Setting Up Astro Project Agent Skill
Initialize and configure Astro/Airflow projects. Use when the user wants to create a new project, set up dependencies, configure connections/variables, or understand project structure. For running the local environment, see managing-astro-local-env.
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/astronomer/agents --skill setting-up-astro-projectThe instruction itself
11 sections, as written by the authorAstro Project Setup
This skill helps you initialize and configure Airflow projects using the Astro CLI.
> To run the local environment, see the managing-astro-local-env skill.
> To write DAGs, see the authoring-dags skill.
> Open-source alternative: If the user isn't on Astro, guide them to Apache Airflow's Docker Compose quickstart for local dev and the Helm chart for production. For deployment strategies, use the deploying-airflow skill.
Initialize a New Project
astro dev init
> Don't pass --airflow-version or --runtime-version unless the user explicitly asks for a specific pin. Plain astro dev init resolves to the latest Astro Runtime — that's the right default. Specifying a version risks pinning to a stale value from training data. If the user wants to know what was installed, read the generated Dockerfile afterward instead of guessing.
Creates this structure:
project/
├── dags/ # DAG files
├── include/ # SQL, configs, supporting files
├── plugins/ # Custom Airflow plugins
├── tests/ # Unit tests
├── Dockerfile # Image customization
├── packages.txt # OS-level packages
├── requirements.txt # Python packages
└── airflow_settings.yaml # Connections, variables, pools
Adding Dependencies
Python Packages (requirements.txt)
apache-airflow-providers-snowflake==5.3.0
pandas==2.1.0
requests>=2.28.0
OS Packages (packages.txt)
gcc
libpq-dev
Custom Dockerfile
For complex setups (private PyPI, custom scripts):
FROM quay.io/astronomer/astro-runtime:12.4.0
RUN pip install --extra-index-url https://pypi.example.com/simple my-package
After modifying dependencies: Run astro dev restart
Configuring Connections & Variables
airflow_settings.yaml
Loaded automatically on environment start:
airflow:
connections:
- conn_id: my_postgres
conn_type: postgres
host: host.docker.internal
port: 5432
login: user
password: pass
schema: mydb
variables:
- variable_name: env
variable_value: dev
pools:
- pool_name: limited_pool
pool_slot: 5
Export/Import
# Export from running environment
astro dev object export --connections --file connections.yaml
# Import to environment
astro dev object import --connections --file connections.yaml
Validate Before Running
Parse DAGs to catch errors without starting the full environment:
astro dev parse
Related Skills
- managing-astro-local-env: Start, stop, and troubleshoot the local environment
- authoring-dags: Write and validate DAGs (uses MCP tools)
- testing-dags: Test DAGs (uses MCP tools)
- deploying-airflow: Deploy DAGs to production (Astro, Docker Compose, Kubernetes)
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How to use it
Take astronomer/setting-up-astro-project from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.
The instructions reference pip.
Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.