Claude Code Skills are reusable instructions that extend Claude Code's capabilities within the HMIS project. Skills provide project-specific knowledge and automated workflows that help developers work more efficiently. They are loaded automatically when relevant to your task or invoked manually as slash commands.

• When starting a new development task with Claude Code
• When you need Claude to follow project-specific patterns and conventions
• When performing common workflows like deploying to QA or publishing documentation
• When reviewing code or preparing commits

Skills are stored in the .claude/skills/ directory of the HMIS project. Each skill has a SKILL.md file that contains instructions Claude follows when the skill is active.

There are two types of skills:

These skills are loaded automatically by Claude when your conversation matches their purpose. You don't need to do anything special - just work normally and Claude will apply the relevant guidelines.

These skills are invoked by typing a slash command in Claude Code. Type / followed by the skill name and optional arguments.

These load automatically when you're working on related tasks:

Type these commands directly in Claude Code:

Checks persistence.xml for deployment readiness before git push.

Example:

/verify-persistence

What it does:

1. Reads the persistence.xml file
2. Checks that JNDI datasources use environment variables (not hardcoded names)
3. Checks for hardcoded DDL generation paths
4. Reports whether the file is deployment-ready

Publishes documentation from the wiki-docs/ folder to the GitHub Wiki.

Example:

/publish-wiki

What it does:

1. Checks for documentation files in wiki-docs/
2. Clones or updates the sibling wiki repository
3. Copies documentation files preserving directory structure
4. Commits and pushes to the wiki

Creates end-user documentation following the project's wiki writing guidelines.

Example:

/write-wiki Pharmacy/Stock-Transfer

What it does:

1. Creates a documentation file in wiki-docs/
2. Follows the standard template with required sections
3. Writes for end users (not developers)
4. Suggests publishing with /publish-wiki when done

Deploys code to QA testing environments.

Example:

/deploy-qa qa1

What it does:

1. Runs pre-deployment checks (persistence.xml verification)
2. Merges development branch into the QA branch
3. Pushes to trigger GitHub Actions deployment

Reviews code changes against HMIS project standards.

Example:

/review-code

What it does:

1. Checks backward compatibility (no modified constructors, no renamed columns)
2. Verifies AI suggestion patterns
3. Validates persistence configuration
4. Checks JSF/XHTML rules, DTO patterns, and security

Commits staged changes with proper HMIS conventions.

Example:

/commit-code 18429

What it does:

1. Reviews staged changes
2. Creates a commit message with issue closing keyword (Closes #18429)
3. Adds co-author attribution
4. Checks for sensitive files before committing

• Let automatic skills work: Don't try to manually invoke reference skills - they load when needed
• Use slash commands for workflows: Use /verify-persistence before every push
• Combine commands: After /write-wiki, use /publish-wiki to publish immediately
• Check before deploying: Always run /verify-persistence before /deploy-qa

If a skill doesn't seem to be active:

1. Check that the .claude/skills/ directory exists in the project
2. Verify the skill's SKILL.md file is present
3. Try explicitly mentioning the topic (e.g., "I'm working on AJAX updates")

If a slash command doesn't work:

1. Type / and check the autocomplete menu for available skills
2. Verify you're in the HMIS project directory
3. Check that the skill file exists in .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md

If Claude seems to be applying too many rules:

1. Be specific about what you're working on
2. Skills with disable-model-invocation: true only load when you invoke them

• Code Conventions - Project coding standards
• Database Migration Development - Database migration workflow
• Deployment in a Development Environment - Setting up local development