The Pragmatic Programmer
The Pragmatic Programmer is an agent skill (a SKILL.md file) from ciembor/agent-rules-books. Apply Hunt and Thomas-inspired pragmatic programming rules when improving engineering judgment, feedback loops, DRY knowledge, orthogonality, automation, or adaptability. It works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and GitHub Copilot and has 3,114 GitHub stars across a repository of 4 listed skills.
github.com/ciembor/agent-rules-books/the-pragmatic-programmer (opens in a new tab)
Data as of from the GitHub API and skills.sh; description from the skill's SKILL.md. Report an error
Add this skill
Claude
Claude Code loads skills from ~/.claude/skills/ (all projects) or .claude/skills/ (one project):
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ciembor/agent-rules-books.git
cp -r agent-rules-books/the-pragmatic-programmer ~/.claude/skills/the-pragmatic-programmer # personal, or .claude/skills in a projectIn the Claude apps, zip the the-pragmatic-programmer folder and upload it under Customize > Skills > + > Upload a skill (code execution must be on).
ChatGPT / Codex
Codex reads skills from .agents/skills/ in a repo or ~/.agents/skills/ for every project:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ciembor/agent-rules-books.git
cp -r agent-rules-books/the-pragmatic-programmer .agents/skills/the-pragmatic-programmer # repo; ~/.agents/skills for all projectsStandalone skills also load in the ChatGPT desktop app.
Cursor
Cursor loads skills from .cursor/skills/ (or ~/.cursor/skills/) and also reads .claude/skills/:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ciembor/agent-rules-books.git
cp -r agent-rules-books/the-pragmatic-programmer .cursor/skills/the-pragmatic-programmer # project; ~/.cursor/skills for all projectsSource (checked Oct 7, 2026): code.claude.com/docs/en/skills (opens in a new tab), support.claude.com/en/articles/12512180-using-skills-in-claude (opens in a new tab), learn.chatgpt.com/docs/build-skills (opens in a new tab), cursor.com/docs/context/skills (opens in a new tab)
What this skill does
Apply Hunt and Thomas-inspired pragmatic programming rules when improving engineering judgment, feedback loops, DRY knowledge, orthogonality, automation, or adaptability. Use this skill when a task involves pragmatic engineering judgment, responsibility, DRY at the knowledge level, orthogonality, automation, prototyping, fast feedback, or adaptable design.
More skills in ciembor/agent-rules-books
4 skills are listed from this repository.
Similar skills
More coding skills
Leanrea
aicodeking/leanrea
Reverse engineer shipped software with plain local CLI tools, no MCP needed.
Too new to judge · created Oct 17, 2026
CodingPythonClaude Delegate
amElnagdy/delegate-skills
Delegate a coding task to a separate Claude Code CLI process or another Claude session as an implementer, then review its diff and land it yourself.
Maintained · last commit Oct 13, 2026
CodingJavaScriptGolang Idioms
rohitg00/awesome-claude-code-toolkit
Idiomatic Go patterns for error handling, interfaces, concurrency, testing, and module management.
Maintained · last commit May 12, 2026
CodingJavaScriptLiveagent Code Review
Stack-Cairn/LiveAgent
Review an open GitHub pull request or the current local branch and working tree with parallel, independent reviewers and evidence-based validation.
Active · last commit Oct 7, 2026
CodingTypeScriptGemini Omni Flash API
google-gemini/gemini-skills
Use this skill for generative video editing, text-to-video, image-referenced video generation, first-frame-to-video, first-and-last-frame transitions, and video extensions using Gemini Omni 1.1…
Maintained · last commit Oct 13, 2026
OfficialCodingPythonGolang Naming
samber/cc-skills-golang
Go (Golang) naming conventions — covers packages, constructors, structs, interfaces, constants, enums, errors, booleans, receivers, getters/setters, functional options, acronyms, test functions, and…
Active · last commit Oct 23, 2026
CodingGo
How do I install the The Pragmatic Programmer skill?
Copy the the-pragmatic-programmer folder (the one containing SKILL.md) into ~/.claude/skills/ for Claude Code, .agents/skills/ for Codex or .cursor/skills/ for Cursor. The agent picks it up automatically when a task matches its description.
Is the The Pragmatic Programmer skill free?
Yes. The repository is open source under the MIT license.
Is The Pragmatic Programmer maintained?
The repository's most recent commit was on Sep 10, 2026. Its latest release is v0.5. appsgit only lists skills from repositories with a commit in the last six months.