Android Agent Skill

This repository is an Agent Skill package for Android development with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.
It provides a structured set of instructions, templates, and references that help agents build production-quality Android apps consistently and efficiently.

Learn more about the Agent Skills format here: agentskills.io

Browse this skill on SkillsMP

What This Skill Covers

• Modular Android architecture (feature-first, core modules, strict dependencies)
• Domain/Data/UI layering patterns with auth-focused examples
• Jetpack Compose patterns, state management, animation, side effects, modifiers, and adaptive UI (NavigationSuiteScaffold, ListDetailPaneScaffold, SupportingPaneScaffold)
• Edge-to-edge display and predictive back gesture handling
• Material 3 theming (dynamic colors, typography, shapes, 8dp spacing tokens, app-category style fit, reserved resource names, dark/light mode)
• Navigation3 guidance (stable catalog pin, deep-link routing, SavedState Compose with NavKey), adaptive navigation, and large-screen quality tiers (phones, tablets, foldables, input expectations)
• Accessibility support (TalkBack, semantic properties, label copy, live regions, Espresso accessibility checks, WCAG alignment)
• Internationalization & localization (i18n/l10n, RTL support, plurals)
• Notifications (channels, styles, actions, foreground services, progress-centric, media/audio focus, PiP, system sharesheet, Navigation3 state from taps)
• Background media playback hardening at target SDK 37 (Media3 MediaSessionService for audio and video, mediaPlayback foreground service type, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK permission, standalone MediaPlayer/AudioTrack forbidden in background, requestAudioFocus enforcement) and Media3 ExoPlayer catalog wiring with playback preloading guidance
• Data synchronization & offline-first (sync strategies, conflict resolution, cache invalidation)
• Material Symbols icons, adaptive launcher icon specs, graphics, custom drawing with Canvas, and Coil3 image loading patterns (AsyncImage, SubcomposeAsyncImage, Hilt ImageLoader)
• Gradle/build conventions, product flavors and BuildConfig, version catalog usage, KSP migration, Spotless formatting, and build performance optimization (diagnostics, lazy tasks, configuration cache)
• Testing practices with fakes, Hilt testing, Room 3 testing (SQLiteDriver, room3-testing), Compose Preview Screenshot Testing and Roborazzi trade routing, pre-release UI state checklist (empty, loading, error, offline, permissions), ADB device targeting, install or launch smoke, and UIAutomator black-box checks (references/testing.md)
• Coroutines patterns, structured concurrency, Flow (callbackFlow, backpressure, combine, shareIn), and common pitfalls
• Kotlin delegation patterns and composition over inheritance
• Dependency management rules and templates
• Crash reporting with provider-agnostic interfaces (Firebase/Sentry)
• Runtime permissions with Compose patterns (references/android-permissions.md) including contact picker, Embedded Photo Picker, and Android 17 location privacy; media playback, picking, FileProvider, and sharesheet routing (references/android-media.md)
• Performance benchmarking (Macrobenchmark, Microbenchmark, Baseline Profiles, ProfileInstaller, System Tracing), Android Performance Analyzer (APA) for Studio system traces, Perfetto UI for attached traces, Google Play Vitals context (crash/ANR bars, startup targets, frame budgets, battery/background), optional Play Developer Reporting API vitals, Compose recomposition optimization (three phases, deferred state reads, Strong Skipping Mode), and app startup optimization (App Startup library, splash screen, lazy initialization)
• StrictMode guardrails and Compose compiler stability diagnostics
• Code coverage with JaCoCo (unit + instrumented tests)
• Security (certificate pinning, encryption, biometrics, Credential Manager and passkeys, device identifiers and privacy, Play Data safety, Play Integrity Standard/Classic with server decodeIntegrityToken, requestHash/nonce binding, tiered policy, remediation, URI grants on outbound intents, local root/emulator checks as supplementary)
• Retrofit/networking patterns (service interfaces, nullable JSON DTOs, Hilt NetworkModule, AuthInterceptor)
• Haptic feedback, touch targets, and forms/input patterns (keyboard types, autofill, validation)
• Debugging guide (Logcat levels, ANR timeouts, Gradle error patterns, LeakCanary, Compose recomposition, R8 mapping and manual de-obfuscation, R8 keep-rules troubleshooting, process kill under memory caps / memory-limiter reproduction)
• Consolidated migration guide (XML to Compose, LiveData to StateFlow, RxJava to Coroutines, Navigation 2.x to Navigation3, Accompanist to official APIs, Material 2 to 3, Edge-to-Edge, Room 2.x to Room 3 (composite @Relation / @Junction keys), Android 17 / API 37 checklist (memory limiter, location privacy), 16 KB native page size and Play alignment, Compose-XML interop hardening, Splash Screen API; references/migration.md)
• Code quality with Detekt and Compose rules
• Play CI/CD: AAB, release tracks, signing boundaries, staged rollout, upload automation (fastlane vs Gradle Play Publisher routing), and Play developer identity verification (Console human step outside the repo; references/android-ci-cd.md)

