Is the Zoom Out skill free?

Yes. The skill itself is free from haowjy/creative-writing-skills. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.

What is the Zoom Out SkillProof Score?

8.4/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 7/10, docs & honesty 4/5.

How do I install Zoom Out?

Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.

Can I use Zoom Out with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?

The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.

Zoom Out

Orientation skill: fan out across code structure, docs, and history, then synthesize one map

by haowjy · haowjy/creative-writing-skills

Tested · Works

Install — copy the command Download source ↗

Test report

Verdict: Tested · Works
Score: 8.4/10
Tested: Jul 31, 2026
Environment: Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
Upstream re-checked: Aug 10, 2026 · 823acda

Fetched SKILL.md via raw GitHub and confirmed frontmatter (name+description) parses; the one body reference, /qi-layer, exists (HTTP 200). Verified the install block in a temp HOME actually lands SKILL.md at ~/.claude/skills/zoom-out/SKILL.md. For output I used the repo's own cw/skills dir as the "unfamiliar area": BASELINE.md was a flat categorized skill list ending "start with muse and it pulls in the others"; following the body (SKILL_OUTPUT.md) forced a real fan-out — I grepped the "Load /" edges and derived the load graph (qi-layer/knowledge-layers mutual recursion, llm-writing/intent-modeling/information-hierarchy as most-shared leaves), explicitly skipped decision-history per the skill, and produced a 5-section map surfacing open threads (no in-repo decision docs, two parallel install systems) the baseline never mentioned. Docs docked 1: description advertises three lenses (structure/knowledge/history) but the body actually fans out four, adding domain-concepts/vocabulary.

Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works

Installs cleanly 5/5
Triggers reliably 5/5
Output vs. baseline 7/10
Docs & honesty 4/5

What Zoom Out does

A methodology skill for orienting in an unfamiliar codebase or knowledge area: it explores several angles independently (structure/callers, documented knowledge, decision history, domain vocabulary) and then synthesizes them into a single orientation map instead of four separate dumps. Triggers when you start in an unfamiliar subsystem, pick up someone else's work, or ask "orient me" / "what's the lay of the land." Loads the /qi-layer skill first, so it is intended to run inside the full creative-writing-skills plugin.

How to install Zoom Out

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/haowjy/creative-writing-skills.git /tmp/zoom-out-src
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R /tmp/zoom-out-src/cw/skills/zoom-out ~/.claude/skills/zoom-out
# First line of the body is "Load /qi-layer" — for full behavior also install its
# dependency chain (qi-layer -> knowledge-layers, llm-writing, information-hierarchy,
# intent-modeling, shared-dao) or just install the whole plugin:
#   /plugin marketplace add haowjy/creative-writing-skills
#   /plugin install creative-writing-skills@cw
# Degrades gracefully: the fan-out/synthesize method still works if /qi-layer is absent.

Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ (per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.

Commands — how to trigger Zoom Out

/zoom-out Orientation skill: fan out across code structure, docs, and history, then synthesize one map

It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:

Orient me in this unfamiliar codebase
Give me a map of this project's structure
Summarize this project's history and knowledge base

Frequently asked questions

Is the Zoom Out skill free?: Yes. The skill itself is free from haowjy/creative-writing-skills. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
Does Zoom Out work with Claude Code?: We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 31, 2026. Verdict: Tested · Works. Fetched SKILL.md via raw GitHub and confirmed frontmatter (name+description) parses; the one body reference, /qi-layer, exists (HTTP 200). Verified the install block in a temp HOME actually lands SKILL.md at ~/.claude/skills/zoom-out/SKILL.md. For output I used the repo's own cw/skills dir as the "unfamiliar area": BASELINE.md was a flat categorized skill list ending "start with muse and it pulls in the others"; following the body (SKILL_OUTPUT.md) forced a real fan-out — I grepped the "Load /" edges and derived the load graph (qi-layer/knowledge-layers mutual recursion, llm-writing/intent-modeling/information-hierarchy as most-shared leaves), explicitly skipped decision-history per the skill, and produced a 5-section map surfacing open threads (no in-repo decision docs, two parallel install systems) the baseline never mentioned. Docs docked 1: description advertises three lenses (structure/knowledge/history) but the body actually fans out four, adding domain-concepts/vocabulary.
What is the Zoom Out SkillProof Score?: 8.4/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 7/10, docs & honesty 4/5.
How do I install Zoom Out?: Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
Can I use Zoom Out with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?: The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.