PowerSkills

PowerSkills is the skill layer on top of PowerMCP. PowerMCP exposes raw software tools. PowerSkills tells an agent which tool to reach for first, what to verify before escalating to advanced studies, and what mitigation playbooks to follow when a study finds a real operating problem.

The skills are packaged as two Agent Skills plugins inside a Claude Code marketplace, so you can install them in one step (see Install).

Plugin	What it is	Skills
powerskills-tool	Progressive-disclosure workflows for power-system software	10
powerskills-engineering	Senior-engineer mitigation playbooks	10

How this repo differs from PowerMCP

1. Progressive disclosure of software tools
   • Start with the lowest-risk actions first: open or load the case, inspect the model, solve the base case, and only then move to advanced studies.
   • Avoid jumping directly into contingency analysis, dynamics, matrix extraction, or investment optimization before the base case is credible.
2. Senior engineer mitigation skills
   • Add issue-driven playbooks for voltage violations, thermal overloads, contingency findings, dynamic stability problems, planning infeasibilities, convergence failures, fault-duty problems, frequency response, interconnection impacts, and DER hosting capacity.
   • Move beyond violation reporting into corrective action, tradeoff discussion, and validation steps.

Every powerskills-tool skill ends with an Escalation triggers table that maps a concrete observation (e.g. a bus below 0.95 pu, a branch above 100% loading, a binding N-1) to the matching powerskills-engineering playbook — so the handoff is driven by numbers, not vibes.

Available software skills (powerskills-tool)

These skills mirror the current software list in PowerMCP.

Skill	Scope	First tools to expose	Advanced tools to expose later
ANDES	Dynamic security and small-signal studies	run_power_flow, get_system_info	run_eigenvalue_analysis, run_time_domain_simulation
Egret	Market and operations optimization	solve_dc_opf	solve_ac_opf, solve_unit_commitment_problem
LTSpice	Circuit simulation workflow	create_simulation_session, run_simulation	list_available_traces, plot_specific_traces, GUI viewing
OpenDSS	Distribution feeder studies	compile_and_solve, get_total_power, get_bus_voltages	set_load_multiplier, run_daily_energy_meter, get_harmonic_results
PSLF	Transmission power flow and contingencies	open_case, solve_case, violation checks	topology or device edits, run_contingency_analysis
PSSE	PSS/E base-case and API-guided studies	open_case, solve_case	lookup_psspy_command, search_psspy_commands, run_psspy_command
PowerWorld	Steady-state analysis and sensitivities	open_case, run_powerflow, result queries	contingencies, parameter changes, PTDF or LODF or Jacobian tools
PyPSA	Planning, OPF, and expansion studies	load_network or create_network, network inspection	optimize_network, optimize_investment, import or export flows
pandapower	AC analysis and screening studies	load_network or create_empty_network, get_network_info, run_power_flow	run_contingency_analysis
surge	Transmission analysis, sensitivities, OPF, contingency, ATC, dispatch	load_builtin_case or load_network, get_network_info, run_ac_power_flow	compute_ptdf / compute_lodf, run_dc_opf / run_scopf, run_n1_branch_contingency, compute_nerc_atc, run_scuc

Available mitigation skills (powerskills-engineering)

Skill	Use when	Typical actions
voltage-violation-mitigation	Low or high voltage, weak reactive support, tap exhaustion	AVR or Volt-VAR checks, shunts, taps, redispatch, transfer reduction
thermal-overload-mitigation	Line or transformer overloads	redispatch, topology switching, phase-shifter control, reinforcement screening
contingency-mitigation	N-1 or N-2 violations or weak corrective-action plans	pre-contingency fixes, corrective switching, RAS screening, long-term upgrades
dynamic-stability-mitigation	Poor damping, transient instability, slow voltage recovery	model checks, dispatch relief, AVR or PSS or governor tuning, dynamic VAR support
operations-planning-mitigation	OPF or UC infeasibility, high curtailment, congestion, reserve shortage	data cleanup, simpler screening solves, flexibility additions, constraint review
convergence-failure-mitigation	Power flow diverges or fails to solve in any tool	data checks, island/slack review, staged control relaxation, stress reduction
short-circuit-mitigation	Fault duty above breaker ratings, rising fault levels	study verification, bus splitting, series reactors, breaker upgrades
frequency-response-mitigation	Low inertia, poor nadir or RoCoF, weak primary response, UFLS risk	governor headroom, fast frequency response, inertia additions, droop/deadband fixes
interconnection-impact-mitigation	New generator, storage, or large-load interconnection screening	N-1 screens at the POI, SCR/weak-grid checks, reactive requirements, upgrade sizing
der-hosting-capacity-mitigation	DER-driven voltage rise, reverse flow, protection desensitization	inverter Volt-VAR/export limits, regulator settings, protection re-checks, reinforcement

