the-maintainers-no
Say no as an open-source maintainer without burning contributors or yourself — the feature that doesn't fit, the PR that took someone a weekend but can't merge, the company that wants free support, the fork suggestion said kindly. Use when a maintainer says 'how do I reject this PR nicely', 'a company is demanding support', 'this feature request won't die', or is avoiding an issue thread out of guilt. Produces the specific no for the situation, with reasoning shown and the relationship kept.
Profile →npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill the-maintainers-no --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.
# The Maintainer's No Skill Maintainer burnout is mostly unsent nos: the feature request at 40 comments, the well-meant PR that would triple the maintenance surface, the company that filed "urgent" on a volunteer's project. Every avoided no costs a week of low-grade guilt; the sent no costs five minutes and is almost never received as badly as feared. This skill writes the *specific* no each situation needs — with the reasoning shown, the effort honored, and a real alternative where one exists — because "no with a why and a path" keeps contributors that "maybe someday" quietly loses. ## What This Skill Produces - The **situation-fit no**, drafted ready to post: scope-no, PR-no, support-no, urgency-no, or the fork blessing - The **reasoning paragraph**: the project-vision line that makes this no consistent instead of personal (and reusable next time) - An **alternative that's real**: plugin/extension point, the fork blessing, a linked workaround, a paid-support pointer if one exists — or nothing, stated honestly, if nothing exists - A **policy line** worth adding to CONTRIBUTING/README so the next no is half-written ## Required Inputs Ask for (if not already provided): - The thread/
- What This Skill Produces
- Required Inputs
- Framework
- Output Format
- Quality Checks
- Anti-Patterns
- Related
What does the the-maintainers-no skill do?
Say no as an open-source maintainer without burning contributors or yourself — the feature that doesn't fit, the PR that took someone a weekend but can't merge, the company that wants free support, the fork suggestion said kindly. Use when a maintainer says 'how do I reject this PR nicely', 'a company is demanding support', 'this feature request won't die', or is avoiding an issue thread out of guilt. Produces the specific no for the situation, with reasoning shown and the relationship kept.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill the-maintainers-no --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 mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills, a repository with 1,255 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.