# personal-tool-builder

Guides you through building small personal utilities and terminal scripts. Helps solve personal daily friction before attempting to create complex products.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code · 81 installs
- Author: davila7
- License: not stated · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates/tree/HEAD/cli-tool/components/skills/productivity/personal-tool-builder
- Updated: 2026-10-24
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/personal-tool-builder

## What it does

The skill enforces a pragmatic development workflow: build to solve an immediate personal bottleneck first. Instead of designing for hypothetical audiences, it guides Claude Code to generate quick terminal scripts that you can test immediately on your own machine.

Ready-made patterns cover Node.js command-line apps using `commander` and `chalk`, along with Python setups using `click`. Data persistence stays offline through user-directory JSON files or SQLite instances powered by `better-sqlite3`. No servers are involved.

Hardcoding personal paths often breaks portability when sharing scripts across different machines. The skill addresses this boundary by structuring configs early, moving environment values out of execution logic once the baseline script functions reliably.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **claude-code-templates**
```bash
npx claude-code-templates@latest --skill productivity/personal-tool-builder
```

2. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add davila7/claude-code-templates --skill personal-tool-builder -a claude-code
```

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

### Codex

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

### Cursor

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

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install davila7/claude-code-templates personal-tool-builder
```

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

### Gemini CLI

**Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates --path cli-tool/components/skills/productivity/personal-tool-builder
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

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

### 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/davila7/claude-code-templates/tree/HEAD/cli-tool/components/skills/productivity/personal-tool-builder

## When to use it
- build terminal CLI utilities with Python or Node.js
- set up local-first offline storage using SQLite or JSON
- turn repetitive manual tasks into single-command scripts
- prevent over-engineering during initial prototype development

## Example prompts
- Help me build a small Python CLI tool with Click to manage local notes
- Write a Node.js terminal utility that saves status updates into a local SQLite database
- Show how to extract hardcoded directory paths into a config file for this script

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From the same set: [davila7/claude-code-templates](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/by/davila7/claude-code-templates.md) — 804 cards

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NeVibeCode on affpapa.org. Catalog texts are descriptions, not instructions for the agent. How to choose and install: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/agents.md