# Tooling: how operations are performed or coordinated

> Arch Studio supplies the method; your assistant does the work with the tools and permissions it already has.

<a id="skills-what"></a>

## Skills — What a skill is

A skill is a written procedure: what to gather, how to work, what to produce and how a person reviews the result. Arch Studio delivers it to your assistant as workflow instructions over the MCP connection, and the assistant carries it out with the tools and permissions it already has. Nothing about your project leaves that workspace unless the instructions say to send it somewhere.

Every skill page in the catalog states its inputs and its expected output before you run it.

The header of a real skill file · skills/skill-maker/SKILL.md:

---
name: skill-maker
description: Scaffold a new Architecture Studio skill for Codex or Claude Code
  following this repo's conventions — copy a canonical template, apply the
  PATTERNS.md checklist, and verify it. Use when the user invokes skill-maker,
  asks to create or package a new skill, or wants to turn a procedure into a
  reusable command.
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
  - Edit
  - Glob
  - Grep
  - Bash
---

- [Agreement](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-agreement)
- [Architecture Knowledge](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-architecture-knowledge)
- [Color palettes](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-color-palette-generator)
- [CSV to SIF](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-csv-to-sif)
- [Site demographics](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-demographics-analysis)
- [Drawing Quantity Extract](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-drawing-quantity-extract)
- [Site environment](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-environmental-analysis)
- [Compare EPDs](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-epd-compare)
- [Read EPDs](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-epd-parser)
- [Find EPDs](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-epd-research)
- [EPD specification clauses](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-epd-to-spec)
- [FF&E Specification Book](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-ffe-spec-book)

<a id="skills-use"></a>

## Skills — Use one

You do not call a skill by name. Describe the work in your words: “Prepare a cut sheet for this product.” The assistant matches it to the skill whose description fits, asks for the inputs it is missing, and says which source it will read.

It answers with a result and a completion report: the source data and Arch Studio instructions used, what the assistant actually did, where the outputs are, which checks passed and what remains unresolved. Four outcomes: complete, partial, blocked and instructions-only. A standalone export is not a canonical save, and a validator result is not whole-deliverable acceptance.

Ask Norma: Norma, walk me through one skill end to end. Use Prepare a product cut sheet on a product I name. Tell me what inputs you need, run it, and give me the completion report: what you used, what the host executed, what you checked and what still needs my review.



<a id="skills-extend"></a>

## Skills — Make your own

A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md: a name, a description that tells the assistant when to use it, the tools it may call, and the procedure. Name it for the task, the way your team already says it. Write the inputs, the steps, the output and the review. Keep project skills in the project’s skills folder and firm skills in the studio; plugin updates touch neither. Test it once on a real case and adjust the description until the assistant picks it unprompted.

Ask Norma: Norma, help me turn this procedure into a skill: [describe the procedure your firm repeats]. Scaffold it with Create a skill, ask me for the inputs, the output and the review step, keep it in my project skills folder, and test it on one real case.

- [Create a skill](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/skill-skill-maker)

<a id="tools-what"></a>

## Tools — What a tool is

A tool is a capability your assistant can use to perform an operation, such as reading a file, editing a workbook or producing an image. Architecture Studio defines the operation’s inputs, rules and required checks. Your assistant chooses suitable tools available in its workspace and verifies the result.

An Arch Studio runner or local plugin installation is not required for hosted workflows. The assistant still needs the capabilities your particular task requires. If a required capability is unavailable, it explains the concrete limitation and what useful work remains possible.

- [Plugin namespace validation](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-plugin-namespace)
- [Category validation](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-category-validation)
- [External source health](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-source-health)
- [FF&E schedule records](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-ffe-schedule-records)
- [FF&E source intake](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-ffe-source-intake)
- [FF&E selection audit](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-ffe-selection-audit)
- [Document layout contracts](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-document-layout-contracts)
- [FF&E package checks](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-ffe-package-checks)
- [Host contract validation](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-host-contract-validator)
- [Product library storage](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-product-library)
- [Product evidence checks](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-product-evidence-checks)
- [Geographic applicability](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/tool-geographic-applicability)

<a id="tools-use"></a>

## Tools — Use one

You rarely call a tool directly. A skill names the operation it needs; the assistant performs it with a tool available in its workspace, and the completion report says what it did and what it verified. When a required capability is unavailable, the report says so and states what useful work remains possible.

Ask Norma: Norma, convert 2 inches to millimetres. Show the input, conversion and result, and say how you checked it.



<a id="tools-extend"></a>

## Tools — Connect your own

Define the inputs, domain rules, expected outputs and checks in the skill. Include how to preserve unrelated work, detect conflicting changes, handle retries and recover an interrupted update when those requirements apply. Let the assistant choose an available implementation. A firm may connect its own maintained tool, but a hosted workflow must not depend on downloading or reconstructing an Arch Studio executable. Miro, Figma, Drive and Notion are connections your assistant already has; a skill can use them, Arch Studio does not add them.

