# I built an efficient graph-search plugin for Claude Code skills > Source: > Published: 2026-08-14 16:44:06+00:00 **A third tier for Claude Code skills — dormant, zero tokens, still findable.** Search a graph of your collection instead of preloading it. 53 skills, 6 kept enabled: 2,544 → 338 tokens per session (−86.7%). The other 47 cost nothing until asked for. ``` claude plugin marketplace add danielLublinsky/Skill_Atlas claude plugin install skill-atlas@skill-atlas ``` Python 3 only — no dependencies, no network (d3 is vendored). Later: `claude plugin update skill-atlas@skill-atlas` . ## From a local clone (for hacking on it) ``` git clone https://github.com/danielLublinsky/Skill_Atlas.git claude plugin marketplace add ./Skill_Atlas claude plugin install skill-atlas@skill-atlas ``` | Command | What it does | |---|---| `/skill-atlas` | Build the graph, categorize what's new, render `atlas.html` . Run this once to set up. | `/skill-atlas:edit-searchable` | Move plugins in and out of the searchable tier, interactively. | `/skill-atlas:skill-search` | Find the right skill for a task across the whole library, dormant tier included. Usually you never type this — Claude calls it on its own before a nontrivial task. | (automatic) | A SessionStart hook keeps everything fresh after that. | Then open `./.claude/skill-atlas/atlas.html` in a browser, and just ask for a task — the search runs itself, names the skill it picked in one line, and gets on with the work. ## Without the plugin (Makefile) ``` make build # graph.json + catalog/ from your live manifests make render # atlas.html make check # CI gate: exit 1 on any broken reference or dangling mention make test # unit suite against fixtures — never touches the real ~/.claude ``` Claude Code injects **every** enabled skill's description into **every** session — ~48 tokens each. At 100+ skills that's thousands of tokens you pay for constantly, and near-duplicates quietly compete for the model's attention. Disabling fixes the cost and loses the skill. So Skill Atlas adds a tier in between: | Tier | In context? | Findable? | Cost / session | |---|---|---|---| 🟢 enabled | yes | natively | ~48 tokens each | 🟣 searchable | no | via `skill-search` | 0 | ⚫ disabled | no | no | 0 | A **searchable** skill is dormant — its description never enters your context, but it stays discoverable on demand. All that advertises the whole dormant tier is one ~50-token line at session start. ``` flowchart LR A(["🧭 a task arrives
“resolve this merge conflict”"]) subgraph R1["1️⃣ read the index · ~1.6k tok"] I["_index.md — 14 lines
name · count · what it covers · member tokens"] end subgraph R2["2️⃣ read one shard · ~0.6k tok"] S["version-control.md
using-git-worktrees
resolving-merge-conflicts ← hit"] end X["the other 13 shards
~10k tok · never opened"] A --> I I -- "pick ONE category" --> S I -. skipped .-> X S --> E["🟢 enabled
invoke natively"] S --> F["🟣 searchable
read its path,
follow as instructions"] classDef file stroke:#8a8578,stroke-width:1.5px classDef ghost fill:transparent,stroke:#8a8578,stroke-width:1.5px classDef hit fill:#1baf7a26,stroke:#1baf7a,stroke-width:2px classDef dormant fill:#8a5cd626,stroke:#8a5cd6,stroke-width:2px classDef muted fill:transparent,stroke:#8a8578,stroke-width:1px,stroke-dasharray:4 3 class I,S file class A ghost class E hit class F dormant class X muted style R1 fill:#3987e514,stroke:#3987e5,stroke-width:1.5px style R2 fill:#3987e514,stroke:#3987e5,stroke-width:1.5px ``` **A search costs ~2.4k tokens** — the index (1.6k), one shard (~0.6k) and the search skill itself (0.4k) — **and you pay it only when a search happens.** The alternative it replaces is every dormant description sitting in context from session start, billed whether you search or not. The arbitrage is real when searches are occasional; it is not free, and the numbers above are measured rather than estimated. One shard is the norm. A second is opened only when the entry you found lists a category you haven't read — the catalog pointing, not the model guessing — and never a third. Counts overlap on purpose, so the pick doesn't have to land on *the* right bucket, only *a* right one. Tier-off skills are excluded when shards are written, so a disabled plugin can never return through a side door. The result is announced in one line before the work continues: search is a lookup inside a task, not a deliverable. **The model categorizes once.** The first run drafts 8–12 categories named for *user-intent task shapes*, not products, then freezes the taxonomy. Later runs only file new skills and re-confirm the ones whose description changed — each assignment carries a hash of the description it was made against. Discovery is **manifest-driven** — `installed_plugins.json` → each `plugin.json` → settings — so marketplace catalogues and stale cached versions never pollute the picture. (The naive "every directory with a SKILL.md" count over-counts by ~60% on a real machine: `build_graph.py --naive-count` .) Skills are nodes. The edges are the interesting part: | Edge | Caught | | |---|---|---| | 🔗 | references — a skill → its own bundled files | broken when the file isn't there | | 💬 | mentions — a skill naming another skill | dangling when the target is `disabled` , `unregistered` or `absent` | Mention matching is deliberately strict — only backticked, `skills/` , or unambiguous hyphenated names, code fences stripped first. Loose matching produced 91 edges on a 41-skill collection, almost all of them ordinary English words. You also get duplicate names, orphans, and an exit code to gate CI on. `atlas.html` is self-contained and opens from `file://` with zero network requests: **scope** (origin, state, breakage in red) and **categories** (hub-and-spoke — solid edge to the home category, dashed to the rest; search `cat:` to isolate). **What's really registered**— discovery is manifest-driven, so unregistered copies and stale plugin caches surface as their own nodes instead of quietly counting.**Broken bundles**— a`references` edge whose file isn't on disk draws red, so a typo'd`references/foo.md` is visible without opening anything.**Why it didn't trigger**— tier is the node's fill (enabled · searchable · disabled), and duplicate names are called out in the footer with both nodes drawn.**Read it in place**— pin any skill or bundled file and hit** open markdown**to read the source in a popup without leaving the graph. [ docs/](/danielLublinsky/Skill_Atlas/blob/main/docs) — component guide, numbered 1–9: start at [overview](/danielLublinsky/Skill_Atlas/blob/main/docs/1-overview.md), then jump to the component you're touching (discovery, graph build, categorization, catalog & search, rendering, hooks). [ DESIGN.md](/danielLublinsky/Skill_Atlas/blob/main/DESIGN.md) — the historical record for both phases: what was considered, what was chosen, what was dropped, and why Apache-2.0 — see [LICENSE](/danielLublinsky/Skill_Atlas/blob/main/LICENSE). D3 is vendored in [vendor/d3.v7.min.js](/danielLublinsky/Skill_Atlas/blob/main/vendor/d3.v7.min.js) and inlined into every generated `atlas.html` . It is ISC-licensed, © 2010-2023 Mike Bostock — see [vendor/LICENSE-d3](/danielLublinsky/Skill_Atlas/blob/main/vendor/LICENSE-d3).