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Recovering From Errors Agent Skill

by oxbshw

A Watch Skill command failed, video download broke, ffmpeg or yt-dlp is missing, a provider returned an error, local vision stopped, or the user asks "why can't it watch this" or "repair my setup". Use this to diagnose and apply the engine's structured fix before retrying the original operation.

454 tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
1
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
336
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository 
npx skills add https://github.com/oxbshw/watch-skill --skill recovering-from-errors

What it tells the agent to use

found in the instruction text
Bash runs shell commands — read the instruction before connecting

The instruction itself

3 sections, as written by the author

Recovering from errors

Failures use stable error codes and include an actionable fix. Preserve that evidence;

do not replace it with a generic explanation.

Diagnose first

watch-skill doctor --json

Read the failing checks and apply only their stated fixes. doctor can repair managed

ffmpeg and yt-dlp binaries, stale locks, corrupt caches, missing frame directories, and

known local-model health failures. Re-run it once after remediation.

Retry the original operation once

After doctor is green, repeat the command that failed. If it returns another structured

error, report its code, message, and fix. Do not loop indefinitely, silently switch cloud

providers, enable cloud STT, or reprocess an already indexed video.

Common routes:

  • acquisition or extractor failure: watch-skill doctor --json, then retry the watch;
  • provider authentication: verify the matching WATCHSKILL_*_API_KEY locally;
  • provider model not found: run watch-skill setup-vision with a valid vision model;
  • low memory or local server failure: reduce the local model/context or select a cloud

provider the user already has;

  • unknown video ID: watch-skill list, then use the listed ID or original source.

Security and cost policy are invariants during recovery. Never upload the video file,

enable a paid provider, or raise the cost ceiling merely to make an error disappear.

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take oxbshw/recovering-from-errors from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

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.