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Submit a Best Practice

Want to share your expertise with the SLIM community? Here's how to contribute a best practice as a skill, agent, or guide.

Quick Start​

3 simple steps:

  1. Create an issue - Start here to discuss your idea
  2. Build your contribution - Create a skill, agent, or guide
  3. Submit a pull request - We'll review and help you merge it

Step 1: Create an Issue​

Before coding, discuss your idea:

Why? This helps the community provide early feedback and avoid duplicate work.

Step 2: Build Your Contribution​

The easiest way to create a new skill is with slim-skill-creator:

  1. Install: View in marketplace
  2. Open your AI tool (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Aider, etc.)
  3. Ask: "Create a new SLIM skill for [your best practice]"
  4. Follow the interactive prompts

The skill creator handles everything: folder structure, templates, registry updates, and validation.

Option B: Create Manually​

SLIM emphasizes automation through:

  • Skills - AI-powered workflows for best practices (learn more)
  • Agents - Autonomous multi-step operations
  • MCP Servers - External service integrations
  • Manual Docs - For practices requiring human judgment

Folder structure:

marketplace/skills/your-skill-name/
├── SKILL.md      # Main documentation (required)
├── scripts/      # Automation scripts
└── assets/       # Templates, configs, docs

Registry entry: Add to /static/data/registry.json:

{
  "name": "your-skill-name",
  "displayName": "Your Skill Name",
  "description": "What it does and when to use it",
  "category": "governance|software-lifecycle|communication",
  "tags": ["relevant", "searchable", "keywords"],
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "type": "skill",
  "skill_file_url": "/slim/marketplace/skills/your-skill-name/SKILL.md"
}

Need help? See skill development best practices

Step 3: Submit Your Pull Request​

Set up your fork:

  1. Fork NASA-AMMOS/slim
  2. Clone: git clone https://github.com/YourUsername/slim.git
  3. Work on the main branch
  4. Enable GitHub Pages for preview at https://your-username.github.io/slim

Submit as draft:

  1. Push your changes to your fork
  2. Click "Contribute" → "Open pull request"
  3. Mark as draft PR while iterating
  4. Link related issues and provide demo link
  5. Mark "Ready for review" when complete

Get feedback:

  • Tag @slim-community or @slim-committers for faster review
  • Share in discussions
  • Address review comments promptly

Stay synced:

git fetch upstream
git merge upstream/main

Review & Merge Process​

We'll check for:

  • ✅ Clear purpose and documentation
  • ✅ Follows SLIM standards
  • ✅ Works with multiple AI tools
  • ✅ Proper registry entry
  • ✅ Live demo link provided

Timeline: We aim to review within a week. Complex contributions may need multiple review cycles.

Resources​

Skill Development​

Getting Help​

Tips for Success​

Do:

  • ✅ Start with a small, focused contribution
  • ✅ Get early feedback via issues
  • ✅ Provide a working demo link
  • ✅ Write clear documentation
  • ✅ Test with multiple AI tools

Don't:

  • ❌ Submit large PRs without discussion
  • ❌ Duplicate existing solutions
  • ❌ Skip the registry entry
  • ❌ Forget to enable GitHub Pages preview

Questions? Ask in discussions or create an issue.