skill tutorial · agent

Workshop skills in Windsurf

Windsurf's Cascade takes rule files with activation modes — the closest thing in the family to a skills loader. A WorkshopSkill bundle drops in as project content; a short rule points Cascade at it and the agent runs the folder's printed commands.

Bring the folder in

Inside the repo (or a ~/skills you keep open):

one curl

mkdir -p skills && cd skills curl -LO https://workshopskill.com/en/activities/paper-tower/files/paper-tower.zip unzip paper-tower.zip

Add the rule

.windsurf/rules/paper-tower.md — activation on model decision, description from the skill's own frontmatter:

the rule

--- activation: model decision --- When the user asks to prep or adapt a team-communication activity, read skills/paper-tower/SKILL.md and follow it exactly: run its curl steps, use props metadata for the shopping list, treat assessment.json as the pre/post spec, and ask before building any live form (formlm-cli needs a FormLM account).

Run the loop

Describe the session — headcount, room, minutes — and Cascade matches the rule, reads the skill, downloads the build challenge cards and debrief, and returns the print order plus agenda math (20 sheets, 1 m tape, 12 minutes, book test). From there it is ordinary Windsurf: edit the run sheet for your group, ask for a translated handout, generate the participant workbook copy.

Troubleshooting

Rule ignored? Global rules (~/code-rules/rules/) apply everywhere; project rules beat them. Check activation is Model Decision, not Manual.
Want every skill, not one rule each? One rule that says: check installed folders under skills/, match the brief against each SKILL.md metadata.
Terminal blocked from curl? Run the two download lines yourself; the rest of the workflow is file reading.

keep going

Cursor walkthroughSame idea, .cursor/rules syntax. The skills, end to endThree steps, machine-readable from side to side. Cline walkthroughOpen-source VS Code agent, .clinerules.

questions

Do Windsurf workflows work better than rules here?

Workflows are step-by-step recipes you trigger (/). For prep-matching you want a rule Cascade picks on its own; for the print-and-run checklist a workflow is fine.

Can the cascade translate the folder?

Yes — the markdown files are plain text; ask for a Chinese run sheet and it edits copies, leaving the originals filed.

Is my workshop data sent anywhere?

The downloads are anonymous static files. What Cascade sends is its ordinary context; nothing WorkshopSkill-specific beyond the folder text you invoke.