Guitar Chord

Show ASCII guitar chord diagrams using the ascii_chord CLI tool. Use when asked how to play a guitar chord, or to show chord charts/diagrams for any chord na...

Security Scan

The skill does what it says: a bundled Rust CLI that builds locally with cargo to render ASCII guitar chords; its requirements and actions are consistent with that purpose.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description, declared requirement (cargo), and included Rust source all align: building a local Rust CLI is required and appropriate for rendering ASCII chord diagrams.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md instructs only to build/run the bundled CLI and to run a post-install init script that writes a .gitignore and pre-warms a cargo build. The CLI code only prints diagrams and optionally writes an all_supported_chords.md when invoked with --save. No instructions ask for unrelated files, secrets, or external endpoints.

Install Mechanism

There is a post-install shell step (scripts/init.sh) that runs cargo build --release in the skill directory. This is local source build (no arbitrary download URL), but cargo will fetch dependencies from crates.io during build and will compile code on the machine. The SKILL.md also tells users how to install rustup which modifies ~/.cargo and ~/.rustup and may update PATH. These are expected for a Rust project but involve network fetches and changes to the user's home environment.

Credentials

The skill requests no environment variables or credentials. The only side-effects are filesystem writes limited to the skill directory (target/) and the optional all_supported_chords.md; rustup/rust toolchain installation will add ~/.cargo and ~/.rustup which is expected.

Persistence & Privilege

always:false and the skill does not attempt to modify other skills or global agent settings. It creates /target/ build artifacts in its own directory, may create .gitignore in the skill directory, and can write an all_supported_chords.md when asked — these are within the skill's scope.

Assessment

This skill is a coherent, self-contained Rust CLI for rendering chord diagrams. Before installing: (1) be aware building with cargo will download dependencies from crates.io and will compile code on your machine; (2) installing rustup will add ~/.cargo and ~/.rustup and may modify your PATH; (3) the init script writes a .gitignore and performs a local cargo build that creates a target/ directory inside the skill folder; (4) review the bundled source if you want extra assurance (it's MIT/Apache-2.0 licensed and transparent here). If you are unsure, run the init/build in an isolated environment (container or VM) or inspect the files locally before executing scripts.

Display ASCII guitar chord diagrams using ascii_chord — an open-source Rust CLI (MIT license, authored by the same person as this skill).

The source code is bundled with this skill — no cloning needed.

Required Tools

Tool	Purpose	Check
cargo / Rust	Build and run the CLI	cargo --version

Installing Rust (if not already installed)

# macOS (Homebrew — recommended)
brew install rustup-init && rustup-init

Or download from rustup.rs.

Note: Installing Rust via rustup creates ~/.cargo and ~/.rustup in your home directory and may modify your shell PATH.

Post-Install Setup

After installing, run the init script once:

bash ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord/scripts/init.sh

This will:

1. Create a .gitignore in the skill directory to exclude cargo build artifacts (/target) from git
2. Pre-warm the cargo build cache so the first chord lookup is fast

First Run Warning

If you skip the init script, the first cargo run will take 30–60 seconds while cargo compiles the binary. This is normal — subsequent runs are fast (binary is cached in target/). Do not interrupt the first build.

Diagram Legend

✕  = mute this string (don't play)
◯  = open string (play unfretted)
●  = fret this position (filled dot)
═  = nut (top of fretboard)
─  = fret wire
│  = string

Numbers on the left (when shown) indicate the starting fret position for higher-up chords.

Usage

The skill directory contains the full Rust source. Run from there:

Single chord:

cd <skill_dir> && cargo run -- get <CHORD> 2>/dev/null

Multiple chords side by side:

cd <skill_dir> && cargo run -- list <CHORD1> <CHORD2> ... 2>/dev/null

List all supported chords:

cd <skill_dir> && cargo run -- all 2>/dev/null

Replace <skill_dir> with the path where this skill is installed (e.g. ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord).

Examples

# Single chord
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord && cargo run -- get Am 2>/dev/null

# Multiple side by side (great for progressions)
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord && cargo run -- list C G Am F 2>/dev/null

# Full list of all supported chord names
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord && cargo run -- all 2>/dev/null

Discovering Supported Chords

Not all chord voicings are supported. If a user asks for a chord that fails, use all to list every supported chord name and find the closest match:

cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/ascii-chord && cargo run -- all 2>/dev/null

Notes

• Suppress build warnings with 2>/dev/null
• Chord names are case-sensitive (Am not am, B7 not b7)
• After first build, subsequent runs are fast (binary cached by cargo in target/)
• Source repo: https://github.com/ascii-music/ascii_chord (MIT licensed)