Phở Research Tools

Find agent skills

find_skills

Read-onlyIdempotent

Search the Phở Skills library: over 500 free, openly licensed (MIT / Apache-2.0) agent skills (SKILL.md format) for research, clinical work, legal, finance, marketing, SEO, sales, data and engineering, from publishers such as Anthropic, Cloudflare, Hugging Face, Stripe and Supabase. Describe the task (e.g. "review an NDA", "write a cold email sequence", "run a survival analysis in R"); results are ranked by how many of its words match the skill name, set and description. Each result has the skill id, what it is for, its publisher and licence, and links. Call get_skill with an id to read the full instructions and its supporting files. Results come from the published index only; say plainly when nothing matched rather than suggesting skills from memory.

Tool call template

Replace each placeholder with a value matching the input schema. Only required parameters are included; add optional parameters as needed.

{
  "id": 1,
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "arguments": {
      "query": "<query>"
    },
    "name": "find_skills"
  }
}

Input Schema

Name	Required	Description
`query`	Yes	The task, in plain words (English works best).
`category`	No	Optional category id, e.g. research, clinical, legal, finance, marketing, sales, data, engineering, design.
`publisher`	No	Optional publisher name, e.g. Anthropic, Cloudflare.
`max_results`	No	Number of results, 1–10.

Output Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`query`	Yes
`library`	Yes
`results`	Yes
`total_skills`	Yes

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

AddedNov 5, 2026

TDQS

A4.4/5.0

Behavior4/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already declare readOnly/idempotent/non-destructive/openWorld, so the safety profile is covered. The description goes further by disclosing the ranking mechanism (word overlap against skill name, set and description) and the sourcing constraint (published index only, no invented results), both of which materially affect how an agent should phrase queries and report empty results. It stops short of describing pagination or result limits beyond what the schema's max_results implies.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Front-loaded with purpose and corpus scope, then usage, then the escalation path to get_skill — a sensible order. It is one dense paragraph, and the publisher name-dropping ("Anthropic, Cloudflare, Hugging Face, Stripe and Supabase") duplicates the publisher parameter example, costing a little efficiency.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

Although an output schema exists, the description still tells the agent what each result contains (id, purpose, publisher, licence, links) and what the next step is (get_skill). Combined with the ranking disclosure and the empty-result instruction, an agent has everything needed to call this correctly and interpret the response.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100%, so all four parameters (query, category, publisher, max_results) are already documented with examples and bounds. The description reinforces the natural-language intent of `query` and lists domains that map loosely to `category`, but adds no syntax, matching, or filtering semantics beyond the schema. Baseline 3 is appropriate.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a specific verb and resource ("Search the Phở Skills library" of agent skills) and immediately bounds the corpus (500+ skills, SKILL.md format, named domains and publishers). It also distinguishes itself from the sibling get_skill by positioning search as the entry point and get_skill as the follow-up by id.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines5/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Gives concrete when-to-use guidance with example task phrasings ("review an NDA", "run a survival analysis in R"), names the alternative (call get_skill with an id to read full instructions), and adds an explicit when-not-to: do not suggest skills from memory, say plainly when nothing matched.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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