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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Common questions about the PDS Agent Marketplace and how to get started.

Q: What is the PDS Agent Marketplace?​

It is a catalog of AI skills that automate common software-engineering workflows for the NASA Planetary Data System. Each skill teaches an AI coding agent how to perform a PDS-standard task — creating issues and pull requests, generating release notes, or triaging security findings.

Q: What do I need to use these skills?​

An agentic AI coding tool — one that can read/write files and run commands:

  • Claude Code — command-line AI agent by Anthropic
  • Cursor, Windsurf, Aider, and other assistants with skill / MCP support

Browse the PDS Agent Marketplace catalog, open a skill, and click Install for instructions.

Q: What skills are available?​

The marketplace currently provides eight skills in two categories:

🔧 Development workflow

  • Create PDS Issues — file issues in NASA-PDS repositories using organizational templates
  • Create PDS Pull Requests — open PRs with issue linking, reviewers, and labels
  • Generate Release Notes — build release notes from merged PRs and issues

🔒 Security

  • Export / Triage Dependabot Alerts — pull dependency vulnerability alerts and suggest dismiss/fix/escalate decisions
  • Export / Triage / Update SonarCloud Security Issues — manage SonarCloud vulnerabilities and hotspots end to end

Q: How do I install a skill into Claude Code?​

From the marketplace, open a skill and use the Install panel. Once the marketplace is added, skills install with:

/plugin install <skill-name>@pds-agent-marketplace

Q: How do I contribute a new skill?​

Add a skill folder under static/marketplace/skills/, add an entry to static/data/registry.json, and run npm run prebuild. See Contribute a Skill to the PDS Agent Marketplace for the full walkthrough, and the project README.md for the quick reference.

Q: Where do these skills come from?​

The skills are adapted from the open-source NASA-PDS/pds-agent-skills repository. This marketplace site is built on the open-source slim-framework.

Q: Is this an official PDS data interface?​

No. This marketplace automates software-engineering workflows for teams that build and maintain PDS software. To search or download planetary science data, use pds.nasa.gov.

Still have questions?​

Open an issue or start a discussion on the project's GitHub repository.