BaseData Skills

Agentic skills for the ModCon Base Data project. These skills extend coding agent tools (Claude Code, Codex, Goose etc.) with domain-specific workflows for ML dataset metadata and documentation.

Skills

Skill	Description
croissant-validator	Validate and generate Croissant metadata (croissant.json) for ML datasets following the MLCommons Croissant 1.0 spec.
datacard-generator	Generate MODCON data cards for scientific datasets by introspecting a dataset directory. Supports three readiness levels: Discoverable (L1), Interoperable & Reusable (L2), and Understandable & Trustworthy (L3).
hdmf-schema-builder	Build HDMF (Hierarchical Data Modeling Framework) schema for organizing HDF5 data files for AI training and data sharing

Structure

skills/
  <skill-name>/
    SKILL.md          # Skill definition loaded by coding agents
    references/       # Supporting templates and reference documents (if any)

Installation

Claude Code

Global Installation (Recommended)

Available in all your projects:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git ~/basedata-skills

# Create Claude Code skills directory if needed
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills

# Symlink all skills
ln -s ~/basedata-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/

Project-Specific Installation

Only available in a specific project:

cd /path/to/your/project

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git

# Create project skills directory
mkdir -p .claude/skills

# Symlink the skills
ln -s $(pwd)/basedata-skills/skills/* .claude/skills/

Codex (OpenAI)

Global Installation (Recommended)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git ~/basedata-skills

# Create Codex skills directory if needed
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills

# Symlink all skills
ln -s ~/basedata-skills/skills/* ~/.codex/skills/

Project-Specific Installation

cd /path/to/your/project

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git

# Create project skills directory
mkdir -p .agents/skills

# Symlink the skills
ln -s $(pwd)/basedata-skills/skills/* .agents/skills/

Goose

Global Installation (Recommended)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git ~/basedata-skills

# Create agent-portable skills directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/agents/skills

# Symlink all skills
ln -s ~/basedata-skills/skills/* ~/.config/agents/skills/

Project-Specific Installation

cd /path/to/your/project

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git

# Create project skills directory
mkdir -p .agents/skills

# Symlink the skills
ln -s $(pwd)/basedata-skills/skills/* .agents/skills/

Quick Start (One-Command Install)

Tool	Command
Claude Code	git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git ~/basedata-skills && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && ln -s ~/basedata-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/
Codex	git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git ~/basedata-skills && mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills && ln -s ~/basedata-skills/skills/* ~/.codex/skills/
Goose	git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git ~/basedata-skills && mkdir -p ~/.config/agents/skills && ln -s ~/basedata-skills/skills/* ~/.config/agents/skills/

Installation Locations

Tool	Global Location	Project Location
Claude Code	~/.claude/skills/	.claude/skills/
Codex	~/.codex/skills/	.agents/skills/
Goose	~/.config/agents/skills/	.agents/skills/

Usage

Skills are automatically available in coding agent sessions when this repo is configured as a skills source. Invoke them by describing your task — the agent will select the appropriate skill — or reference them explicitly (e.g., "use the datacard-generator skill").

Examples

Claude Code:

claude code

# Auto-trigger based on context
"Generate a datacard for my dataset in ./data/"

# Explicit invocation
"Use the datacard-generator skill to create a Level 3 datacard"

Codex:

codex

# Describe your task
"Validate the croissant.json file in this directory"

# Reference the skill directly
"Using croissant-validator, check my Croissant metadata"

Goose:

goose

# Simple description
"I need an HDMF schema for this HDF5 dataset"

# The agent will detect and use the appropriate skill

Updating Skills

To get the latest version of all skills:

# Navigate to your cloned repository
cd ~/basedata-skills  # or wherever you cloned it

# Pull the latest changes
git pull

# The symlinks ensure all tools automatically get the updates

Troubleshooting

Skills Not Detected?

1. Verify the symlinks:

   ls -la ~/.claude/skills/
   # Should show symlinks to your skills

2. Check that SKILL.md files exist:

   cat ~/.claude/skills/datacard-generator/SKILL.md
   # Should display the skill definition

3. Restart your tool (especially important for Codex)

References Folder Not Accessible?

Ensure you symlinked the entire skill folders (not just SKILL.md files):

# Correct structure after symlinking:
~/.claude/skills/datacard-generator/
  ├── SKILL.md
  └── references/

Alternative: Copy Instead of Symlink

If symlinks don't work on your system:

# For Claude Code
git clone https://github.com/AI-ModCon/BaseData_Skills.git ~/basedata-skills
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r ~/basedata-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/

# To update, manually copy again
cp -r ~/basedata-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/