Graceful Degradation Skill for Claude
Graceful Degradation with Helpful Messages
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/parcadei/Continuous-Claude-v3 --skill graceful-degradationThe instruction itself
7 sections, as written by the authorGraceful Degradation with Helpful Messages
When optional services are unavailable, degrade gracefully with actionable fallback messages.
Pattern
Check availability at the start, cache the result, and provide helpful messages that explain what's missing and how to fix it.
DO
- Check service availability early (before wasting compute)
- Cache health check results for the session (e.g., 60s TTL)
- Provide actionable fallback messages:
- What service is missing
- What features are degraded
- How to enable the service
- Continue with reduced functionality when possible
DON'T
- Silently fail or return empty results
- Check availability on every call (cache it)
- Assume the user knows how to start missing services
Example: LMStudio Check Pattern
let lmstudioAvailable: boolean | null = null;
let lastCheck = 0;
const CACHE_TTL = 60000; // 60 seconds
async function checkLMStudio(): Promise<boolean> {
const now = Date.now();
if (lmstudioAvailable !== null && now - lastCheck < CACHE_TTL) {
return lmstudioAvailable;
}
try {
const response = await fetch('http://localhost:1234/v1/models', {
signal: AbortSignal.timeout(2000)
});
lmstudioAvailable = response.ok;
} catch {
lmstudioAvailable = false;
}
lastCheck = now;
return lmstudioAvailable;
}
// Usage
if (!await checkLMStudio()) {
return {
result: 'continue',
message: `LMStudio not available at localhost:1234.
To enable Godel-Prover tactic suggestions:
1. Install LMStudio from https://lmstudio.ai/
2. Load "Goedel-Prover-V2-8B" model
3. Start the local server on port 1234
Continuing without AI-assisted tactics...`
};
}
Fallback Message Template
[Service] not available at [endpoint].
To enable [feature]:
1. [Step to install/start]
2. [Configuration step if needed]
3. [Verification step]
Continuing without [degraded feature]...
Source Sessions
- This session: LMStudio availability check with 60s caching and helpful fallback
- 174e0ff3: Environment variable debugging - print computed paths for troubleshooting
Other skills for the same job
different authors, same section of the catalogue
Integration with protocols.io API for managing scientific protocols. This skill should be used when working with protocols.io to search, create, update, or publish protocols; manage protocol steps and materials; handle discussions and comments; organize workspaces; upload and manage files; or integrate protocols.io functionality into workflows. Applicable for protocol discovery, collaborative protocol development, experiment tracking, lab protocol management, and scientific documentation.
Analyzes job descriptions and generates tailored resumes that highlight relevant experience, skills, and achievements to maximize interview chances
Generate Excalidraw diagrams from natural language descriptions. Use when asked to "create a diagram", "make a flowchart", "visualize a process", "draw a system architecture", "create a mind map", or "generate an Excalidraw file". Supports flowcharts, relationship diagrams, mind maps, and system architecture diagrams. Outputs .excalidraw JSON files that can be opened directly in Excalidraw.
Build and distribute Expo development clients locally or via TestFlight
Use when you have a written implementation plan to execute in a separate session with review checkpoints
Data structure for annotated matrices in single-cell analysis. Use when working with .h5ad files or integrating with the scverse ecosystem. This is the data format skill—for analysis workflows use scanpy; for probabilistic models use scvi-tools; for population-scale queries use cellxgene-census.
Benchling R&D platform integration. Access registry (DNA, proteins), inventory, ELN entries, workflows via API, build Benchling Apps, query Data Warehouse, for lab data management automation.
Comprehensive molecular biology toolkit. Use for sequence manipulation, file parsing (FASTA/GenBank/PDB), phylogenetics, and programmatic NCBI/PubMed access (Bio.Entrez). Best for batch processing, custom bioinformatics pipelines, BLAST automation. For quick lookups use gget; for multi-service integration use bioservices.
How to use it
Take parcadei/graceful-degradation 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.