CUI Tool Usage Patterns

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.