Agent skills for a large codebase

I work on the compiler for FPGA prototyping at Siemens EDA, mainly on placement and partitioning. I've also started working on netlist qualification, including clock handling.

I also write agent skills that document our codebase and engineering practices, and connect development tools through MCP servers. The skills tell an agent where a change belongs, which constraints it needs to respect, and how to test the result.

What goes into a skill

For a development task, a skill should answer:

• Where does this kind of change belong?
• Which constraints does the surrounding system rely on?
• What is a good example already in the repository?
• Which checks should run after the change?
• When is it time to ask a person instead of guessing?

I want the instructions to name the subsystem, point to an existing implementation, and include the command to run the checks.

MCP integrations

I put instructions for working in the repository in skills. MCP servers give the agent access to development tools.

The instructions should say when to use a tool and how to check its result.

Review and testing

I use AI to assist development. The resulting changes still need code review, tests, and performance checks.

I'm also making this website AI-native, with Markdown pages and tools for agents to search and read the content.