Key Files

• SKILL.md - entry point (Quick Reference, Examples, Troubleshooting)
• references/INDEX.md - summary table of all reference files and quick companions (~50 lines)
• references/INDEX-sections.md - detailed section anchors (open only when quick routing is insufficient)
• references/workflows.md - extended task routing when Quick Reference is not enough
• references/architecture.md - architecture principles, data/domain/ui/common layers, nullable network DTOs, and flows
• references/modularization.md - module structure, dependency rules, and feature module creation
• references/android-navigation.md - Navigation3 (stable pin, deep links, shared elements), adaptive navigation, large-screen quality tiers
• references/compose-patterns.md - Compose patterns, Material motion, animation, side effects, modifiers, stability, and migrations
• references/android-theming.md - Material 3 theming, spacing tokens, category style, colors, typography, shapes
• references/android-accessibility.md - accessibility, TalkBack, label copy, semantic properties, WCAG
• references/android-i18n.md - internationalization, localization, RTL support, plurals
• references/android-notifications.md - notifications, channels, media/PiP/sharesheet, foreground services
• references/android-media.md - picking and sharing media/files (router), background playback at API 37 (Media3 MediaSessionService, FGS type, audio focus), and playback preloading
• references/android-data-sync.md - offline-first, sync strategies, conflict resolution
• references/kotlin-patterns.md - Kotlin best practices and View lifecycle interop (must-read for Kotlin code)
• references/coroutines-patterns.md - coroutines best practices and patterns
• references/gradle-setup.md - build logic, product flavors, BuildConfig, conventions, R8 Keep-Rules Audit, build files, and registering optional root tasks (for example Play Vitals reporting)
• references/android-ci-cd.md - Play release AAB, tracks, signing boundaries, staged rollout, developer verification, bundletool sideloads, CI release lane ordering
• references/testing.md - testing patterns with fakes, Hilt, Room 3, Navigation3, Compose and UIAutomator smoke, ADB device targeting, pre-release UI state checklist, Preview vs Roborazzi visual regression routing, deep links, and screenshot testing
• references/android-graphics.md - Material Symbols icons, adaptive launcher icons, Canvas drawing, Palette API
• references/android-permissions.md - runtime permissions, contact picker, Embedded Photo Picker, Android 17 location privacy
• references/kotlin-delegation.md - delegation patterns and composition guidance
• references/crashlytics.md - crash reporting with modular provider swaps
• references/android-strictmode.md - StrictMode guardrails and Compose stability
• references/android-code-coverage.md - JaCoCo code coverage setup and CI integration
• references/android-security.md - Play Integrity (Standard/Classic), server decode and verdict policy, requestHash/nonce, errors/remediation, device trust vs local root checks, Credential Manager, pinning, encryption, Data safety
• references/code-quality.md - Detekt setup and code quality rules
• references/dependencies.md - dependency rules and version catalog guidance (Navigation3, Room 3, Media3, SavedState Compose pins)
• references/android-performance.md - Play Vitals thresholds, optional Play Developer Reporting API (CI/Slack), benchmarking, APA and Perfetto trace routing, recomposition, app startup, splash screen
• references/android-debugging.md - Logcat levels, ANR timeouts, LeakCanary, R8 de-obfuscation and keep-rules troubleshooting, memory-limiter reproduction, Gradle errors, Compose recomposition
• references/migration.md - XML to Compose, LiveData to StateFlow, RxJava, Navigation, Accompanist, Material, Edge-to-Edge, Room 2.x → Room 3, Android 17 / API 37 (memory limiter, location privacy), 16 KB native / Play, Compose-XML interop hardening, legacy splash
• references/design-patterns.md - Android-focused design patterns
• assets/proguard-rules.pro.template - R8/ProGuard rules for all libraries
• assets/detekt.yml.template - Detekt static analysis configuration
• assets/libs.versions.toml.template - Version catalog with all dependencies
• assets/settings.gradle.kts.template - Project settings with repositories
• assets/convention/ - Gradle convention plugins, config/ helpers, and QUICK_REFERENCE.md

