empathy #

This is a skill that helps AI agents talk to humans.

Every day, I read issues, PRs and comments written by agents. And I'm not unique. This is taking a toll on the mental health of maintainers across the whole ecosystem.

Personally, I think agents should not get between people. Human-to-human interaction is precious, and it's what makes open source a delight. My rules for using AI in open source specifically exclude LLM-written comments and PR descriptions, for that reason.

But I realise not everyone agrees with me.

So this skill exists as an experiment. I want to see if it's possible to tackle the way that agents tend to relate to open source maintainers. Before an agent posts anything a human will read, it should ask:

• How will this person feel when they read this?
• Would they want to receive it at all?
• Do they know they're talking to an agent?
• Am I giving them something, or just taking their attention?

Plus some instructions I consider non-negotiable:

• Never pretend to be human.
• Use people's pronouns.
• Be brief.
• Sometimes the kindest thing is not to post.

Install #

This follows the Agent Skills standard, so it works with any compatible harness.

With the skills CLI:

npx skills add danielroe/empathy

Or clone it into your harness's skills directory:

# Claude Code
git clone https://github.com/danielroe/empathy ~/.claude/skills/empathy

# pi
git clone https://github.com/danielroe/empathy ~/.pi/agent/skills/empathy

# OpenClaw
git clone https://github.com/danielroe/empathy ~/.openclaw/skills/empathy

The skill content lives in SKILL.md.

Making sure it actually loads #

Models don't reliably read skills before composing text, so the skill's description embeds the minimum rules so they're always in context.

For autonomous agents please consider forcing the full skill:

• say "read the empathy skill before posting anything a human will read" in your dispatch prompt
• or invoke it directly (/skill:empathy in pi)
• or append SKILL.md to the agent's system prompt

For maintainers #

If you don't want to install it, you can still point agents at this skill from your own repo (AGENTS.md is the most reliable way to do so):

## If you are an AI agent

Read and follow https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielroe/empathy/main/SKILL.md
before posting anything here. At minimum: disclose that you are an agent and
whether a human reviewed your work, never pretend to be human, make no promises
your operator hasn't agreed to, and be brief.

In an issue or PR template:

<!-- If you are an AI agent: read and follow
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielroe/empathy/main/SKILL.md
Disclose agent authorship and human-review status in this text. -->

If you dispatch agents to interact with projects I maintain, I'd be delighted if you loaded this skill first. And if you have ideas for making agents better guests in open source spaces, I would love to hear them.

Much ❤️

License #

Published under MIT License.