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No. 002 · recommended

Astro Development

Content collections, islands, and rendering modes, used correctly

Version 1.0.0 License MIT Format SKILL.md

Astro’s whole pitch is that pages ship zero JavaScript by default — which means the most common bug report is “this component doesn’t do anything when I click it,” and the answer is almost always a missing client: directive, not a real bug. This skill puts that diagnosis first, along with a working decision table for which directive to reach for (client:load, client:idle, client:visible, client:media, client:only) instead of defaulting to client:load everywhere out of caution.

It also covers the Content Layer API correctly for current Astro versions — collections live in src/content.config.ts at the project root, not buried in src/content/, and the glob loader has its own small set of gotchas around schema validation and slug generation that are easy to misdiagnose as the loader being broken.

Rendering modes (static, server, hybrid) and the handful of configuration values that quietly break SEO if they’re missing — the site field in particular — round out the rest.

This is the same skill used to build this directory.

When it triggers

  • creating an Astro page or layout
  • defining or querying a content collection
  • a component isn't interactive
  • choosing static, server, or hybrid rendering