Install

A skill is just a folder with a SKILL.md, so the same content works across agents. Pick the path for your tool.

Claude Code (recommended)

Add this repository as a plugin marketplace, then install one or both plugins:

/plugin marketplace add Power-Agent/PowerSkills
/plugin install powerskills-tool@powerskills
/plugin install powerskills-engineering@powerskills

To work from a local clone instead of GitHub, run /plugin marketplace add ./ from the repository root. Manage everything later with /plugin.

Codex CLI

Codex discovers skills from .agents/skills/ (scanned from your working directory up to the repo root) and from ~/.codex/skills/ (global). Copy or symlink the skill folders you want — no conversion needed:

# project-scoped, e.g. the tool skills for the repo you're working in
mkdir -p .agents/skills
cp -R /path/to/PowerSkills/powerskills-tool/skills/* .agents/skills/

# or install globally for every project
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
cp -R /path/to/PowerSkills/powerskills-tool/skills/* ~/.codex/skills/
cp -R /path/to/PowerSkills/powerskills-engineering/skills/* ~/.codex/skills/

Claude Desktop / claude.ai

1. Enable Settings → Capabilities → Code execution (skills run in the code-execution sandbox).
2. Open Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill.
3. Upload a ZIP of a single skill folder, with the skill folder at the root of the ZIP. Skills are uploaded one at a time. For example:

cd powerskills-tool/skills
zip -r pandapower.zip pandapower

Then toggle the skill on. Repeat for each skill you want.

Repository layout

PowerSkills/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── marketplace.json            # makes the repo an installable marketplace
├── powerskills-tool/               # plugin: software workflow skills
│   ├── .claude-plugin/plugin.json
│   ├── README.md
│   └── skills/
│       ├── andes/ … surge/         # 10 tool skills (pandapower, pypsa, surge bundle scripts + cases)
├── powerskills-engineering/        # plugin: mitigation playbooks
│   ├── .claude-plugin/plugin.json
│   ├── README.md
│   └── skills/
│       └── voltage-violation-mitigation/ … der-hosting-capacity-mitigation/  # 10 mitigation skills
└── skill-creator/                  # authoring/validation tooling (not part of either plugin)

Contribution rules

Contributors should use Skill Creator when adding or updating skills.

• Keep SKILL.md concise and procedural.

• For software skills, expose tools in this order: load or open → inspect → solve → modify → advanced studies, and end with an Escalation triggers table.

• For mitigation skills, start from an observed problem and list corrective actions in the order a senior engineer would actually try them.

• Reference bundled assets with skill-relative paths (scripts/..., references/...) so each skill stays portable when installed standalone.

• Prefer contributions in two buckets:

  • better progressive disclosure for an existing PowerMCP software surface (powerskills-tool)
  • better mitigation playbooks that use one or more of those software tools (powerskills-engineering)

• Validate before opening a PR:

  python skill-creator/scripts/quick_validate.py powerskills-tool/skills/<skill>
  python skill-creator/scripts/quick_validate.py powerskills-engineering/skills/<skill>

Related projects

• PowerMCP - MCP servers for power-system software
• Agent Skills - open skill format and ecosystem

Core Team

• Qian Zhang, Matheus Duarte, Muhy Eddin Za’ter, Drew Gray

License

MIT License