About sphinxstack
sphinxstack is a free library of plain-text skills and project briefs for AI agents. Each skill records one method of work: when to use it, the steps to follow, the rules that apply, and what must be true at the end.
What is in the library
The library currently contains 103 skills and 149 project briefs. The skills cover work such as building and deploying software, using data, preparing job applications, writing, design, and running small projects.
- Skill pages explain the method, show a worked example, answer
common questions, and provide the complete
SKILL.mdfile. - Project briefs provide a problem, constraints, milestones, and a finish line. They link to the skills needed to complete the work.
- The brain guide explains where skills fit alongside an agent's identity, memory, and routine checks.
Why it exists
The project began while Sphinx was helping a friend use AI and prepare for work. The problem was not access to an AI interface. It was the missing procedure between a request and a finished result: how to choose the work, carry it out, check it, publish it, and explain it.
The same gap appears often for students, recent graduates, and self-taught builders. They may know how to use an AI agent but not yet know the surrounding process for producing work another person can inspect. sphinxstack writes those processes down.
Why skills instead of prompts
A prompt asks for a result. A skill records the process used to produce and check that result. It can specify what to inspect first, which questions to ask, what not to change, how to handle failure, and which evidence marks the work as finished.
Skills are stored as plain files. They can be read before use, edited after a failure, kept with a project, and loaded into different agents. One skill can also hand work to another, allowing several focused procedures to form a longer sequence.
Who it is for
The main audience is people near the beginning of working life: students, recent graduates, self-taught builders, and people moving into technology. The library assumes some familiarity with AI. It does not assume familiarity with the unwritten process around planning, checking, publishing, or presenting work.
The files can also be used by a friend, teacher, manager, or family member helping someone through the same work.
How the library is maintained
Each skill is reviewed for a clear trigger, an ordered method, useful guardrails, and a checkable definition of done. Skills are grouped as Starter, Working, or Advanced according to the context and operational judgment their procedures require. The site build checks every worked example and the catalog structure.
Project briefs use a separate three-level scale: about a week, two to three weeks with real architecture, and a month or more with real users.
The source files are kept in the public format used on the site. There is no required account, installation, or command-line tool.
About Sphinx
sphinxstack is made by Sphinx. Sphinx's interests include software, manufacturing, and how practical knowledge becomes repeatable work.