CUI Tool Usage Patterns

Tool usage patterns and best practices for building agents and commands that run without user interruptions.

What This Skill Provides

Core Tool Usage Patterns

• File discovery using Glob (replaces find, ls)
• Existence checking using Read and Glob (replaces test)
• Content searching using Grep (replaces grep via Bash)
• Error handling strategies
• Result parsing patterns

Why Non-Prompting Tools?

Problem: Bash commands (find, test, ls, grep) trigger user prompts for confirmation.

Impact:

• Agents/commands interrupt users constantly
• Cannot run in automated workflows
• Poor user experience
• Slow execution with interaction delays

Solution: Use non-prompting tools (Glob, Read, Grep) that execute automatically.

Design Principle

CRITICAL: All agents and commands should prefer non-prompting tools for file operations to avoid user interruptions.

Bash should ONLY be used for:

• Git operations
• Build commands (mvn, npm, etc.)
• Operations that truly require shell execution

Never use Bash for:

• File discovery (find, ls) → Use Glob
• Existence checks (test -f, test -d) → Use Read/Glob
• Content search (grep, awk) → Use Grep
• Reading files (cat) → Use Read

This skill documents the approved patterns for all file operations, content searches, and validation checks.

When to Activate This Skill

Activate this skill when building:

• Diagnostic commands - Commands that analyze other components
• Validation commands - Commands that check project state
• Analysis agents - Agents that examine code or files
• Quality check agents - Agents that verify standards
• Any agent/command that performs file operations - To ensure non-prompting execution

Workflow

Step 1: Load Tool Usage Patterns

CRITICAL: Load all tool usage patterns to ensure non-prompting execution.

Read: standards/tool-usage-patterns.md
Read: standards/file-operations.md
Read: standards/search-operations.md

These standards provide:

• Core tool selection guide (when to use Glob vs Bash)
• File and directory checking patterns with error handling
• Content search patterns and result parsing
• Non-prompting alternatives for all common operations

Step 2: Apply Patterns to Agent/Command

When building agents or commands:

1. Replace all file discovery operations:

   • Use Glob instead of find or ls via Bash
   • Follow patterns from file-operations.md

2. Replace all existence checks:

   • Use Read (with error handling) or Glob instead of test -f/test -d
   • Apply error handling patterns from file-operations.md

3. Replace all content searches:

   • Use Grep instead of grep/awk via Bash
   • Follow search patterns from search-operations.md

4. Reserve Bash only for:

   • Git operations
   • Build commands (mvn, npm, etc.)
   • Operations that truly require shell execution

Step 3: Test Non-Prompting Execution

Verify that your agent/command:

• Does not trigger user prompts during file operations
• Handles missing files/directories gracefully
• Provides clear error messages without stopping execution
• Uses only approved non-prompting tools for file operations

Standards Organization

All patterns are organized in the standards/ directory:

• tool-usage-patterns.md - Core tool selection guide and basic patterns
• file-operations.md - File and directory checking patterns with error handling
• search-operations.md - Content search patterns and result parsing

Tool Access

This skill requires:

• Read: To load standards files
• Grep: To search within standards

Usage Pattern

When this skill is activated, it loads all tool usage patterns. Agents and commands can then:

1. Reference patterns by name: "Use Pattern 1: File Discovery from cui-diagnostic-patterns"
2. Follow guidelines: "Follow file existence check pattern from cui-diagnostic-patterns"
3. Apply error handling: "Use error handling strategy from cui-diagnostic-patterns"

Integration with Agents and Commands

All Agents and Commands Performing File Operations

Any agent or command that performs file operations should activate this skill:

Skill: cui-diagnostic-patterns

Then reference patterns throughout their workflows:

• "Use Glob for file discovery (Pattern 1)"
• "Use Read for existence checks (Pattern 2)"
• "Use Grep for content search (Pattern 3)"

Diagnostic Commands: Enforcement Requirement

CRITICAL: Diagnostic commands (cui-diagnose-agents, cui-diagnose-commands) must:

1. Activate this skill themselves (to run without prompts)
2. Enforce that agents and commands they diagnose also follow these patterns

Enforcement checks:

• Scan for problematic Bash usage: find, test -f, test -d, grep, cat, ls, awk
• Report as CRITICAL issues if found
• Provide remediation guidance referencing this skill

Example diagnostic check:

# Check for prohibited bash commands
problematic_commands = Grep(
    pattern="find |test -f|test -d|grep |cat |ls |awk ",
    path="<agent-or-command-file>",
    output_mode="content",
    -n=true
)

if problematic_commands:
    report_critical_issue(
        "Uses prohibited Bash commands for file operations",
        "Replace with non-prompting tools from cui-diagnostic-patterns skill"
    )

Benefits

Agents and commands benefit by:

• Not duplicating tool usage guidelines
• Getting updated patterns automatically
• Following consistent standards
• Avoiding prompt-triggering operations
• Running fully automated without user interruption

Pattern Coverage

File Discovery ✅

• Find files by extension
• Find files recursively
• Find directories
• List directory contents
• Count files

Existence Checks ✅

• Check if file exists
• Check if directory exists
• Check if directory is empty
• Validate required structure

Content Search ✅

• Search for patterns in files
• Find files containing patterns
• Search with line numbers
• Multi-pattern searches
• Case-sensitive/insensitive search

Error Handling ✅

• Handle missing files gracefully
• Handle missing directories
• Handle empty results
• Provide meaningful error messages

Related Skills

This skill is foundational for:

• All cui-diagnose-* commands (diagnostic tools)
• All agents that perform file operations
• All commands that need file system operations
• Validation and quality check tools
• Analysis and reporting agents

Maintenance Notes

This skill provides the authoritative patterns for:

• All file system operations in agents and commands
• Tool selection for non-prompting execution
• Error handling in automated workflows
• Best practices for file operations

When tool usage patterns need updates, modify files in standards/ directory and all agents/commands using this skill automatically benefit.

Quality Gate

Diagnostic commands must enforce this skill:

• cui-diagnose-agents checks agents for compliance
• cui-diagnose-commands checks commands for compliance
• Both report violations as CRITICAL issues
• Both provide remediation guidance

Version

Version: 1.0.0 (Initial release)

Part of: cui-utility-commands bundle

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This skill eliminates user prompts from all agents and commands by providing comprehensive non-prompting tool usage patterns for file operations.