Skill Tracer
Skills › Superpowers › writing-skills › flowcharts.md

flowcharts.md

37 lines · skills/writing-skills/references/flowcharts.md at 2ce8aa1

Open on GitHub
1# Flowcharts in Skills
2
3Part of superpowers:writing-skills.
4

Flowcharts in Skills

Part of superpowers:writing-skills.

Raw lines 1 to 4
5## Flowchart Usage
6
7```dot
8digraph when_flowchart {
9 "Need to show information?" [shape=diamond];
10 "Decision where I might go wrong?" [shape=diamond];
11 "Use markdown" [shape=box];
12 "Small inline flowchart" [shape=box];
14 "Need to show information?" -> "Decision where I might go wrong?" [label="yes"];
15 "Decision where I might go wrong?" -> "Small inline flowchart" [label="yes"];
16 "Decision where I might go wrong?" -> "Use markdown" [label="no"];
18```
20**Use flowcharts ONLY for:**
21- Non-obvious decision points
22- Process loops where you might stop too early
23- "When to use A vs B" decisions
25**Never use flowcharts for:**
26- Reference material → Tables, lists
27- Code examples → Markdown blocks
28- Linear instructions → Numbered lists
29- Labels without semantic meaning (step1, helper2)
31See `graphviz-conventions.dot` in this directory for graphviz style rules.
33**Visualizing for your human partner:** Use `render-graphs.js` in the writing-skills directory to render a skill's flowcharts to SVG, run from there:
34```bash
35node ./render-graphs.js ../some-skill # Each diagram separately
36node ./render-graphs.js ../some-skill --combine # All diagrams in one SVG
37```

Flowchart Usage

digraph when_flowchart {
    "Need to show information?" [shape=diamond];
    "Decision where I might go wrong?" [shape=diamond];
    "Use markdown" [shape=box];
    "Small inline flowchart" [shape=box];

    "Need to show information?" -> "Decision where I might go wrong?" [label="yes"];
    "Decision where I might go wrong?" -> "Small inline flowchart" [label="yes"];
    "Decision where I might go wrong?" -> "Use markdown" [label="no"];
}

Use flowcharts ONLY for:

  • Non-obvious decision points
  • Process loops where you might stop too early
  • "When to use A vs B" decisions

Never use flowcharts for:

  • Reference material → Tables, lists
  • Code examples → Markdown blocks
  • Linear instructions → Numbered lists
  • Labels without semantic meaning (step1, helper2)

See graphviz-conventions.dot in this directory for graphviz style rules.

Visualizing for your human partner: Use render-graphs.js in the writing-skills directory to render a skill's flowcharts to SVG, run from there:

node ./render-graphs.js ../some-skill           # Each diagram separately
node ./render-graphs.js ../some-skill --combine # All diagrams in one SVG
Raw lines 5 to 37