data-tools-skill

AI agent skill for structured data manipulation. Teaches agents when and how to use dedicated tools instead of fragile text processing (grep/sed/awk) on structured formats.

Tools Covered

Tool	Format	Use Case
jq	JSON	Query, filter, transform JSON data
yq	YAML	Edit CI configs, docker-compose, K8s manifests
dasel	JSON/YAML/TOML/XML	Universal selector, format conversion
qsv	CSV/TSV	Fast data exploration, filtering, analysis

Core Principle

Never use grep, sed, or awk on JSON, YAML, TOML, XML, or CSV data. These tools treat structured data as flat text and break on multi-line values, nested structures, quoted strings, and encoding differences.

Installation

Marketplace (Recommended)

Add the Netresearch marketplace once, then browse and install skills:

# Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add netresearch/claude-code-marketplace

npx (skills.sh)

Install with any Agent Skills-compatible agent:

npx skills add https://github.com/netresearch/data-tools-skill --skill data-tools

Download Release

Download the latest release and extract to your agent's skills directory.

Git Clone

git clone https://github.com/netresearch/data-tools-skill.git

Composer (PHP Projects)

composer require netresearch/data-tools-skill

Requires netresearch/composer-agent-skill-plugin.

npm (Node Projects)

npm install --save-dev \
  @netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator \
  github:netresearch/data-tools-skill

Requires @netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator, which discovers the skill in node_modules and registers it in AGENTS.md via a postinstall hook. For pnpm, also allowlist the coordinator's postinstall:

{
  "pnpm": {
    "onlyBuiltDependencies": ["@netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator"]
  }
}

Structure

skills/data-tools/
  SKILL.md                       # Main skill file (tool selection, patterns, anti-patterns)
  references/
    jq-cookbook.md                # Comprehensive jq patterns
    yq-cookbook.md                # YAML manipulation patterns
    csv-processing.md            # qsv workflows and recipes

License

This project uses split licensing:

• Code (scripts, workflows, configs): MIT
• Content (skill definitions, documentation, references): CC-BY-SA-4.0

See the individual license files for full terms.