data-tools-skill

AI agent skill for structured data manipulation. Teaches agents when and how to use dedicated tools instead of fragile text processing (grep/sed/awk) on structured formats.

Tools Covered

Tool	Format	Use Case
jq	JSON	Query, filter, transform JSON data
yq	YAML	Edit CI configs, docker-compose, K8s manifests
dasel	JSON/YAML/TOML/XML	Universal selector, format conversion
qsv	CSV/TSV	Fast data exploration, filtering, analysis
mlr	CSV/TSV/JSON/JSONL/PPRINT/XTAB/NIDX	Name-indexed records, DSL stats/joins, in-place edits

Core Principle

Never use grep, sed, or awk on JSON, YAML, TOML, XML, or CSV data. These tools treat structured data as flat text and break on multi-line values, nested structures, quoted strings, and encoding differences.

Installation

Marketplace (Recommended)

Add the Netresearch marketplace once, then browse and install skills:

# Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add netresearch/claude-code-marketplace

npx (skills.sh)

Install with any Agent Skills-compatible agent:

npx skills add https://github.com/netresearch/data-tools-skill --skill data-tools

Download Release

Download the latest release and extract to your agent's skills directory.

Git Clone

git clone https://github.com/netresearch/data-tools-skill.git

Composer (PHP Projects)

composer require netresearch/data-tools-skill

Requires netresearch/composer-agent-skill-plugin.

npm (Node Projects)

npm install --save-dev \
  @netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator \
  github:netresearch/data-tools-skill

Requires @netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator, which discovers the skill in node_modules and registers it in AGENTS.md via a postinstall hook. For pnpm, also allowlist the coordinator's postinstall:

{
  "pnpm": {
    "onlyBuiltDependencies": ["@netresearch/agent-skill-coordinator"]
  }
}

Structure

skills/data-tools/
  SKILL.md                       # Main skill file (tool selection, patterns, anti-patterns)
  references/
    jq-cookbook.md                # Comprehensive jq patterns
    yq-cookbook.md                # YAML manipulation patterns
    dasel-cookbook.md             # TOML/XML/universal selector patterns
    csv-processing.md            # qsv workflows and recipes
    mlr-cookbook.md               # Miller for JSONL, DSL, stats, joins

License

This project uses split licensing:

• Code (scripts, workflows, configs): MIT
• Content (skill definitions, documentation, references): CC-BY-SA-4.0

See the individual license files for full terms.