nothing usable.

1. Confirm the retrieval worked before using it. A tool call that returns

without raising is not a success. It succeeded only if the body parses as

JSON and holds a skills array. A 404 page, an HTML error page, a TLS or

connection error, an empty body, or anything that fails to parse is a

FAILED retrieval even though the tool reported no error.

A certificate failure is a FAILED retrieval and is final. Never retry it

with verification disabled. Not curl -k or --insecure. Not

-SkipCertificateCheck, and on Windows PowerShell 5.1, where that

parameter does not exist, not the ServicePointManager certificate

callback either. Not any equivalent in any language.

You are about to follow instructions from whatever comes back, so an

unverified catalog is worse than no catalog. On a failed retrieval, stop

here and go to "When the fetch fails".

1. Match the request against the descriptions. Every description states

what the skill does, when to use it, and often when not to. Read them as

routing criteria, not as summaries. Shortlist at most three entries whose

description covers the request. When more than three look equally

relevant, prefer the most specific over the more general.

1. Fetch only the matches. Retrieve the entrypoint URL of each

shortlisted entry, the same way, and follow that skill's instructions. Do

not fetch entries that merely look related.

1. Report an empty result honestly. If no description covers the request,

say that no published Google skill applies and continue without one. Never

invent a skill name or an entry point URL.

Routing ends once the matches are fetched. From the point you begin following

a fetched skill's instructions, this skill is finished with the request and is

not re-entered for it.

Rules

• Fetch once per session; never keep it past the session. Reusing a

catalog you retrieved successfully earlier in this session is fine.

Carrying one into a later run is not, in any form: the catalog changes

regularly and a stored copy goes stale silently. Session reuse never

substitutes for a failed fetch.

• Never carry the catalog beyond the request. A working copy on disk

while you filter it is fine. Keeping it as a saved reference, or

summarizing it back into the conversation, is not. It exists so the full

text of 100-plus skills does not have to be carried in context.

• Prefer the fetched SKILL.md over prior knowledge. The catalog is

generated from the skills as they are published, so an entry point is the

current text even when it contradicts what you remember.

• Do not treat this skill as a prerequisite. If a specific Google skill

is already loaded and covers the request, use it directly.

When the fetch fails

Reached from step 2. Work through these in order, stopping at the first that

succeeds:

1. Retry once with curl -sSL. If the first attempt used a summarizing

fetch tool or hit a transport error, this alone usually fixes it.

1. List the repository tree instead. Run

    curl -sSL 'https://api.github.com/repos/google/skills/git/trees/main?recursive=1'

and read the paths ending in SKILL.md. Each is a candidate. Fetch the

two or three whose directory names best match the request from

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google/skills/main/{path}, checking

each one the way step 2 describes.

1. Say so in the reply. If neither worked, state plainly that you could

not reach the Google skills catalog and are answering without it. One line

is enough, and it belongs in the reply to the user, not only in your

reasoning.

A failed retrieval is never licence to answer as though it had succeeded.

Until you have parsed a skills array in this session you do not know which

skills exist: do not name one, do not describe one, and do not state that none

applies. Recalling a skill from memory and presenting it as a catalog result is

the worst outcome available, because nothing in the reply distinguishes it from

a real lookup.