capture-skill — Claude Code plugin: setup and use
This plugin turns an unstructured stream of thoughts, tasks, and ideas into an actionable workspace view. Use it when a brain dump needs sorting before work begins.
/plugin marketplace add alirezarezvani/claude-skills
/plugin install capture-skill@claude-code-skillsWhat capture-skill does
capture-skill takes a mixed, unstructured dump and returns four sections: Projects & Ideas, Tasks, Connections, and How I Can Help. It keeps small items, groups related themes, and asks no more than one clarifying question when a single entry could be either a task or a project. The response ends by asking which item to tackle first.
You can invoke it directly with /cs-capture <dump>. The plugin includes a capture skill, an organizing subagent, reference files, and Python helpers for workspace inventory, line classification, and output-complexity estimates. The classifier is heuristic, not authoritative. Connections are checked with Glob and Grep, so the workspace links are not invented.
The helper scripts include workspace_inventory.py, dump_classifier.py, and complexity_estimator.py. The inventory helper uses only the Python standard library. When the workspace cannot provide usable context, Connections will not be populated with guessed file links.
What it helps with
- turn a brain dump into actions
- separate tasks from projects and ideas
- cluster related thoughts
- check a workspace for file connections
- choose the next item to tackle
Example prompts for the agent
- Sort this brain dump into actions and wait for me to choose what to tackle:
... - Run
/cs-captureon this set of notes:path/to/dump.txt - Review this unstructured stream, then check its links to the current workspace:
...
How to install capture-skill
Plugin marketplace
/plugin marketplace add alirezarezvani/claude-skills/plugin install capture-skill@claude-code-skillsStep by step, with commands for each platform: Claude Code plugins: marketplaces, installing, and building your own
Questions about capture-skill
How do I install capture-skill in Claude Code?
Add the marketplace with /plugin marketplace add alirezarezvani/claude-skills, then install the plugin with /plugin install capture-skill@claude-code-skills.
What does capture-skill do?
It sorts mixed thoughts, tasks, and ideas into Projects & Ideas, Tasks, Connections, and How I Can Help. It then waits for your choice before taking further action.
How does capture-skill verify workspace connections?
Its workspace helper uses Glob and Grep to inspect matching files and folder structure. The dump classifier uses heuristics, so its labels are not authoritative.
Source text
capture · MIT
# capture Brain-dump organizer. Catches an unstructured stream of mixed thoughts, tasks, and ideas and transforms it into a clean four-section actionable system with zero information loss. ## What it does When the user dumps (explicitly with phrases like "brain dump" / "let me get this out of my head", or implicitly by pasting a long unstructured block of mixed ideas), the skill: 1. Captures everything (zero loss; trivial items go in) 2. Asks at most ONE mid-organization clarifying question — only if a single item is genuinely ambiguous between task and project 3. Returns four sections: - **Projects & Ideas** — clustered themes with embedded questions/decisions - **Tasks** — flat scannable action list - **Connections** — real workspace links (Glob/Grep verified — never fabricated) - **How I Can Help** — concrete offers with `what + where` 4. Ends with a directive question: "Which of these should I tackle?" 5. Waits for the user's pick before any further action. When the dump is small (≤5 items, unrelated), the skill drops into a compressed output instead of forcing 4 sections. ## Source spec This skill is a Path-B direct conversion of `megaprompts/05-capture-megaprompt.md` (maintainer-local draft spec — gitignored, not in the public repo) (PR #657). The megaprompt is the canonical spec; this plugin is the working implementation. Drift between the two is a bug — re-grill with `/cs-grill-with-docs` if they diverge. ## Plugin layout | File | Role | |---|---| | `skills/capture/SKILL.md` | The skill itself (Claude reads this when triggered) | | `skills/capture/scripts/workspace_inventory.py` | Glob+Grep helper for Section 3 — given a working dir + keyword list, returns a structured inventory of file matches + folder structure. Stdlib-only. | | `skills/capture/scripts/dump_classifier.py` | Regex-classify dump lines into task / decision / question / project-component. Heuristic, not authoritative. | | `skills/capture/scripts/complexity_estimator.py` | Count items in dump; recommend full 4-section vs compressed output format. | | `skills/capture/references/workspace_detection.md` | Context-specific detection tactics (CLI / web / MCP / inaccessible) | | `skills/capture/references/voice_preservation.md` | Concrete examples of corporate-speak anti-patterns | | `skills/capture/references/complexity_matching.md` | When to compress vs full 4-section, with worked examples | | `agents/cs-capture.md` | Capture-organizer persona (no-fabrication, voice-preservation enforcer) | | `commands/cs-capture.md` | `/cs-capture <dump>` slash command for explicit invocation | ## Quick start ```bash # Run the workspace-inventory helper against this repo python skills/capture/scripts/workspace_inventory.py --root . --keywords "skill,megaprompt,capture" # Classify a dump file python skills/capture/scripts/dump_classifier.py path/to/dump.txt # Estimate output complexity python skills/capture/scripts/complexity_estimator.py path/to/dump.txt ``` ## License MIT.
© Alireza Rezvani · MIT · alirezarezvani/claude-skills
