view-attachment

Name: view-attachment
Author: tkellogg

83stars19forks

How to install view-attachment?

tkellogg/open-strix/view-attachment

$npx -y skills add tkellogg/open-strix --skill view-attachment

Installs into the current project.

Summary

View image or file attachments that you can't directly see. Use this skill when you receive a message with attachments listed as file paths and you need to understand their contents. Especially useful for text-only models that cannot process images natively.

Files · 1

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SKILL.md

1	# view-attachment
2
3	When a message includes attachments, you see file paths like:
4	```
5	attachments:
6	- state/attachments/12345-screenshot.png
7	```
8
9	These are real files on disk. You can't see them inline, but you have several ways
10	to inspect them depending on the file type.
11
12	## Step 1: Identify the File Type
13
14	Check the extension:
15	- Images: `.png`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.gif`, `.webp`, `.svg`, `.bmp`
16	- Text/code: `.txt`, `.md`, `.py`, `.js`, `.json`, `.csv`, `.log`, `.yaml`, `.toml`
17	- Documents: `.pdf`
18	- Other: anything else
19
20	## Step 2: Choose a Viewing Strategy
21
22	### For Text-Based Files
23	Read them directly — these are just text:
24	```bash
25	cat state/attachments/12345-notes.txt
26	```
27
28	### For Images (When You Can't View Them Natively)
29
30	Try these approaches in order of usefulness:
31
32	Option A: Describe from context
33	Often the surrounding message gives enough context. If someone says "look at this error"
34	and attaches a screenshot, the error is probably in their message text too. Ask if unclear.
35
36	Option B: File metadata
37	Get dimensions, format, and size to understand what you're looking at:
38	```bash
39	file state/attachments/12345-image.png
40	identify state/attachments/12345-image.png 2>/dev/null # if ImageMagick available
41	```
42
43	Option C: OCR with Tesseract
44	Extract text content from screenshots, documents, or photos of text:
45	```bash
46	tesseract state/attachments/12345-screenshot.png stdout 2>/dev/null
47	```
48
49	Option D: Convert to SVG (for simple graphics/charts)
50	Trace bitmap images into vector format you can reason about:
51	```bash
52	# Install if needed: apt-get install -y potrace
53	convert state/attachments/12345-chart.png pbm:- \| potrace --svg -o - 2>/dev/null
54	```
55	SVG output is XML text — you can read the paths and shapes.
56
57	Option E: Base64 encode
58	If another tool or API accepts base64 images, encode it:
59	```bash
60	base64 -w0 state/attachments/12345-image.png
61	```
62	Warning: base64 output is large. Only use this if you're passing it to a vision-capable
63	API or tool, not for your own comprehension.
64
65	Option F: Pixel sampling (last resort)
66	For very simple images, sample pixel values at key coordinates:
67	```bash
68	# Get the color at specific pixel coordinates (requires ImageMagick)
69	convert state/attachments/12345-image.png -format '%[pixel:p{100,100}]' info: 2>/dev/null
70	```
71
72	### For PDFs
73	```bash
74	# Extract text
75	pdftotext state/attachments/12345-document.pdf - 2>/dev/null
76	```
77
78	## Step 3: Be Honest About Limitations
79
80	If none of these approaches give you useful information:
81	1. Say what you tried
82	2. Describe what you CAN tell (file size, type, metadata)
83	3. Ask the human to describe what's in the attachment
84
85	Never pretend you can see an image when you can't. Never hallucinate image contents.

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view-attachment

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View on GitHub

How to install view-attachment?

tkellogg/open-strix/view-attachment

$npx -y skills add tkellogg/open-strix --skill view-attachment

Installs into the current project.

Summary

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# view-attachment
2
3	When a message includes attachments, you see file paths like:
4	```
5	attachments:
6	- state/attachments/12345-screenshot.png
7	```
8
9	These are real files on disk. You can't see them inline, but you have several ways
10	to inspect them depending on the file type.
11
12	## Step 1: Identify the File Type
13
14	Check the extension:
15	- Images: `.png`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.gif`, `.webp`, `.svg`, `.bmp`
16	- Text/code: `.txt`, `.md`, `.py`, `.js`, `.json`, `.csv`, `.log`, `.yaml`, `.toml`
17	- Documents: `.pdf`
18	- Other: anything else
19
20	## Step 2: Choose a Viewing Strategy
21
22	### For Text-Based Files
23	Read them directly — these are just text:
24	```bash
25	cat state/attachments/12345-notes.txt
26	```
27
28	### For Images (When You Can't View Them Natively)
29
30	Try these approaches in order of usefulness:
31
32	Option A: Describe from context
33	Often the surrounding message gives enough context. If someone says "look at this error"
34	and attaches a screenshot, the error is probably in their message text too. Ask if unclear.
35
36	Option B: File metadata
37	Get dimensions, format, and size to understand what you're looking at:
38	```bash
39	file state/attachments/12345-image.png
40	identify state/attachments/12345-image.png 2>/dev/null # if ImageMagick available
41	```
42
43	Option C: OCR with Tesseract
44	Extract text content from screenshots, documents, or photos of text:
45	```bash
46	tesseract state/attachments/12345-screenshot.png stdout 2>/dev/null
47	```
48
49	Option D: Convert to SVG (for simple graphics/charts)
50	Trace bitmap images into vector format you can reason about:
51	```bash
52	# Install if needed: apt-get install -y potrace
53	convert state/attachments/12345-chart.png pbm:- \| potrace --svg -o - 2>/dev/null
54	```
55	SVG output is XML text — you can read the paths and shapes.
56
57	Option E: Base64 encode
58	If another tool or API accepts base64 images, encode it:
59	```bash
60	base64 -w0 state/attachments/12345-image.png
61	```
62	Warning: base64 output is large. Only use this if you're passing it to a vision-capable
63	API or tool, not for your own comprehension.
64
65	Option F: Pixel sampling (last resort)
66	For very simple images, sample pixel values at key coordinates:
67	```bash
68	# Get the color at specific pixel coordinates (requires ImageMagick)
69	convert state/attachments/12345-image.png -format '%[pixel:p{100,100}]' info: 2>/dev/null
70	```
71
72	### For PDFs
73	```bash
74	# Extract text
75	pdftotext state/attachments/12345-document.pdf - 2>/dev/null
76	```
77
78	## Step 3: Be Honest About Limitations
79
80	If none of these approaches give you useful information:
81	1. Say what you tried
82	2. Describe what you CAN tell (file size, type, metadata)
83	3. Ask the human to describe what's in the attachment
84
85	Never pretend you can see an image when you can't. Never hallucinate image contents.

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