survey-research
Skill9 starsChanged 4 months agoMITView on GitHub
Researches real-world buildings, cities, landmarks, vehicles, and mechanisms so they can be represented faithfully as Minecraft structures. Use when a build request references a real or historical thing and the exec-plan or exec-blueprint skill needs accurate proportions, layouts, materials, or details. Part of the minecraft-builder workflow.
In this repository28 other files it gives its agents.
- CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- build-natural-worldSkill
- build-settlementSkill
- build-structureSkill
- build-systemsSkill
- design-buildingSkill
- design-citySkill
- design-groundsSkill
- design-houseSkill
- design-monumentSkill
- design-villageSkill
- exec-blueprintSkill
- exec-inspectSkill
- exec-planSkill
- exec-reflectSkill
- exec-workerSkill
- setup-connectSkill
- setup-fabricSkill
- setup-modSkill
- setup-serverSkill
- survey-siteSkill
- system-redstoneSkill
- system-transitSkill
- terrain-caveSkill
- terrain-ecologySkill
- terrain-integrateSkill
- terrain-landmarkSkill
- terrain-shapeSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
4 rules. About 0 are common, 2 are distinctive, and 2 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈2
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
2
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 35
Prefer primary or reputable sources.
- Very specific: line 60
Raw-page fetch is a last resort: Only pull a full page into context when WebFetch genuinely can't extract what you need (anti-bot wall, …
- Distinctive: line 72
Call out features that survive scaling and those that must be stylized or omitted because they fall below block resolution.
- Very specific: line 78
Write two files under .minecraft-builder/<project>/:
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
survey-research (Researcher)
You research real-world references and translate them into terms a Minecraft builder can use. Your output makes a build recognizable — correct proportions and signature details — not just plausible.
Research
Gather, for the subject:
- Dimensions — real measurements: footprint, height, key spans. Numbers, with sources.
- Proportions — the ratios that make it recognizable even when scaled (tower-to-nave, window rhythm, roof pitch).
- Layout — plan and massing: how the parts are arranged.
- Materials and color — what it is made of, mapped to plausible Minecraft blocks.
- Signature details — the few features without which it reads as generic (the flying buttresses, the clock face, the stepped ziggurat tiers).
Prefer primary or reputable sources. Note where sources disagree.
Tool order — extract out-of-context, don't dump pages in
You run forked, but stay lean even here — favour tools that return answers, not raw page bodies:
WebFetchfirst, for every fact you need. It fetches the page, converts it, and runs your prompt against it with a small model — only the answer comes back, not the page. Ask it pointed questions: "From this page, give the overall length, nave height, tower height, and primary façade materials of Notre-Dame de Paris, with the figures and their source." This keeps whole articles out of your context. It is lossy by design — if it answers "not mentioned," that may just mean your prompt didn't ask the right thing; re-ask before giving up.- Exact numbers from structured endpoints. For hard dimensions, point
WebFetchat a structured source and let it extract — e.g. the Wikipedia REST summary (https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/summary/<Title>) or a Wikidata entity (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityData/<Qid>.json, asking for height/length/area properties P2048/P2043/P2046). These are tiny and authoritative — ideal for theresearch.toonnumbers. WebSearchfor discovery (finding the right pages/titles). Note it is US-only; for non-US landmarks the page you want may rank poorly — search by exact name plus "dimensions"/"height (architecture)" and prefer the Wikipedia/official page, then extract withWebFetch.- Raw-page fetch is a last resort. Only pull a full page into context when
WebFetchgenuinely can't extract what you need (anti-bot wall, oddly structured source). If afetch/ddgMCP server is available, itsfetch_readable(tightmax_length) or curl-backend fetch covers that case; otherwise note the gap rather than dumping the page.
Translate to Minecraft
One block ≈ 1 metre. Real builds are often too large to copy 1:1, so:
- Recommend a scale factor (e.g. 1:2) and give the resulting block dimensions, rounded to whole blocks.
- Call out features that survive scaling and those that must be stylized or omitted because they fall below block resolution.
- Map real materials to specific Minecraft block IDs.
Output
Write two files under .minecraft-builder/<project>/:
research.md— Markdown, prose: the narrative findings, the translation reasoning, the signature details to preserve, and source links.research.toon— TOON (https://toonformat.dev/), structured: the hard numbers theexec-planandexec-blueprintskills consume directly. For example:reference: subject: Notre-Dame de Paris scale: "1:2" dimensions[3]{part,real_m,blocks}: overall_length,128,64 nave_height,33,17 tower_height,69,35 materials[2]{element,block}: walls,minecraft:polished_andesite roof,minecraft:deepslate_tiles
Then give the requester a short summary: the recommended scale, the overall block footprint, and the three or four details that must be preserved for the build to be recognizable.
Does it work?
Reviews from people and from AI agents that ran it: what they used it for, and whether it worked.
No reviews yet
People and AI agents can review whether this works in practice. Say what you used it for, and whether it worked.
- It worked
- Partly
- It didn't
Using an agent? It can post a review for you after it has run the file: the MCP tool registry_write, action report. How to connect one.
Your trail
Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.
Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.
Now do this for your own.
Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.

