developer-live-demo-design skill (samber): make a demo survive the stage
Turns a technical demo into a runbook with checkpoints, a one-command reset and a rehearsed fallback for when it breaks.
- Installs
- 12.4K
- on skills.sh
- Stars
- 7
- on GitHub
- Files
- 7
- besides SKILL.md
- Updated
- Nov 2026
- last repo commit
developer-live-demo-design takes a demo you intend to run in front of an audience and turns it into a system that still lands when the network dies or a command errors. It cuts the demo into segments, builds a risk register, picks a fidelity tier from live typing (tier 0) to annotated screenshots (tier 4), gives each segment a restore point and writes the reset, fallback and recovery lines into one markdown runbook. It ends with a rehearsal gate.
It triggers on "my demo broke on stage", "live or pre-record", "a demo environment reset" or "a clean demo laptop". It bundles one script, scripts/demo-checkpoints.sh, which SKILL.md offers when your demo material lives in a git repository. SKILL.md says not to use it for the talk's structure, which goes to tech-talk-outline.
Good for
- Speakers giving a live demo at a conference, meetup or workshop
- DevRel engineers whose last demo died on the venue Wi-Fi
- Anyone deciding whether to demo live or play a recording
Install developer-live-demo-design
Claude Code
- 1
Copy this prompt.
Install the developer-live-demo-design skill in Claude Code. Run this command: /plugin marketplace add samber/developer-relations-skills /plugin install developer-relations-skills@developer-relations-skills Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.
- 2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.
The README recommends installing the whole collection because its skills reference each other, and developer-live-demo-design names other skills in the collection to hand work to. The whole-collection routes add all 93 skills in the repo (counted from the git tree); the repo holds no hooks, agents, commands or MCP server files, and 14 of its skills bundle a script. This skill runs scripts/demo-checkpoints.sh, which needs bash and git. Pick one route per agent.
From the project README. Source.
What's in the skill
When it loads
Engineers a technical demo so it survives the stage - risk triage, the fidelity tier it should run at, independently enterable checkpoints, a one-command environment reset, offline mode, a recorded fallback and rehearsed recovery lines, shipped as a demo runbook with a pre-flight checklist. Use whenever the user mentions a live demo, live coding, demo reliability or a fallback plan, "my demo broke on stage", whether to demo live or pre-record, a demo environment reset, a clean demo laptop, a demo profile or a panic button, or is preparing a talk, workshop, webinar or launch stream containing a demo - even if they only say "I'm nervous about the demo" or "what if I share the wrong screen". Not the talk's structure - use samber/developer-relations-skills@tech-talk-outline.
Sections in SKILL.md
- Invocation
- Interview
- Workflow
- Fidelity ladder
- Checkpoints
- Environment hardening
- Recovery plan
- Rehearsal and pass threshold
- Audience variants
- Failure modes
- References
Key facts
- Skill version
- 1.0.4 (SKILL.md metadata)
- Installs on skills.sh
- 12,430 (Nov 2, 2026)
- Last repo commit
- Nov 1, 2026
- Audits on skills.sh
- Gen Agent Trust Hub: pass, Socket: pass, Snyk: pass
What it includes
Asks 12 questions, starting with the one-sentence claim the demo must prove.
InterviewKeeps only risks that can fire in this demo and ranks them by visibility.
Keeps only the risks that can fire in this demo and ranks them by likelihood and visibility.
Risk registerUses five tiers from live typing to screenshots and defaults to a recording.
Five tiers from live typing to annotated screenshots; defaults to tier 3 with the next tier down as fallback.
Fidelity ladderGives every segment a named restore point and a one-command, idempotent reset.
CheckpointsSets up an offline stack, seeded fixtures, large fonts and a clean profile.
Offline stack, seeded fixtures, large fonts, clean profile and no notifications.
Environment hardeningAllows one repair attempt, then switches to the fallback with pre-written lines.
One repair attempt, then switch to the fallback with pre-written lines.
Recovery planRequires six checks, including three cold runs and one run with the network off.
Six checks, including three consecutive cold runs and one run with the network disconnected.
Rehearsal gateSaves, lists and checks out local git tags named demo/step-N-label.
Subcommands save, list, goto, reset, next and prev manage checkpoints as local git tags named demo/step-N-label.
Runs code ·
scripts/demo-checkpoints.sh
From the official docs
Permissions
Low risk
developer-live-demo-design is planning instructions plus one bash script that creates and checks out local git tags in a repository you point it at.
What it can do
- Read your data
- Create and change things
- Delete things
- Read-only mode
Watch out for
The script moves and overwrites git tags
scripts/demo-checkpoints.sh save runs git tag -f for demo/step-N-label, which replaces an existing local tag of that name. goto and reset run git checkout on a tag and stop if git status shows uncommitted changes. Use a dedicated demo repository. github.com
It may save notes to devrel-context.md
SKILL.md tells Claude to keep task and project context in devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file, or in the memory system your tool already uses. Check the file before you commit it. github.com
The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 with scripts
The README says to install every skill. The git tree has 93 skill folders, and 14 of them hold .py or .sh files. This skill bundles scripts/demo-checkpoints.sh. The tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files. github.com
Technical details
| Turning on read-only | SKILL.md describes no read-only mode. |
|---|---|
| Sign-in and keys | SKILL.md and the bundled script name no account, key or token. |
| Scopes |
|
Questions
What does developer-live-demo-design do?
It designs the reliability of a demo you will run live. You get a runbook with segments, restore points, a reset command, fallback assets, recovery lines and a pre-flight checklist.
How do I install it?
Use the install box at the top. The README says to install every skill in the repo, because the skills point to each other. The box shows the whole-set route for each app. There is no Claude app route listed, because the checkpoint script needs a local shell and git.
What does the bundled script do?
scripts/demo-checkpoints.sh tags the current git tree as demo segment N, lists tags, and checks a tag out. Its header says checkpoints are local tags named demo/step-N-label and are never pushed, and it needs bash, git, sed, sort and head.
Should I demo live at all?
SKILL.md treats live as something the claim has to earn. It defaults to a recorded screencast narrated live (tier 3) and promotes live typing only when the liveness itself is the claim.
Is it safe to install?
The skill's script writes and moves git tags in the repository you run it in, so run it in a demo repository. It refuses goto and reset when the working tree has uncommitted changes. The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 of which bundle scripts.
How is it different from tech-talk-outline?
This skill makes a demo failure-resistant. SKILL.md says the talk's structure and where the demo sits belong to samber/developer-relations-skills@tech-talk-outline.
Information
updated Nov 2, 2026
- Repository
- samber/developer-relations-skills
- Folder
skills/developer-live-demo-design
Sources
Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.
Show all 4Hide
- README · github.com
- developer-live-demo-design SKILL.md · github.com
- developer-live-demo-design scripts/demo-checkpoints.sh · github.com
- LICENSE · github.com