pairs-with — Reciprocity, Hubs, Orphans

pairs-with is a directional declaration in each SKILL.md's frontmatter. The graph as a whole tells us:

• which skills collaborate (mutual pairs)
• which skills are broadcasting but not received (one-way)
• which skills are isolated (no in/out pairs at all)

Reciprocity

%%{init: {'theme':'base'}}%%
pie showData
    "Reciprocal pair edges" : 340
    "One-way edges" : 649
    "Broken (target missing)" : 0

• 989 declarations across 560 skills (avg 1.77 per skill)
• 170 mutual pairs (34.4% of declarations are answered)
• 649 one-way edges
• 0 broken references

Broken pairs-with references

These point at skill IDs that don't exist on disk:

Hub skills (top 8 of 20)

The most-connected skills in the pair graph. These are natural anchors for tutorials and recommended-with menus.

graph LR
  %% hub: web-design-expert (deg 25)
  n_web_design_expert["web-design-expert"]:::hub
  n_web_design_expert --> n_typography_expert["typography-expert"]
  n_web_design_expert --> n_color_theory_palette_harmony_expert["color-theory-palette-ha…"]
  %% hub: task-decomposer (deg 21)
  n_task_decomposer["task-decomposer"]:::hub
  n_task_decomposer --> n_output_contract_enforcer["output-contract-enforcer"]
  n_task_decomposer --> n_skillful_subagent_creator["skillful-subagent-creat…"]
  n_task_decomposer --> n_human_gate_designer["human-gate-designer"]
  %% hub: devops-automator (deg 20)
  n_devops_automator["devops-automator"]:::hub
  n_devops_automator --> n_site_reliability_engineer["site-reliability-engine…"]
  n_devops_automator --> n_security_auditor["security-auditor"]
  %% hub: interview-loop-strategist (deg 16)
  n_interview_loop_strategist["interview-loop-strategist"]:::hub
  n_interview_loop_strategist --> n_senior_coding_interview["senior-coding-interview"]
  n_interview_loop_strategist --> n_ml_system_design_interview["ml-system-design-interv…"]
  n_interview_loop_strategist --> n_anthropic_technical_deep_dive["anthropic-technical-dee…"]
  n_interview_loop_strategist --> n_tech_presentation_interview["tech-presentation-inter…"]
  n_interview_loop_strategist --> n_values_behavioral_interview["values-behavioral-inter…"]
  n_interview_loop_strategist --> n_hiring_manager_deep_dive["hiring-manager-deep-dive"]
  %% hub: ai-engineer (deg 14)
  n_ai_engineer["ai-engineer"]:::hub
  n_ai_engineer --> n_prompt_engineer["prompt-engineer"]
  n_ai_engineer --> n_chatbot_analytics["chatbot-analytics"]
  n_ai_engineer --> n_llm_router["llm-router"]
  n_ai_engineer --> n_logging_observability["logging-observability"]
  %% hub: interview-simulator (deg 14)
  n_interview_simulator["interview-simulator"]:::hub
  n_interview_simulator --> n_interview_loop_strategist["interview-loop-strategi…"]
  n_interview_simulator --> n_senior_coding_interview["senior-coding-interview"]
  n_interview_simulator --> n_ml_system_design_interview["ml-system-design-interv…"]
  n_interview_simulator --> n_anthropic_technical_deep_dive["anthropic-technical-dee…"]
  n_interview_simulator --> n_tech_presentation_interview["tech-presentation-inter…"]
  n_interview_simulator --> n_values_behavioral_interview["values-behavioral-inter…"]
  %% hub: technical-writer (deg 14)
  n_technical_writer["technical-writer"]:::hub
  n_technical_writer --> n_diagramming_expert["diagramming-expert"]
  n_technical_writer --> n_seo_visibility_expert["seo-visibility-expert"]
  %% hub: color-theory-palette-harmony-expert (deg 13)
  n_color_theory_palette_harmony_expert["color-theory-palette-harmony-expert"]:::hub
  n_color_theory_palette_harmony_expert --> n_web_design_expert["web-design-expert"]
  n_color_theory_palette_harmony_expert --> n_interior_design_expert["interior-design-expert"]
  classDef hub fill:#F0A830,stroke:#1A1A2E,color:#1A1A2E,stroke-width:2px;

Top 20 by degree

Orphans — 153 skills with no in/out pairs

27.3% of the corpus is disconnected from the pairs-with graph. That's a real problem: the recommender has nothing to suggest alongside them.

Sample (first 30):

• 2026-legal-research-agent
• 3d-cv-labeling-2026
• a-naturalistic-study-of-insight
• agentic-skill-discovery
• agha-actor-model
• allen-cacm1983
• applied-cognitive-task-analysis-acta
• bdi-agency-model
• bdi-agent-design-mora
• bdi-soft-systems
• belief-desire-intention-model-of-agency
• bellifemine-2007-jade-fipa
• bordini-hubner-2007-jason
• bratman-israel-pollack-1988-plans-resource-bounded-reasoning
• cambridge-handbook-of-expertise
• causal-reasoning-naturalistic-study
• conway-1968-how-do-committees-invent
• cryptoeconomic-protocol-security
• cse-design-process
• cse-state-of-practice
• dag-chain-decomposition
• dag-cycle-analysis
• dag-executor
• dag-mutation-strategist
• dag-ops
• dag-orchestrator
• dag-quality
• dag-replay-debugger
• dag-runtime
• dag-skills-matcher

…and 123 more.