ClaudSkills / General / agents-skills-meta

Shepherd Driver

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Shepherd Driver skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Shepherd Driver is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the General category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: General · Sub-category: agents-skills-meta · Last updated: 2026-06-04

type:review

Use only as the composed drive-to-merge stage of an APM batch orchestrator (batch-bug-shepherd, apm-issue-autopilot) that has already selected ONE open pull request in microsoft/apm. Do NOT use for user-facing requests to triage issues, sweep a queue, or open PRs -- the parent orchestrator owns those. Spawn one shepherd-driver subagent per PR: it classifies copilot-pull-request-reviewer[bot] inline review, runs the apm-review-panel, folds (by default) every recommendation inside the PR's stated scope, pushes to the head branch or a superseding PR that preserves authorship via commit trailers, watches CI to green, and iterates under fixed caps until ready-to-merge, advisory-with-deferred, superseded, or blocked. Also provides the cross-PR conflict-resolution and mergeability-gate phase. This is NOT a standalone entrypoint.

From the source SKILL.md

This SKILL.md is the natural-language module derived from a genesis design packet; refactors re-run the genesis skill from that packet.

What this skill does

Shepherd Driver is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the agents-skills-meta sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/shepherd-driver/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

Who uses this skill

The Shepherd Driver Claude Code skill is built for Claude Code users and developers across all disciplines looking for general-purpose AI assistance. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 88,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/shepherd-driver
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/shepherd-driver/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/shepherd-driver/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/shepherd-driver/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/shepherd-driver/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\shepherd-driver\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Shepherd Driver Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/shepherd-driver/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Shepherd Driver skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Shepherd Driver skill?

Use Shepherd Driver when your Claude Code task falls under the General category — specifically in the agents skills meta area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Shepherd Driver" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/general/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Shepherd Driver skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Shepherd Driver is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the General category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Attribution & license

Source: https://github.com/microsoft/apm/blob/HEAD/.agents/skills/shepherd-driver/SKILL.md
License: MIT
Author: microsoft
Website: https://microsoft.github.io/apm/

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

microsoft. (2026). Shepherd Driver [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/shepherd-driver/

BibTeX

@misc{shepherd-driver-2026,
  author    = {microsoft},
  title     = {Shepherd Driver [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/shepherd-driver/}
}

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Badge

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