THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL. Skills tell you HOW to explore and WHAT to look for. You cannot rationalize your way out of this.

The Rule

Elixir/Phoenix/OTP task → Invoke skill FIRST → Then explore/research → Then write code

Skills come before exploration. The skills tell you what patterns to look for, what questions to ask, and what anti-patterns to avoid. Exploring without the skill means you don't know what you're looking for.

Skill Triggers

Trigger Phrases Skill to Invoke

code, implement, write, design, architecture, structure, pattern elixir-thinking

LiveView, Plug, PubSub, mount, channel, socket, component phoenix-thinking

context, schema, Ecto, changeset, preload, Repo, migration ecto-thinking

GenServer, supervisor, Task, ETS, bottleneck, Broadway otp-thinking

Oban, workflow, job queue, cascade, graft, background job, async job oban-thinking

Red Flags

These thoughts mean STOP—invoke the skill:

Thought Reality

"Let me explore the codebase first" Skills tell you WHAT to look for. Invoke first.

"Let me understand the code first" Skills guide understanding. Invoke first.

"But first, let me..." No. Skills come first. Always.

"I'll add a process to organize this" Processes are for runtime, not organization.

"GenServer is the Elixir way" GenServer is a bottleneck by design.

"I'll query in mount" mount is called twice.

"Task.async is simpler" Use Task.Supervisor in production.

"I know Elixir well enough" These skills contain paradigm shifts. Invoke them.