grndlvlgrndlvl/software-patterns/.claude/skills/sicp/SKILL.md

sicp

Skill17 starsChanged 9 months agoMITView on GitHub

Reference for fundamental programming concepts from Abelson and Sussman's "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs." Use this skill when discussing: - Procedural abstraction and higher-order functions - Data abstraction and representation - Recursion patterns (tree, tail, mutual) - State, assignment, and environment model - Streams and lazy evaluation - Interpreters and metalinguistic abstraction - Compilation and register machines Based on concepts from "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman.

1 other project uses a version of this.

Adopted by

Most recently taken up by

wangchuan2003-a11y/book-to-action-skillstheir own version, first seen Sep 6, 2026

Other versions1 project uses a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 1
wangchuan2003-a11y/book-to-action-skills★ 1same name
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository7 other files it gives its agents.
- clean-codeSkill
- clrs-algorithmsSkill
- dddSkill
- ddiaSkill
- gof-patternsSkill
- pragmatic-programmerSkill
- software-patternsSkill

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

1 rule. About 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈1
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

Common
Distinctive
Very specific

Distinctive:
Use this skill when discussing:
line 7

≈ “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.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.

Files

SKILL.md

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Skill

Reference for fundamental programming concepts from Abelson and Sussman's "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs."

Activation Triggers

Use this skill when discussing:

Procedural abstraction and higher-order functions
Data abstraction and representation
Recursion patterns (tree, tail, mutual)
State, assignment, and environment model
Streams and lazy evaluation
Interpreters and metalinguistic abstraction
Compilation and register machines

Quick Reference

Core Abstractions

Abstraction	Purpose	Key Concept
Procedural	Hide implementation details	Black-box abstraction
Data	Separate use from representation	Constructors/selectors
Syntactic	Create new languages	Interpreters/macros

Higher-Order Function Patterns

Pattern	Description	Example
Map	Transform each element	`(map square list)`
Filter	Select matching elements	`(filter even? list)`
Fold/Reduce	Accumulate to single value	`(fold + 0 list)`
Compose	Combine functions	`(compose f g)`

Recursion Patterns

Pattern	Characteristics	Space
Linear	Single recursive call	O(n)
Tail	Result in recursive call	O(1)
Tree	Multiple recursive calls	O(depth)
Mutual	Functions call each other	Varies

Data Structures

Structure	Representation	Operations
Pair	cons, car, cdr	Basic building block
List	Chain of pairs	Sequence operations
Tree	Nested pairs	Hierarchical data
Set	List or tree	Union, intersection

Evaluation Models

Model	State	Binding
Substitution	Stateless	Direct replacement
Environment	Stateful	Frame-based lookup

Stream Operations

Operation	Behavior	Evaluation
cons-stream	Delay tail	Lazy
stream-car	Get first	Immediate
stream-cdr	Force tail	On-demand
stream-map	Transform lazily	Lazy
stream-filter	Select lazily	Lazy

Directory Structure

sicp/
├── SKILL.md
├── procedures/
│   ├── abstraction.md
│   ├── higher-order-functions.md
│   └── recursion-patterns.md
├── data/
│   ├── data-abstraction.md
│   ├── hierarchical-data.md
│   └── symbolic-data.md
├── modularity/
│   ├── assignment-and-state.md
│   ├── environment-model.md
│   └── streams.md
└── metalinguistic/
    ├── interpreters.md
    ├── lazy-evaluation.md
    └── register-machines.md

Usage Examples

Designing Abstractions

Question: "How should I structure this complex function?"

Consider:
1. Identify primitive operations
2. Build compound procedures - See procedures/abstraction.md
3. Use higher-order functions - See procedures/higher-order-functions.md
4. Choose appropriate recursion - See procedures/recursion-patterns.md

Managing Complexity

Question: "How do I handle growing complexity?"

Consider:
- Data abstraction barriers - See data/data-abstraction.md
- Modularity through state - See modularity/assignment-and-state.md
- Lazy evaluation for infinite data - See modularity/streams.md

Building Languages

Question: "Should I create a DSL?"

Consider:
- Interpreter design - See metalinguistic/interpreters.md
- Lazy evaluation semantics - See metalinguistic/lazy-evaluation.md
- Compilation strategies - See metalinguistic/register-machines.md

Based on concepts from "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman.

Download now (ZIP)

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

What did you use it for? e.g. Reviewing pull requests in a Rails app

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.

Check your setup, free