Getting started

Cutaway turns a prompt into an interactive cutaway of software, infrastructure, agents, or machines. Install the skill in your coding agent, then ask for a system, an interaction, and an output format. Your agent supplies its normal model access; the generated figure needs no API key or backend.

Install in 30 seconds

The skills CLI currently needs Node.js 22.20 or newer. The rendering kit itself supports Node.js 20.10+. Chrome or Chromium is needed for screenshots and visual checks.

npx skills add irishabh96/cutaway -g

Choose an agent interactively, or use one of these commands:

Omit -g for a project installation. The CLI may use a shared skill directory and agent links; its reported installation path is authoritative. See the skills CLI installation reference.

In slash-command agents:

/cutaway explain a shared token bucket: three edge clients, capacity 12, refill 3/s. Open the layers to inspect the coordinator. Standalone HTML, light and dark.

In Codex, use $cutaway in place of /cutaway.

Install with git

These are direct clone destinations; choose the one for your agent:

git clone https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway.git ~/.claude/skills/cutaway
git clone https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway.git ~/.gemini/antigravity/skills/cutaway
git clone https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway.git ~/.config/opencode/skills/cutaway
git clone https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway.git ~/.agents/skills/cutaway
git clone https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway.git ~/.minimax/skills/cutaway

For one repository, use the corresponding project destination:

The installed folder must contain SKILL.md directly. To update a git installation, run git pull --ff-only inside it.

Download without git

For Codex on macOS or Linux:

mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills/cutaway && curl -fsSL https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1 -C ~/.agents/skills/cutaway

For Claude Code:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/cutaway && curl -fsSL https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1 -C ~/.claude/skills/cutaway

For another agent, substitute its global destination from the git commands above. Use a fresh destination to avoid mixing versions.

On Windows PowerShell, this installs for Codex using Windows' built-in tar:

$cutawayDir = Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE '.agents/skills/cutaway'; $cutawayArchive = Join-Path ([IO.Path]::GetTempPath()) ([IO.Path]::GetRandomFileName() + '.tar.gz'); New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $cutawayDir | Out-Null; Invoke-WebRequest 'https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz' -OutFile $cutawayArchive; if ($?) { tar -xzf $cutawayArchive --strip-components=1 -C $cutawayDir }; Remove-Item -LiteralPath $cutawayArchive

Use .claude/skills/cutaway, .gemini/antigravity/skills/cutaway, .config/opencode/skills/cutaway, or .minimax/skills/cutaway for the other agents. You can also download the ZIP, extract it, and rename its folder to cutaway.

Build and explore the project

The kit and standalone example builds use Node built-ins. Website builds, React previews, tests, and video encoding use development dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/irishabh96/cutaway.git
cd cutaway
npm ci
npm run build
npm run dev

Open the printed local URL. The static output is dist/; it contains the gallery, docs, examples, source, media, and license. For one standalone example:

node examples/multi-agent-orchestration/build.mjs --light --audit

Open the generated HTML directly, or use the showcase. Full contributor instructions are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Troubleshooting

• Skill missing: check that cutaway/SKILL.md exists directly under a supported skills directory. Restart the agent. Claude Code versions supporting /reload-skills can reload that way; Codex supports explicit $cutaway invocation. See the official skill documentation.
• Slash command unavailable: use $cutaway in Codex, or ask the agent to use the installed Cutaway skill by name. Invocation UI varies by agent version.
• Chrome not found: install Chrome or Chromium, or set CHROME_PATH to its executable. No browser is needed just to open a generated figure.
• Headless Chrome blocked in Codex: browser checks create a temporary profile and open a local debugging port. Permit that check through the approval controls available in your environment, or run it in a normal terminal. Managed environments may not permit escalation; follow your environment's policy. See Codex security.
• WebGL unavailable: run node scripts/drive.mjs PAGE.html '[]' --no-webgl to inspect the SVG fallback. Shaders use WebGL, but the underlying figure remains SVG.
• Wrong theme: standalone pages choose their theme at build time. Build with --light; changing the browser's preferred color scheme does not rewrite a dark page.
• Video encoder missing: npm ci provides FFmpeg for supported platforms. Otherwise set FFMPEG_PATH to a system FFmpeg executable.
• Archive returns 404: check the repository and branch URL and your access. Installation commands require the source to be published to that repository.

Installation behavior was checked against the skills CLI and OpenAI skill documentation on 2026-10-20.