Developer Portal Skill: What It Does and How to Install It

Helps you design an external developer portal as a product, from signup to first API call.

Installs: 9.7K; on skills.sh
Stars: 9; on GitHub
Files: 4; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Nov 2026; last repo commit

developer-portal-design makes Claude act as a developer-portal product designer. It covers information architecture for business evaluators and integrating engineers, an onboarding path governed by time to first call, placement of self-service surfaces, portal search with an AI answer assistant, RBAC and tenancy, and the build-versus-buy decision.

It loads when you mention a developer portal, developer console, API dashboard, developer onboarding or time to first call. It asks six interview questions and works in eight steps. It covers external API-consumer portals only, not internal service catalogs, and bundles three reference files and no scripts.

Good for

API teams whose signups never make a first call
Platform teams launching a public API and its portal
Leads choosing between building a portal and buying one

Install developer-portal-design

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the developer-portal-design skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

/plugin marketplace add samber/developer-platform-skills
/plugin install developer-platform-skills@developer-platform-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 installs every skill in the repo (61 skills/*/SKILL.md in the git tree), because skills here reference each other. developer-portal-design is one of them. Pick one route, not both.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Design an external developer portal as a product surface, not a documentation site - information architecture for business evaluators and integrating engineers, the signup-to-first-call onboarding path governed by time to first call (TTFC), placement of each self-service surface (key dashboard, request logs, sandbox, usage metering, docs entry points), portal search with an AI answer assistant, RBAC and multi-tenant hierarchy, and the build-vs-buy platform decision. Use whenever the user mentions a developer portal, developer console, API dashboard, developer onboarding, or time to first call - even if they never say "portal". External API-consumer portals only, not internal service catalogs.

Sections in SKILL.md

Interview
Evaluator vs engineer
Workflow
1. Map the audiences
2. Propose the IA skeleton
3. Design the onboarding path to a TTFC target
4. Place every surface
5. Design search and the AI assistant
6. Design RBAC and tenancy
7. Decide build vs buy
8. Benchmark maturity and set the roadmap
Failure modes
Measurement
Invocation examples
References

Key facts

Author: Samuel Berthe
Repo: samber/developer-platform-skills, which holds 61 skills
License: MIT (LICENSE, README, plugin.json and SKILL.md all say MIT)
Version in SKILL.md: 1.0.1
Installs on skills.sh: 9,657 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars (repo): 9 (Nov 2, 2026)
Last commit (repo): Nov 1, 2026
What installs: 5 files including SKILL.md: 3 reference files and evals/evals.json; no scripts
Needs: The other skills in the repo; the README says to install all of them
Works in: Claude.ai, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and tools that read skills.sh installs

What it includes

Asks six questions on current state, audiences, tooling and constraints.
Try: “Redesign our developer portal - signups are fine but hardly anyone makes a first API call.”
Interview
Separates evaluators from engineers and public from partner developers.
1. Map the audiences
Brainstorms then validates the information architecture section by section.
2. Propose the IA skeleton
Designs the signup-to-first-call path against a time-to-first-call target.
3. Onboarding path to a TTFC target
Places key dashboard, request logs, sandbox, usage and docs entry points.
4. Place every surface
Designs portal search and an AI answer assistant.
5. Search and AI assistant
Designs roles and multi-tenant hierarchy.
6. RBAC and tenancy
Decides the platform route.
7. Build versus buy
Benchmarks the portal and sets a roadmap.
8. Maturity benchmark and roadmap

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

This skill writes design advice and bundles no scripts, so the main thing to watch is where your agent saves notes.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

It may save notes to developer-platform-context.md
SKILL.md says that when your agent keeps memory in a file, it should consider using this file name. Our advice: keep it out of commits if it holds company plans. github.com

Technical details

Scopes	Asks you interview questions and writes a design document from your answers

Questions

How do I install developer-portal-design?

Use the install box at the top of this page. The README says to install every skill in samber/developer-platform-skills, not one, because the skills hand work to each other. Pick one route per agent.

Does developer-portal-design work in Claude, Codex and Cursor?

The README documents install routes for Claude.ai (plugin marketplace), Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and the skills.sh CLI. The install box lists each one.

What does it ask me before it designs anything?

SKILL.md lists six questions to ask first, and the answers change the later steps. Have your current setup and constraints ready.

Does it run scripts or need an API key?

It bundles no scripts. The folder holds SKILL.md, reference Markdown files and an evals file, and the skill works by asking you questions and writing advice.

Is developer-portal-design safe to install?

It bundles no scripts, so installing it adds instructions and reference files rather than programs. SKILL.md also suggests that, if your agent keeps notes in a file, it uses developer-platform-context.md. Our advice: keep that file out of public commits if it holds company plans, and check any figures the skill cites against their sources before quoting them to customers.

How is it different from api-reference-quality?

developer-portal-design covers the whole portal: IA, onboarding and surfaces. api-reference-quality audits endpoint-level reference and points portal IA and onboarding back to this skill.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: samber/developer-platform-skills
Folder: skills/developer-portal-design

samber/developer-platform-skills skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 2

samber/developer-platform-skills README · github.com
developer-portal-design SKILL.md · github.com