# Working Outside The Console > Working Outside The Console is an Agent Skill for agent building published in the PostHog/posthog repository on GitHub: a SKILL.md instruction file an AI agent can load to do this task. Operating without a UI — MCP / IDE / Slack mode. How to compensate for missing client tools, how to be useful in a text-only chat. Load when the session client kind is NOT `posthog-code`. - Skill name: `working-outside-the-console` - Category: [Agent Building](https://www.openparable.com/skill/agent-building/1) - Source: https://github.com/PostHog/posthog/blob/HEAD/products/agent_platform/backend/kernel_skills/working-outside-the-console/SKILL.md - Repository: PostHog/posthog (35,560 GitHub stars when collected) ## SKILL.md # Skill — working outside PostHog Code How to be useful when there is no UI — load when the session reports a non-PostHog-Code client kind (Claude Code, Cursor, MCP Inspector, or any unknown shape) or when none of the `focus_*` / `toast` client tools are in your tool surface. Without client tools, every navigation has to happen in text. ## What changes vs PostHog Code | Capability | PostHog Code | MCP / IDE | | ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | User sees the artifact you're working on | Yes — `focus_*` tools drive the panel | No — the user sees only your text | | User can context-switch by clicking | Yes — they can wander | No — the conversation IS the navigation | | Status notifications | `toast` | A short line in the chat | | Streaming partial output | Sometimes rendered nicely | Usually rendered as plain text | | Approval requests | Inline buttons in the dock | A text instruction to take action elsewhere | The biggest shift: **the user has zero visibility into the artifacts you call MCP tools against unless you put them in text.** A `posthog__agent-applications-revisions-bundle-retrieve` that returns 5 files in PostHog Code can be opened in the panel; over MCP, you have to summarize. ## Compensating moves ### 1. Lead with explicit references Every artifact you touch gets named in text. Slug, revision id, file path. The user copy-pastes these into their own tools (a browser at app.posthog.com, a curl) if they want to verify. > Reading `weekly-digest` (id `app_abc123`), live revision > `r_xyz789`, file `agent.md` (87 lines, last edited 2026-05-12). vs the PostHog Code-friendly equivalent: > Opening weekly-digest's live revision in the panel. The MCP version pays for the extra words; the value is the user can act on the references without further round-trips. ### 2. Inline summaries instead of "see the panel" When the user would have looked at the read panel, instead include the summary in your message. Trade tokens for context. > System prompt summary (3 sections, 87 lines total): > > - Identity (1-12): "You are the weekly-digest agent…" > - Job (13-50): walks through the digest flow, mentions > $pageview / $autocapture > - Tone (51-87): casual, asks for ack at the end > > Full file (paste to read)? > > ```text > [contents on request] > ``` Don't dump the file unprompted — offer to. ### 3. Tighter sequencing In PostHog Code, you can fire multiple MCP calls in one turn because the user is watching the panel transitions. Over MCP, a single turn that fires 5 tool calls produces a single text reply that has to summarize all 5. Prefer: - 1-3 tool calls per turn - A clear handoff back to the user between turns - "Want me to also pull X?" as a question, not as another tool call ## Detecting that you're outside PostHog Code Look at the session-start info event — it reports the client kind. Treat it as a hint, not a contract: - A PostHog Code client (web app, dock) → PostHog Code - An IDE / MCP client (Claude Code, Cursor, MCP Inspector, etc.) → text-only mode - A Slack client → Slack (use the slack flow instead, not this skill — but slack isn't in v0 spec, so this won't fire today) - Unknown or missing → assume non-PostHog-Code / MCP, since text-only is the safer default The reliable signal is your own tool surface: if the `focus_*` and `toast` client tools are present you're in PostHog Code; if they're absent, you're not. ## MCP-specific affordances you DO have The MCP transport exposes things PostHog Code doesn't always: - **The `Mcp-Session-Id` header** — the connecting MCP client's session id. Multiple chat-trigger sessions from the same MCP connection share this. Useful when the user says "what was that other session we just looked at?" — you can list resources filtered by their MCP connection. - **`resources/list` and `resources/read`** — agent sessions are exposed as MCP resources (per `agent-as-mcp-server.md` §3). The connecting client can read them directly without going through chat — encourage this for cases where the user just wants the data. - **Cancellation via the MCP transport** — IDE clients usually have a "stop generating" button. The runner gets the cancel signal cleanly. ## When the user asks for something only PostHog Code can do E.g. "show me the file tree visually" or "click that button". Be direct: > The file tree view is a PostHog Code-only thing — you're connected > via MCP. I can list the file paths in text instead: > > - agent.md > - skills/triage-playbook.md > - skills/slack-thread-protocol.md > - tests/happy-path.json > > Or, if you want the visual view, open PostHog Code > → weekly-digest → bundle. Don't pretend you can drive a UI that isn't there. ## Pasting code over MCP IDE clients render code blocks well. Use them for: - File contents the user asked to read - Spec JSON snippets when explaining a structural concept - Tool call arguments when explaining why a call failed Keep them short. A 200-line `agent.md` is OK to paste; a 2000- line custom tool source is not — summarize and offer to walk through a section. ## The slack mode (when it exists) Not in v0. When the agent grows a `slack` trigger and is invoked in a Slack channel, the rules from `working-outside-the-console` mostly apply (text-only) but with Slack-specific formatting: - Use Slack markdown (`*bold*`, `_italic_`, code with single backticks) - Stay terse — channel signal-to-noise matters - Always thread your replies under the triggering message - Don't paste long bundle contents in channel — link to PostHog Code / DM instead Until the slack trigger lands, you won't see this client kind. --- Source: https://www.openparable.com/skill/agent-building/working-outside-the-console (OpenParable). Cite the canonical URL above.