Agent skill · shipshitdev
arena
Spawn N parallel candidates at the same task, pick a base, and graft the strongest parts of the losers into it. Use for arena this, throw it in the arena, or when one attempt at a non-trivial artifact would lock in the wrong shape.
What it needs
About 2k tokens when loaded.
What this skill does
Arena Fan out N parallel attempts at the same task. Read every candidate end to end. Pick the strongest as the base. Graft the best ideas from the others into it. Verify the synthesized result. Companion to swarm, which covers different slices or races and returns a report. Arena synthesizes one artifact. Authorized Scope Apply this engine only within the user's requested task and existing explicit authorization. Loading or delegating to it grants no additional authority. Preserve report-only restrictions and the caller's target, host, provider, and cost limits. Existing approval satisfies a gate only for the same actions and scope; obtain approval before expanding them. Forward these limits to delegates. Contract Inputs: A task whose first attempt would lock in the wrong shape Optional N and a shared grounding pack Outputs: One synthesized artifact A short synthesis note: base, grafts, rejections, dropouts, verification Creates/Modifies: Candidate outputs in separate worktrees or .tmp/arena-<slug>/candidate-<n>/ The synthesized artifact External Side Effects: None beyond local files unless the caller lands the result Confirmation Required: None for the bakeoff itself Delegates To: worktree when candidates need isolated checkouts verification-before-completion before claiming the result works Phases Open a todo list: Frame, Fan out, Cross-judge, Pick, Graft, Verify. A. Frame State the artifact. Derive a rubric of 3-6 concrete gradeable criteria. Candidates see the task, not the rubric. Pick runners across capability tiers and, when possible, different families. Same-tier N times only when the work is generation-bound. Assign each candidate its own output path. Shared writes fail Separate Before Serializing Shared State. B. Fan out Spawn all N subagents in one message. Each produces the artifact and a rationale naming alternatives it rejected. A dropout proceeds as N-1. C. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills shipshitdev/arena