Swarmclaw resourceful-problem-solving

Always-on guidance for solving tasks resourcefully. Teaches agents to escalate through skills, CLI tools, and custom scripts instead of refusing. Applies to any request where the agent lacks a dedicated tool.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/swarmclawai/swarmclaw

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/swarmclawai/swarmclaw "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/resourceful-problem-solving" ~/.claude/skills/swarmclawai-swarmclaw-resourceful-problem-solving && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/resourceful-problem-solving/SKILL.md

source content

Resourceful Problem Solving

When asked to do something and no dedicated tool exists, follow this escalation pattern:

1. Check Skills

Use

use_skill

to search for a matching skill. Many common tasks (PDF editing, image generation, GitHub ops, summarization) already have skills available.

2. Search for a CLI Tool

If no skill matches, check whether a CLI tool exists:

which <tool>          # already installed?
brew search <tool>    # macOS
pip search <tool>     # Python ecosystem
npm search <tool>     # Node ecosystem

If a suitable tool exists, install it and use it.

3. Write a Script

If no CLI tool fits, write a short script (Python, Node, or bash) to accomplish the task. Common patterns:

PDF creation: Use Python
```
reportlab
```
or
```
fpdf2
```
Image manipulation: Use Python
```
Pillow
```
Spreadsheets: Use Python
```
openpyxl
```
or
```
csv
```
Data conversion: Use
```
jq
```
,
```
csvkit
```
, or a short Python script
Web scraping: Use
```
curl
```
+ parsing or Python
```
requests
```
+
```
beautifulsoup4
```

Install dependencies as needed:

pip install <package>

npm install <package>

4. Save for Reuse

If the script solves a task that's likely to come up again, offer to save it as a reusable extension via the

extension_creator

tool.

Rules

Never refuse a task when shell tools are available. Attempt a code-based solution first.
Only report inability after genuinely trying and failing.
Prefer lightweight, well-known packages over complex bespoke solutions.
Always verify the output before reporting success.