# detool

Makes durable artifacts portable by replacing vendor CLIs, harness paths, and model names with the underlying mechanisms. Useful when migrating docs across stacks.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 1200 installs · ★ 1342
- Author: LilMGenius
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/LilMGenius/paperthin/tree/HEAD/skills/depth/detool/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-25
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/detool

## What it does

\`detool` sweeps durable project artifacts for stack-specific coupling. It targets vendor CLIs, harness paths, tool quotas, and brand names used as mechanisms. Instead of stripping details into vague phrasing, it replaces tool-bound nouns with the exact mechanism needed to complete the action.

Classification happens before editing. The skill categorizes text sections into portable content or operational records. Runbooks, benchmark logs, and bug reports keep their concrete tool names intact. Those names represent provenance, not incidental coupling.

Replacements run per occurrence rather than through blanket sweeps. If an artifact contains no coupling, nothing changes. The final report explicitly lists what was neutralized and what was kept, including the reasoning for each choice.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill detool -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/detool/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/detool/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill detool -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/detool/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill detool -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/detool/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install LilMGenius/paperthin detool
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/detool/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill detool -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/LilMGenius/paperthin --path skills/depth/detool
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/detool/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add LilMGenius/paperthin --skill detool -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/LilMGenius/paperthin/tree/HEAD/skills/depth/detool/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- decouple project documentation from specific vendor CLIs
- rewrite harness-specific paths into neutral mechanism descriptions
- preserve provenance and exact reproduction steps during artifact cleanup
- migrate technical runbooks across different agent harnesses

## Example prompts
- Run detool on this architecture note to remove vendor coupling
- Review guide.md with detool and rewrite stack-specific CLI steps
- Use detool to sanitize the deployment doc without losing the underlying mechanisms

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 03a78f02ab98653f.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 03a78f02ab98653f
```text
---
name: detool
description: "Make durable artifacts portable by replacing incidental stack, vendor, model, CLI, path, quota, or harness nouns with the mechanism they mean, while keeping provenance, runbooks, and tool-subject claims concrete."
---

Remove incidental tool coupling from artifacts that claim to outlive the stack that wrote them.

## Goal

A durable artifact should stay true and actionable when the agent, harness, operating system, vendor, model, or toolchain changes. `detool` finds stack-specific nouns in portable content and rewrites them to the underlying mechanism without deleting the action they enabled.

The point is portability, not vagueness. A reader should still know what to inspect, run, measure, compare, or verify after the rewrite.

## Workflow

1. Read the target artifact end to end.
2. **Role before edit**: classify the whole artifact, or each section if mixed, as durable/portable content, provenance/operational record, or a claim about a named tool.
3. Sweep durable content for incidental coupling: harness paths, vendor CLIs and flags, model or product brands used as mechanisms, tool-specific environment variables, quotas, UI steps, cache homes, session files, and version-pinned behavior stated as timeless truth.
4. **Mechanism not euphemism**: replace each durable-content hit with the neutral mechanism that preserves the action. If neutral wording would lose the action, keep the concrete detail as an example of the mechanism instead of pretending it generalizes.
5. Keep provenance and operational content concrete. Build records, capsules, benchmark logs, install guides, runbooks, tool-targeted how-tos, command transcripts, and exact reproduction steps are supposed to name the stack that produced them.
6. Keep comparative and tool-subject claims concrete. If the sentence is about a named tool, vendor, model, bug, prior-art source, or measured limit, the name is the subject, not incidental coupling.
7. Re-read as a reader on a different stack: the artifact should still be true, portable, and executable where it promised action.
8. Report what was neutralized, what was deliberately kept, and the role judgment behind each keep.

## Rules

- **Role before edit.** Never scrub before deciding whether the text is portable content, provenance, operational instruction, or a tool-subject claim.
- **Mechanism, not euphemism.** "Use the session execution log and sum usage records" is a mechanism; "check the logs" is a euphemism that loses the work.
- Preserve actionable detail. Abstract only the coupling, not the procedure, evidence, comparison, or constraint.
- Keep provenance and operational records exact. Concrete paths, commands, flags, versions, products, and UI steps stay when they record what happened or explain how to drive a specific tool.
- Keep comparative/tool-subject names. A bug report about a CLI, a benchmark against a model, a prior-art citation, or a vendor-specific limit keeps the named subject.
- A pass that finds no incidental coupling changes nothing.
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 03a78f02ab98653f

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