recsys-pipeline-architect
Design composable recommendation, ranking, and feed pipelines using the six-stage Source→Hydrator→Filter→Scorer→Selector→SideEffect framework popularized by xAI's open-sourced X For You algorithm. Use when building any system that picks "the top K items for a (user, context)" — content feeds, search ranking, RAG rerankers, task prioritizers, notification triage, ad selection.
Profile →npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill recsys-pipeline-architect --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Recsys Pipeline Architect A spec-and-scaffold skill for building composable recommendation, ranking, and feed pipelines. Encodes the six-stage pattern popularized by xAI's open-sourced [For You algorithm](https://github.com/xai-org/x-algorithm) (Apache 2.0) and applies it to any "top K for (user, context)" problem. ## Overview Most "recommendation systems" in production aren't exotic ML — they're *pipelines*: fetch candidates from one or more sources, enrich them with metadata, drop the ineligible, score the rest, sort and pick the top K, then fire async side effects. The pattern is universal. The scoring function and the items change; the pipeline shape doesn't. This skill is an independent reimplementation of the pattern (MIT) — no code copied from the original. ## When to Use This Skill - Building any system that returns "the top K items for a user/context" - Designing or refactoring a personalized feed (content, search results, notifications) - Wrapping an LLM/ML scorer in proper pipeline plumbing (sources, hydration, filters, side effects) - Adding multi-action prediction with tunable weights (instead of a single relevance score) - Building a RAG retrieval reranker (cheap re
- Overview
- When to Use This Skill
- The Six-Stage Framework
- Why this exact order
- Workflow When Invoked
- Key Trade-offs to Surface
- 1. Single score vs multi-action prediction
- 2. Candidate isolation vs joint scoring
- 3. Online vs offline batch
- Hard Rules
- Anti-Patterns
- Common Use Cases
- Content feed (Strapi v5 plugin, TypeScript)
- RAG retrieval reranker (Python async)
What does the recsys-pipeline-architect skill do?
Design composable recommendation, ranking, and feed pipelines using the six-stage Source→Hydrator→Filter→Scorer→Selector→SideEffect framework popularized by xAI's open-sourced X For You algorithm. Use when building any system that picks "the top K items for a (user, context)" — content feeds, search ranking, RAG rerankers, task prioritizers, notification triage, ad selection.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill recsys-pipeline-architect --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From wshobson/agents, a repository with 38,479 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.