Holochain Agent Skill

A comprehensive Agent Skills Open Standard skill for Holochain hApp development, compatible with Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Augment, and any other tool supporting the standard. Covers the full development spiral from architecture and design through scaffolding, implementation, testing, and deployment.

What It Covers

Domain	Description
Architecture	Coordinator/integrity zome split, DNA structure, Cargo workspace, Nix dev environment, progenitor pattern, multi-DNA, private entries
Design	DHT data modeling, entry/link type design, discovery strategy, validation rules
Scaffold	Holonix setup, Nix flake, `hc` CLI, `hc scaffold` commands, new project and new domain workflows
Implement	Entry types, link types, CRUD patterns, cross-zome calls, signals, validation, HDK 0.6 API
Test	Tryorama + Vitest setup, two-agent scenarios, `dhtSync`, update/delete patterns, test organization
Deploy	Kangaroo-Electron packaging, `.webhapp` bundling, CI/CD, versioning semantics, auto-update

Current version pins: hdk = "=0.6.0" | hdi = "=0.7.0" | holonix ref=main-0.6

Installation

This skill conforms to the Agent Skills Open Standard. The universal install path .claude/skills/holochain/ is recognized by all compatible tools.

Compatible Tools

Tool	Supported	Invocation
Claude Code	✅	`/holochain`
GitHub Copilot	✅	via agent skills
Cursor	✅	via agent skills
Augment Code	✅	via agent skills
OpenAI Codex CLI	✅	via agent skills

Claude Code

Option A: Global — available in all projects

cp -r holochain-agent-skill ~/.claude/skills/holochain

Option B: Project-local — scoped to one project

mkdir -p your-project/.claude/skills
cp -r holochain-agent-skill your-project/.claude/skills/holochain

Option C: Symlink (recommended — auto-updates with git pull)

git clone https://github.com/Soushi888/holochain-agent-skill ~/holochain-agent-skill
ln -s ~/holochain-agent-skill ~/.claude/skills/holochain

Once installed, invoke with /holochain or let Claude detect Holochain-related work automatically.

Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Augment, and others

Install to your project root's .claude/skills/ directory — all Agent Skills-compatible tools search this path:

mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r holochain-agent-skill .claude/skills/holochain

The tool discovers the skill automatically on next launch. For global install paths specific to each tool, refer to the tool's own documentation.

Upgrading from an older install? If you previously installed to .claude/skills/Holochain/ (uppercase), rename the directory:
mv ~/.claude/skills/Holochain ~/.claude/skills/holochain

Quick Start

# Design a new data model
/holochain design data model for a marketplace listing with status transitions

# Scaffold a new hApp from scratch
/holochain scaffold new happ called my-network

# Implement a full CRUD zome
/holochain implement zome for Profile entry type

# Debug a flaky test
/holochain my Tryorama test passes alone but fails when Bob reads Alice's entry

# Package for distribution
/holochain deploy package my happ for desktop distribution

Workflow Triggers

Say...	Triggers
"design data model", "model entries", "what entries"	DesignDataModel workflow
"scaffold", "new happ", "new project", "setup environment"	Scaffold workflow
"implement zome", "create zome", "write zome"	ImplementZome workflow
"design access control", "cap grant", "who can call"	DesignAccessControl workflow
"deploy", "package", "webhapp", "kangaroo"	PackageAndDeploy workflow

Ecosystem Roadmap

This skill follows a spiral from core to periphery:

v1 (current): Full development cycle — architecture, design, scaffold, implement, test, deploy

v2 (planned): Ecosystem expansion

hREA / ValueFlows sub-skill
holochain-open-dev patterns
ADAM (coasys) integration
Wind Tunnel performance testing
unyt integration
Cross-LLM portability

v3 (vision): GUI and visual tooling

No-code workflow interface
Visual DHT data model explorer
Diagram generation for architecture
Progressive disclosure (junior to senior)

Contributing

Contributions welcome. The skill follows this structure:

SKILL.md              Entry point — routing table and quick reference
Architecture.md       Core concepts: zome split, DNA, Nix, progenitor
Patterns.md           Implementation patterns: entry types, links, CRUD, signals
Scaffold.md           Dev environment and project scaffolding
AccessControl.md      Capability grants system
CellCloning.md        Partitioned data via clone cells
ErrorHandling.md      thiserror + WasmError patterns
Testing.md            Tryorama + Vitest patterns
TypeScript.md         holochain-client, signals, Svelte integration
Deployment.md         Kangaroo-Electron packaging and distribution
Workflows/            Step-by-step guided workflows
docs/                 Requirements, roadmap, and design decisions

When updating for new Holochain versions, update the version pins in SKILL.md Quick Reference and in any code examples across all files.

License

Apache-2.0