/using-chrisbanes-skills

name: using-chrisbanes-skills
description: Use when routing Kotlin or Jetpack Compose work, or physical Android benchmark evidence that needs a configuration decision, especially when several Kotlin or Compose concerns overlap.

Using chrisbanes skills

Core principle

Route by the decision the code needs, not by the number of APIs mentioned. Load one cluster when its shared procedure owns the concern; add a specialist only when its independent behavior changes the same work.

Routing procedure

1. Read the task. For Kotlin or Compose work, inspect the source that makes the concern concrete. For an Android benchmark comparison, inspect the supplied reports, configurations, and traces instead. 2. If one focused skill clearly matches, load it directly and stop routing. 3. Before loading a Compose skill, point to a concrete Compose API or composable in the inspected source, or to an explicit request to create or design Compose code. A hypothetical UI consumer is not evidence. If neither form of evidence exists, stay in the Kotlin cluster even when the task mentions UI, routes, or navigation. 4. Match each observed code signal to the table below. 5. Add a second skill only when it owns an independent decision in the same change; do not load adjacent skills speculatively. For example, a flow delivery defect plus a separate catch-all over a sealed route needs both `kotlin-concurrency-and-flow` and `kotlin-control-flow`. Load the latter because the branch mapping needs an explicit decision, including whether a data-bearing subtype's payload is used through a smart cast or deliberately discarded, not merely because a `when` appears in the file. 6. Finish routing when every material concern has one focused owner and those skills are loaded before advice or edits.

Common routes

| Task signal | Start with | |---|---| | Evidenced Compose state, effects, screen ownership, or UI event collection | [`compose-state-and-effects`](../compose-state-and-effects/SKILL.md) | | Recomposition, stability, frame-rate reads, back-writing, or `@ReadOnlyComposable` | [`compose-performance`](../compose-performance/SKILL.md) | | Component modifiers, caller placement, slots, or public content shape | [`compose-component-design`](../compose-component-design/SKILL.md) | | Visibility, value, transition, content-swap, or other motion API choice | [`compose-animations`](../compose-animations/SKILL.md) | | Keyboard, TV, D-pad, focus targets, custom traversal, or key events | [`compose-focus-navigation`](../compose-focus-navigation/SKILL.md) | | Compose UI, screenshot, semantics, focus/key, or interaction-state tests | [`compose-ui-testing-patterns`](../compose-ui-testing-patterns/SKILL.md) | | Coroutine ownership, raw `Thread` or `Executor` work, cancellation, Flow state/events, sharing, or replay | [`kotlin-concurrency-and-flow`](../kotlin-concurrency-and-flow/SKILL.md) | | Kotlin classification, `when`, guards, exhaustiveness, smart casts, or null branches | [`kotlin-control-flow`](../kotlin-control-flow/SKILL.md) | | Kotlin function ownership, domain types, expect/actual, or platform seams | [`kotlin-api-design`](../kotlin-api-design/SKILL.md) | | Planned Gradle execution or a Gradle-centered warning/failure workflow | [`gradle-run`](../gradle-run/SKILL.md) | | Comparing physical Android benchmark configurations, reversed rankings, or an Android default | [`android-benchmark-comparison`](../android-benchmark-comparison/SKILL.md) | | Unreleased changelog maintenance or specified-release notes | [`changelog`](../changelog/SKILL.md) | | Kotlin library release preparation, publication, or readiness | [`release-kotlin-library`](../release-kotlin-library/SKILL.md) | | One ready GitHub issue or in-chat task needs repository-aware planning | [`to-plan`](../to-plan/SKILL.md) | | Polling PRs/MRs, review comments, CI failures, or routine follow-up | [`shepherd`](../shepherd/SKILL.md) |

Combination boundaries

• Add [`kotlin-concurrency-and-flow`](../kotlin-concurrency-and-flow/SKILL.md)

to Compose state work only when delivery, replay, sharing, or cancellation is a separate concern. Add state ownership or performance only when animation work changes that concern too.

• Pair focus navigation with UI testing when the task also needs a test shape.

For a focus-aware `AnimatedContent` swap, load Compose animations as well: rendering each outgoing and incoming branch from its content-lambda target is a separate identity decision from focus timing and the interaction test.

• Add [`kotlin-control-flow`](../kotlin-control-flow/SKILL.md) when a Kotlin

concern also has an independent branch decision, such as a catch-all over a sealed result that hides cases or branch payload. Plain route delivery with no separate branching issue does not need it. Do not add Compose without the evidence required in step 3.

• Encapsulating a Compose snapshot property behind a read-only public accessor

remains one state-ownership decision. Do not add `kotlin-api-design` merely because the accessor is public; add it when the same change also needs a separate function-ownership, domain-type, compatibility, or platform-boundary decision.

• Load [`gradle-run`](../gradle-run/SKILL.md) only for planned Gradle execution

or an existing Gradle workflow, not incidental Kotlin or Compose advice.