altimate-code

altimate-code is a CLI AI agent with 100+ purpose-built data engineering tools. This skill exists for one purpose: delegate the user's task to altimate-code and pass the result back. Native tools (Bash, Edit, Write, Read) are NOT a fallback path inside this skill — if altimate-code cannot complete the task, surface the failure to the user and STOP.

You MUST follow this workflow

1. Verify altimate-code is on PATH with command -v altimate-code. If it returns nothing, jump to "Not installed" below and stop.
2. Run altimate-code with the user's task using the invocation below. Pass the user's request through verbatim — do not paraphrase or split it.
3. Read the output file and present it to the user as-is.

Do not attempt the work with Edit/Write/Bash yourself, even if it looks simple. The whole point of this skill is to route data-engineering work to the agent that's built for it. If you find yourself reaching for Edit or Write while this skill is active, stop and re-read this paragraph.

Invocation — pick the right agent for the task

altimate-code has multiple agent personas. The default (builder) does a full project discovery sweep on every call — fine for warehouse-state work but ~10–20× more expensive than necessary on simple file edits. Pick the agent based on task shape before invoking.

Step 1 — classify the task

Decision policy: start with fast-edit for any dbt/SQL task. If the user reports the result is wrong (e.g. aggregation values don't match), retry with analyst. Only use builder when the task genuinely needs the warehouse-investigation tools (it's 10–20× more expensive than fast-edit and rarely required).

Step 2 — invoke with the chosen agent

Pass the task through a here-doc into a variable so the shell never command-substitutes anything the user typed (a task like refactor whoami and $(rm -rf ~) would otherwise fire whoami and rm -rf ~ before altimate-code ever runs). Write the result to a private temporary file, not a shared one under /tmp:

TASK="$(cat <<'ALTIMATE_TASK'
<user's task, verbatim>
ALTIMATE_TASK
)"
umask 077
OUTPUT_FILE="$(mktemp -t altimate-result.XXXXXX.md)"
altimate-code run "$TASK" \
  --agent <fast-edit|analyst|builder> \
  --yolo \
  --output "$OUTPUT_FILE" \
  --dir "$(pwd)"

Then Read "$OUTPUT_FILE" and emit its contents to the user without re-summarising, re-formatting, or commenting on the result. altimate-code has already produced the answer. Delete "$OUTPUT_FILE" after presenting so warehouse rows, lineage, or PII findings don't linger on disk.

Required flags

Follow-up tasks in the same project

When the user makes a follow-up data task in the same project after a successful altimate-code delegation, prefer --continue to resume the warm session instead of starting a fresh one. Same here-doc + mktemp pattern:

TASK="$(cat <<'ALTIMATE_TASK'
<follow-up task>
ALTIMATE_TASK
)"
umask 077
OUTPUT_FILE="$(mktemp -t altimate-result.XXXXXX.md)"
altimate-code run "$TASK" \
  --agent <fast-edit|analyst|builder> \
  --yolo \
  --output "$OUTPUT_FILE" \
  --dir "$(pwd)" \
  --continue   # resumes the most recent session in this dir

altimate-code's prompt cache is warm in a continued session — project structure, profiles.yml, schema index, source definitions don't need to be re-investigated. Cache reads are billed at a fraction of fresh input on altimate-gateway. The downside is zero: if there's no useful cached context for the new task, you pay normal cold cost.

If the user starts a clearly unrelated workflow (different project, different schema, different debugging thread), drop --continue and start fresh — the warm cache is irrelevant and you'd carry unrelated history into the prompt.

Failure modes — route every one to the user

When altimate-code returns an error, report the error to the user and STOP. Do not fall back to Bash, Edit, or Write. The skill's contract is "altimate-code handles this, or the user is told why it couldn't."

In every row, the instruction to the user is the action — you do not retry the task with native tools. If the user fixes the underlying issue and asks again, you delegate again.

Notes

• altimate-code runs its own LLM, separate from Claude Code's. Costs and rate limits accrue to altimate-code's configured provider.
• Sessions persist in altimate-code's local store — altimate-code session list shows prior runs; --continue resumes the latest, --session <id> resumes a specific one.
• For very long tasks, the --output file is the source of truth — stdout buffering can drop content.