Scope

This skill is focused on Android app development using:

• Kotlin (with coroutines, Flow, and kotlinx-datetime)
• Jetpack Compose and Material 3 (dynamic color, Material Symbols icons, adaptive layouts: NavigationSuiteScaffold and pane scaffolds)
• Navigation3 (type-safe routing)
• Hilt (dependency injection)
• Room 3 (androidx.room3, KSP, SQLiteDriver / sqlite-bundled, Flow and suspend DAOs)
• Retrofit + OkHttp (networking)
• Coil3 (image loading)
• Media3 (ExoPlayer, session, playback preloading; catalog in libs.versions.toml.template)
• Firebase Crashlytics / Sentry (crash reporting)
• Macrobenchmark / Microbenchmark (performance testing)
• Detekt + Compose Rules (code quality)
• Google Truth + Turbine (testing assertions)

Installation

Agent entry point after install: SKILL.md (Quick Reference table; extended routing in references/workflows.md). Open references/ files only for the task at hand. Format spec: agentskills.io.

For AI agents

This skill uses the open Agent Skills format: a folder named claude-android-ninja/ with SKILL.md, references/, and assets/. Agents load skill metadata at session start; route Android work through SKILL.md and open reference files only when needed.

Paths below are each agent’s primary install locations. Many agents also scan shared fallbacks such as .agents/skills/ or .claude/skills/.

Recommended install: Vercel Skills (npx skills) writes into each agent’s native path (50+ agents, auto-detect). See supported agents for CLI path overrides.

npx skills add drjacky/claude-android-ninja

Manual install

Clone this repo, then copy the whole folder into the project or global path for your agent from the table above (same tree for every tool):

git clone https://github.com/Drjacky/claude-android-ninja.git
# Example: Claude Code global - swap the destination for your agent's path
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r claude-android-ninja ~/.claude/skills/claude-android-ninja

Expected layout (destination varies by agent):

/claude-android-ninja/
├── SKILL.md
├── references/
└── assets/

Restart the agent or start a new session so the skill is discovered.

Vercel Skills CLI

Vercel Skills (npx skills) installs this repo into each agent’s native skills directory (see the For AI agents table). It auto-detects installed agents, or you can target them with -a. Browse more skills at skills.sh.

Project install (default; symlinks into detected agents):

npx skills add drjacky/claude-android-ninja

Global install (available in all projects):

npx skills add drjacky/claude-android-ninja -g

Install to specific agents (non-interactive):

npx skills add drjacky/claude-android-ninja -a claude-code -a cursor -a kilo -y

Install to all supported agents without prompts:

npx skills add drjacky/claude-android-ninja --all

Use --copy instead of symlinks when your environment does not support symlinks. Other useful commands: npx skills list, npx skills update claude-android-ninja, npx skills remove claude-android-ninja, npx skills find android.

Verify install

• Folder contains SKILL.md, references/, and assets/ (templates and convention plugins).
• Agent session was restarted after copy or install.
• npx skills list shows claude-android-ninja under the expected agent paths.

Validate skill package (contributors)

From the repo root:

./.github/scripts/validate-skill.sh          # line counts + links + ergonomics + voice + typography + skills-ref frontmatter
./.github/scripts/check-skill-index-line-counts.sh  # reference line counts in skill markdown
./.github/scripts/check-skill-index-line-counts.sh --fix  # refresh stale counts locally
./.github/scripts/check-skill-links.sh       # internal markdown links only
./.github/scripts/check-skill-ergonomics.sh  # INDEX/SKILL line caps; -quick.md for refs >= 1500 lines
./.github/scripts/check-skill-voice.sh       # directive-first prose ban-list (SKILL.md + references/)
./.github/scripts/check-skill-typography.sh  # ASCII dashes, quotes, spaces, ellipsis (skill markdown)

CI runs the full skill package validation on push and pull requests (.github/workflows/validate-skill.yml). skills-ref checks name / description frontmatter only; it does not require renaming claude-android-ninja.

Contributing

Request Missing Best Practices

If you need a best practice topic or pattern that’s missing from this SKILL, please create a feature request on GitHub. This helps us prioritize what to add next.

Create a Feature Request

Report Issues

Found a bug, outdated pattern, or incorrect guidance? Please report it so we can fix it.

Report a Bug

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