skill-audit

Overview

Review recent Cursor agent transcripts to identify opportunities for new or improved shared skills. Modify the source category folders under skills/{engineering,productivity,personal,misc}/; never edit ~/.cursor/skills-cursor/ (reserved for Cursor internals) or project .cursor/skills/.

Workflow

1) Locate transcripts

Cursor stores agent transcripts per-project under:

~/.cursor/projects/*/agent-transcripts/

Each transcript directory contains a <uuid>.jsonl file with conversation history.

• List all project transcript directories
• Filter to transcripts modified in the last 24 hours (use find with -mtime -1 or ls -lt)
• Read the first few lines of each .jsonl to understand the conversation topic

2) Analyze for patterns

Look for:

• Repeated workflows the user performs across multiple sessions (e.g., always running the same git commands, always asking for the same kind of refactor)
• Struggles or failures where the agent had to retry, backtrack, or the user expressed frustration
• Skills that were invoked but didn't help enough (check if any skill files were read but the outcome was poor)
• Domain knowledge that keeps being re-explained (project conventions, API patterns, framework quirks)

3) Decide what to create or update

Be conservative. Only create/update a skill if:

• The pattern appeared in 2+ sessions or was a significant time sink in one session
• The skill would save meaningful effort in future sessions
• No existing skill already covers it

4) Create or update skills

For each new skill:

• Follow the structure in ~/.cursor/skills-cursor/create-skill/SKILL.md
• Place in the right category, e.g. skills/engineering/<skill-name>/SKILL.md, skills/productivity/<skill-name>/SKILL.md, skills/personal/<skill-name>/SKILL.md, or skills/misc/<skill-name>/SKILL.md
• Keep under 500 lines, use progressive disclosure for detail
• Write a specific description with trigger terms

For updates to existing skills:

• Read the current skill file first
• Use skill-creator's no-op pruning pass before adding text: delete vague advice, duplicates, and lines whose removal would not change behavior
• Make targeted improvements (add missing steps, fix incorrect guidance, add examples)
• Don't rewrite skills that are working fine

5) Report

Summarize:

• How many transcripts were reviewed
• What patterns were identified
• Which skills were created or updated (with brief rationale)
• What was considered but skipped (and why)