How to use the Music Taste Assistant agent skill

What is an agent skill, and what does the Music skill do?

An agent skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file that tells a compatible AI agent how to handle a certain kind of request. When a request matches the skill's trigger phrases, the agent follows the skill's instructions.

The Music skill keeps a plain-text corpus of your music: favorite tracks, artists and genres, each tagged as ⭐ favorite or 👂 recommended. The agent reads this corpus before answering and uses it as the starting point for playlists, recommendations and new artists. Each suggestion is labelled by how closely it matches your favourites, and new music is added to your list in dated batches without rewriting your existing entries.

• Build playlists for a mood or activity, such as focus or driving, drawn from songs in your list.
• Recommend tracks, including songs like a given track.
• Discover new artists next to the ones you already love.
• Add new artists, tracks or albums to your music list.

Install the Music skill with a ZIP download

Download the Music skill ZIP from this directory page. Then choose one of the following locations.

For a personal install that applies to all your projects, unzip the skill into ~/.claude/skills/. To limit it to one project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder.

If you use the Claude apps instead, you can upload the skill under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

• Personal: ~/.claude/skills/
• Single project: the .claude/skills/ folder inside your project
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload

Run first-time setup

The skill needs a local markdown file to hold your taste corpus. Setup is described in the Setup.md file included with the skill. Setup covers the config file, the corpus format and playlist defaults, and a read-only check that the skill can see your data.

By default the corpus is stored at <configRoot>/LIFEOS/USER/MUSIC/MusicReference.md, where configRoot is $CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR when that is set, otherwise ~/.claude. If a Config.md file exists in the skill's customisation folder, the corpus location is taken from it instead.

Trigger the skill with natural requests

You do not need a special command. Ask in plain language and the agent will match your request to one of four intents. The trigger phrases include my music, what do I like, build me a playlist, recommend music, songs like, new bands, discover new artists, find bands like the ones I have, expand my taste, add this band and update my music list.

Phrasing matters a little. Ask for a playlist when you want a set of tracks, and ask for new bands when you want artists you do not know yet. The skill treats these differently.

• BuildPlaylist: "build me a focus playlist for deep work"
• Recommend: "what should I listen to" or "songs like <track>"
• DiscoverArtists: "what new bands would I like?" or "find bands like the ones I have"
• AddMusic: "add this band to my music" or "update my music list"

Examples of what to ask

Each example below shows the request and the intent the skill routes it to. The results depend on what is in your corpus.

• "build me a focus playlist for deep work" → BuildPlaylist: a numbered list of Track — Artist — Album from your favorites, ordered for flow.
• "what new bands would I like?" → DiscoverArtists: adjacent artists not in your corpus, grouped under the artist they relate to, with safe-fit or stretch tags.
• "add these to my music: <three artists and an album>" → AddMusic: a new batch section with source tags and updated counts.

What the skill needs, and safety notes

The skill needs Claude Code or a compatible SKILL.md agent and a local markdown file for the corpus. No account or key is needed for the skill itself. It runs no scripts, but it does use the network: it checks suggested artists and tracks against a fetched web source.

Spotify is optional. If the Spotify skill is installed with its app keys, the agent can search for tracks and artists. Creating playlists also requires signing in to Spotify through that skill. Without Spotify, playlists are delivered as a pasteable list.

Your taste data stays in a plain markdown file on your machine. An optional LifeOS heartbeat script, ArtistScan.ts, can run live tour-date searches for artists tagged ⭐, so only enable it if you want that.

• Runs scripts: no
• Uses network: yes (web checks; Spotify if installed)
• Corpus is a local markdown file in the USER zone

Tips for better results

Keep your ⭐ tags honest. Only star what you genuinely love, because favorites anchor the playlists and discovery. Use 👂 for music someone recommended that you have not yet judged.

Fill in the Taste Profile section of the corpus with your poles and any bias, such as vocals, production, eras or things to avoid. The skill treats this section as ground truth.

• Name a mood, activity or length when you ask for a playlist.
• Name the pole you want when you ask for new artists, for example a genre.
• Check unverified suggestions before relying on them.