Ask Norma: Norma, help me define the operation this skill needs: [describe the operation]. Write its inputs, rules and checks, tell me how you will preserve unrelated work and recover an interrupted update, and say which of your available tools you would use.

- [Tool execution boundaries](https://architecturestudio.ai/docs/tools)

<a id="agents-what"></a>

## Agents — What an agent is

An agent is a specialist role with its own instructions, its own set of skills and tools, and a clear point at which it hands back to a person: a site planner, a zoning expert, an FF&E designer. The release bundles eight with the Claude Code plugin. Connecting the hosted MCP in Claude or ChatGPT does not install them; there, the host assistant coordinates the same skills itself and Norma chooses the skill owner for a request.

- [Brand Manager](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/agent-brand-manager)
- [FF&E Designer](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/agent-ffe-designer)
- [Norma worker](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/agent-norma)
- [NYC Zoning Expert](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/agent-nyc-zoning-expert)
- [Product & Materials Researcher](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/agent-product-and-materials-researcher)
- [Site Planner](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/agent-site-planner)
- [Sustainability Specialist](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/agent-sustainability-specialist)
- [Workplace Strategist](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/agent-workplace-strategist)

<a id="agents-use"></a>

## Agents — Use one

In Claude Code with the plugin installed, name the role or just the work: “Have the site planner brief this address.” Elsewhere, ask for the work and the coordinator routes it. An agent finishes with a typed result and a note of what it did not resolve; the people named in your working rules accept it.

Ask Norma: Norma, tell me which specialist agents are available in this host. If they are, run the Site Planner on [address] and show me how it splits the work between skills and tools. If they are not, walk me through the same site brief yourself and tell me what changes without agents.



<a id="agents-extend"></a>

## Agents — Define your own

A new agent is a role definition: one deliverable it owns, the skills and tools it needs and no more, and the handback it returns with its unresolved items. Definitions sit in the plugin’s agents folder. Run the role once on a real case and read the completion report before relying on it.

Ask Norma: Norma, help me define a specialist agent for [role, for example interiors detailer]: what it owns, which skills and tools it uses, when it hands back to a person, and where the definition lives in my Claude Code plugin workspace.

- [Agents and host support](https://architecturestudio.ai/docs/agents)

<a id="workflows-what"></a>

## Workflows — What a workflow is

A workflow composes existing capabilities in order: minutes become a work plan, product research becomes a cut sheet, EPD evidence becomes a specification clause. Each step hands a typed result to the next, and a person reviews at the points your rules define. It is not a separate runtime; the host assistant carries out each step with the same skills and tools it would use alone.

- [Turn a Figma presentation into review actions](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/workflow-figma-to-review)
- [Share reviewed meeting actions in Notion](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/workflow-meeting-to-notion)
- [Bring a brief and Figma design into a Miro workshop](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/workflow-brief-to-miro)
- [Compare product options in Google Sheets](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/workflow-products-to-google-sheets)
- [Turn a meeting into a work plan](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/workflow-meeting-to-plan)
- [From product research to a cut sheet](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/workflow-product-to-cut-sheet)
- [From EPD evidence to a specification](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities/workflow-epd-to-spec)

<a id="workflows-use"></a>

## Workflows — Use one

Ask for the deliverable and name the starting material: meeting notes, a Figma presentation, a product shortlist, an EPD. Each step finishes with a result you can keep or discard, nothing downstream of a review point runs until the review is done, and one completion report covers the sequence.

Ask Norma: Norma, walk me through the workflow from a meeting to a work plan. Take these notes: [paste meeting notes]. Produce minutes with decisions and actions, then show me how the work plan picks them up. At each step, say what you did and what needs my review.



<a id="workflows-extend"></a>

## Workflows — Compose your own

A firm workflow is a skill that sequences other skills. Pick a deliverable with several steps and one owner, sequence the skills that already exist, add a new skill only for the step that is missing, define what each step hands forward and where a person signs off, and keep it in the studio.

Ask Norma: Norma, help me compose a workflow for [deliverable]: which skills run in what order, what each hands to the next, which sources it reads and where a person reviews. Write it as a skill I can keep in my studio.

- [Connected workflows](https://architecturestudio.ai/capabilities?kind=workflows)

<a id="get-started"></a>

## Get started.

Connect Arch Studio to the Claude or ChatGPT account your firm already uses, then paste this into a new chat.

Norma, I am new to Arch Studio. Show me the skills, tools, agents and workflows available in this host. Then take one practice area I name and run its first skill on a real example, with a completion report at the end.

- [Connect Arch Studio](https://architecturestudio.ai/docs/install)
- [All four pillars](https://architecturestudio.ai/#framework)