Command Design Patterns

Command Design Patterns is an AI Engineering skill for Claude Code, published by nWave-ai in nWave.

598 stars61 forkson nWave-ai/nWaveAdded 2026/08/25+1% in starsRepository updated 2026/06/27

agentic-aiagentic-codingagentic-frameworkagentic-workflowaiatddbddclaude-codeclaude-code-cliclaude-code-commandsclaude-code-hooksclaude-code-skillsclaude-code-subagentsdevopslean-uxopencodesoftware-architecturesoftware-craftmanshiptdd

Install in seconds

Install Command Design Patterns

Copy Command Design Patterns into your Claude Code skills folder. Run the command in your terminal, or review the source on GitHub before installing.

terminal

npx degit https://github.com/nWave-ai/nWave/tree/main/nWave/skills/nw-command-design-patterns ~/.claude/skills/nw-command-design-patterns

Requires Node.js. Downloads this skill only — not the rest of the repository — into your Claude Code skills folder.

Without Node.js

git clone https://github.com/nWave-ai/nWave.git

Clones the whole repository, then copy the skill’s own directory into your skills folder yourself.

In this catalog

Source file: nWave/skills/nw-command-design-patterns/SKILL.md in nWave-ai/nWave
Installs to: ~/.claude/skills/nw-command-design-patterns
Collection: One of 25 skills cataloged from this repository
Category: AI Engineering — 2451 skills

What Command Design Patterns does

Command Design Patterns defines best practices for Claude Code command files, including size targets, declarative structure, and common anti-patterns. Use it when designing or reviewing dispatchers and orchestrators.

Command Design Patterns is cataloged under AI Engineering on DirSkills. Command Design Patterns comes from a repository tagged agentic-ai, agentic-coding, agentic-framework, agentic-workflow and ai.

Documentation

README

Excerpt

Command Design Patterns

The Forge Model (Gold Standard)

forge.md at 40 lines is the reference dispatcher. Contains: header (wave, agent, overview) | Agent invocation (name + command + config) | Success criteria (checklist) | Next wave handoff | Expected outputs. Every dispatcher should aspire to this pattern.

Command Categories

Category	Description	Size Target	Examples
Simple	Direct action, minimal delegation	40-80 lines	forge, start, version, git
Dispatcher	Delegates to one agent with context	40-150 lines	research, review, execute
Orchestrator	Coordinates multiple agents/phases	100-300 lines	develop, document

Declarative Command Template

This is the opening of the README. Read the full README on GitHub.

Commands Command Design Patterns provides

Slash commands named in this skill’s SKILL.md, listed in the order they first appear.

/nw-

Frequently asked about Command Design Patterns

What else does nWave-ai publish alongside Command Design Patterns?
Command Design Patterns is one of 25 skills that DirSkills catalogs from nWave-ai/nWave, the repository it ships in. Its siblings there include AT Completeness Check, Acceptance Test Critique Dimensions and Agent Creation Workflow. Each one is a separate skill with its own page in this directory, installs the same way Command Design Patterns does, and is maintained by nWave-ai in that same repository. The rest of the collection is listed on the nWave-ai/nWave page.
How does Command Design Patterns compare to other AI Engineering skills?
Command Design Patterns ranks #1935 by stars among the 2451 AI Engineering skills in this catalog. The most-starred ones next to it are Architecture Decision Records, AI-First Engineering and Agentic OS. DirSkills ranks by the star count of the repository each skill ships in, so that order reflects how popular those repositories are rather than any review of Command Design Patterns against them. Open each page to compare what they document and how they install.