Claude Skills Guide

Claude Skills Event Driven Architecture Setup

Event-driven architecture transforms how Claude Skills interact with your projects. Instead of manual skill invocation, your skills respond automatically to file changes, git events, or custom triggers. This guide walks you through building an event-driven setup that reacts to development activities in real time. For related architectural patterns, see the advanced hub. You may also find the Claude Code hooks system guide useful as a companion reference.

What Is Event-Driven Architecture in Claude Skills

Claude Skills operate within a reactive environment where they can monitor and respond to system events. The event-driven model shifts from a pull-based approach—where you explicitly invoke skills—to a push-based model where skills activate automatically when specific conditions occur.

The core components include:

This architecture decouples your automation logic from invocation patterns, making your workflows more maintainable and scalable.

Setting Up File Watch Events

The foundation of event-driven Claude Skills starts with file system monitoring. You configure your environment to watch for changes and trigger skills accordingly. Understanding how hooks work is essential to this setup.

Create a skill that responds to TypeScript file modifications:

# ~/.claude/skills/file-watcher-skill/skill.md
---
name: file-watcher
description: Monitors TypeScript files and triggers appropriate actions
---

You monitor TypeScript files in this project. When a .ts file changes:

1. Run TypeScript compiler in check mode
2. Execute ESLint on the modified file
3. Report any errors or warnings

Use the project's existing tooling. Do not modify files automatically unless explicitly requested.

The skill metadata declares which event types it handles. Claude Code’s event system matches file changes against skill patterns and invokes matching skills automatically.

Git Hook Integration

Git hooks provide another powerful event source. Configure skills to respond to commit events, branch operations, or pull request activities. For a detailed git workflow example, see how to automate pull request review with Claude skills.

Create a commit-msg hook skill:

# ~/.claude/skills/commit-validator/skill.md
---
name: commit-validator
description: Validates commit messages and triggers review workflows
---

When a commit is created or pushed:

1. Parse the commit message
2. Check against conventional commits format
3. If valid, proceed with the operation
4. If invalid, explain the format requirements

For push events, verify the branch protection rules are satisfied.

Set up the git hook to invoke Claude:

#!/bin/bash
# .git/hooks/commit-msg
CLAUDE_MSG=$(cat "$1")
claude -p "Validate this commit message: $CLAUDE_MSG"

Building an Event Router

For complex setups, create a central event router skill that dispatches to specialized handlers. This pattern mirrors the mediator pattern in software architecture.

# ~/.claude/skills/event-router/skill.md
---
name: event-router
description: Routes events to appropriate handler skills
---

You are the central event router for this project. When invoked with an event:

## Event Routing Logic

### File Change Events
- **.ts/.tsx files** → Invoke /typescript-handler
- **.py files** → Invoke /python-handler  
- **.md files** → Invoke /docs-updater
- **config files** → Invoke /config-validator

### Git Events
- **commit** → Invoke /commit-validator
- **push** → Invoke /pre-push-checks
- **pr opened** → Invoke /pr-review

### Custom Events
- **deploy** → Invoke /deployment-skill
- **test-failed** → Invoke /test-debugger

Route the event to the appropriate handler skill based on the event type and payload. Maintain context throughout the routing.

Webhook Event Handling

External services can trigger Claude Skills through webhooks. Set up a webhook receiver that processes incoming events from GitHub, Slack, or custom services.

Create a webhook handler skill:

# ~/.claude/skills/webhook-receiver/skill.md
---
name: webhook-receiver
description: Handles incoming webhook events from external services
---

You process webhook payloads from external services.

## GitHub Webhooks
- **push**: Run build and tests, report results
- **pull_request**: Perform code review
- **issues**: Triage and categorize new issues
- **deployment**: Execute deployment workflow

## Slack Webhooks
- **message**: Log and respond to mentions
- **reaction**: Update task status based on reactions

## Custom Webhooks
Parse the JSON payload and route to appropriate handler skills.

Configure your webhook endpoint:

# Set up local webhook server
npx webhook-server --port 3000 --skill webhook-receiver

# Or use a hosted solution with ngrok
ngrok http 3000

Event-Driven Testing Workflow

Implement an event-driven testing setup that responds to code changes — the automated testing pipeline guide covers complementary patterns for test-driven workflows:

# ~/.claude/skills/test-automation/skill.md
---
name: test-automation
description: Automatically runs tests on code changes
---

You run tests automatically when code changes.

## Workflow

1. Wait for the debounce period (5 seconds) after last change
2. Identify affected test files based on changed source
3. Run relevant test suites
4. Report results to the appropriate channel
5. If tests fail, provide actionable fix suggestions

Use --watch mode for appropriate test runners. Prioritize speed by running only affected tests first.

The debounce parameter prevents rapid-fire invocations during active editing sessions.

Error Handling and Recovery

Event-driven systems require reliable error handling. Configure retry logic and fallback behaviors:

# ~/.claude/skills/resilient-handler/skill.md
---
name: resilient-handler
description: Handles events with retry and fallback logic
---

You process events with built-in resilience.

## Retry Strategy

On failure:
1. Wait 5 seconds between retries
2. Log the error with full context
3. After 3 failures, escalate to fallback channel

## Fallback Actions

- Log to error tracking service (Sentry, etc.)
- Notify the on-call developer
- Create a tracking issue for manual review

Best Practices

Keep your event-driven architecture manageable with these principles:

Start simple. Begin with file watchers before adding complex routing logic. Validate that events trigger correctly before building sophisticated handlers.

Use meaningful event names. Clear event names make debugging easier and help other developers understand your architecture.

Implement idempotency. Skills should handle duplicate events gracefully. Use event IDs or content hashing to detect and skip redundant processing.

Monitor event flow. Track which events fire, how skills respond, and where bottlenecks occur. This data informs optimization decisions.

Decouple handlers. Each skill should handle one event type effectively. Complex logic belongs in specialized skills, not the router.

Conclusion

Event-driven architecture unlocks powerful automation possibilities with Claude Skills. By configuring file watchers, git hooks, and webhook handlers, you create a reactive system that responds to development activities without manual intervention. Start with simple event sources, build routing logic as needs grow, and maintain reliable error handling throughout. For patterns that complement event-driven design, see Building Stateful Agents with Claude Skills Guide.

The key is gradual adoption—add event triggers for repetitive manual tasks first, then expand as your confidence grows. Your development workflow becomes more automated while you maintain full control over what events trigger what actions.

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