Galaxy Development Context & Skill Routing

This skill provides essential Galaxy conventions and routing guidance to help you proactively use the right Galaxy skills and agents.

Automatic Skill Invocation - CRITICAL

You should PROACTIVELY invoke Galaxy skills when you detect relevant tasks, without waiting for explicit user requests. Match user intent to skills below.

Skill Routing Guide

1. Database Operations → /db-migration

Invoke when user mentions:

• •"database", "schema", "migration", "Alembic"
• •"add column", "create table", "modify database", "database version"
• •"upgrade database", "downgrade database", "migration error"
• •SQL model changes in lib/galaxy/model/__init__.py
• •Alembic revision files in lib/galaxy/model/migrations/alembic/versions_gxy/

Examples:

• •"I need to add a new table for credentials" → /db-migration create
• •"How do I add a column to the workflow table?" → /db-migration create
• •"The database won't upgrade" → /db-migration troubleshoot
• •"Check if migration is needed" → /db-migration status

Actions:

• •create - Creating new migrations after model changes
• •upgrade - Upgrading database to latest version
• •downgrade - Rolling back migrations
• •status - Checking database version vs codebase
• •troubleshoot - Diagnosing migration errors

2. API Development → /api-endpoint

Invoke when user mentions:

• •"API", "endpoint", "REST", "route", "router"
• •"FastAPI", "Pydantic", "schema", "request/response model"
• •"create endpoint for...", "add API for...", "new endpoint"
• •Files in lib/galaxy/webapps/galaxy/api/
• •Files in lib/galaxy/schema/

Examples:

• •"Create an API endpoint for managing credentials" → /api-endpoint credentials
• •"I need a REST API for workflows" → /api-endpoint workflows
• •"Add a new route to handle..." → /api-endpoint [resource-name]

Action:

• •Always pass the resource name as argument (e.g., /api-endpoint credentials)
• •Guides through: Pydantic schemas → Manager logic → FastAPI router → Tests

3. Testing Operations → /testing

Invoke when user mentions:

• •"test", "tests", "pytest", "run_tests.sh"
• •"write tests", "add test", "test this feature"
• •"test failure", "test error", "tests are failing"
• •"ApiTestCase", "integration test", "unit test", "functional test"
• •Files in test/, lib/galaxy_test/

Examples:

• •"Run the integration tests" → /testing run
• •"Write tests for this new API" → /testing write
• •"How do I test this endpoint?" → /testing api
• •"The tests are failing" → /testing run (to diagnose)

Actions:

• •run - Running tests (unit, integration, selenium)
• •write - Writing new tests (guides through patterns)
• •api - API testing patterns (ApiTestCase, fixtures)

4. Codebase Architecture Questions → galaxy-explorer Agent

Use Task tool with subagent_type="galaxy-explorer" when user asks:

• •"Where is X implemented?"
• •"How does Y work?"
• •"What's the architecture of Z?"
• •"Find the component that handles..."
• •"Show me examples of..."
• •Broad exploration questions about code structure

Examples:

• •"Where is authentication handled?" → Spawn galaxy-explorer
• •"How do workflows execute?" → Spawn galaxy-explorer
• •"What's the testing structure?" → Spawn galaxy-explorer

Why use galaxy-explorer:

• •Knows Galaxy architecture deeply
• •Avoids reading large files completely
• •Can answer multi-file architectural questions efficiently
• •Understands Galaxy conventions and patterns

Do NOT use galaxy-explorer for:

• •Specific needle queries (use Grep/Glob directly)
• •Reading known file paths (use Read directly)
• •Simple file searches (use Glob directly)

Critical Galaxy Conventions

Testing: ALWAYS use run_tests.sh

NEVER run pytest directly - Galaxy's test suite requires special setup:

# Correct
./run_tests.sh -integration test/integration/test_credentials.py

# Wrong - will fail or miss fixtures
pytest test/integration/test_credentials.py

Why:

• •Sets up Galaxy test database
• •Configures Galaxy-specific fixtures
• •Manages test isolation
• •Handles Galaxy configuration

Large Files: NEVER Read Completely

These files will exhaust your token budget if read entirely:

• •client/src/api/schema/schema.ts (46,529 lines) - Auto-generated
• •lib/galaxy/model/__init__.py (12,677 lines) - Core models
• •lib/galaxy/tools/__init__.py (4,857 lines) - Tool framework
• •lib/galaxy/schema/schema.py (4,184 lines) - API schemas

Instead:

• •Use Grep with specific patterns
• •Read with offset/limit to get relevant sections
• •Use galaxy-explorer agent for architectural understanding

Manager Pattern

Business logic lives in manager classes:

• •Location: lib/galaxy/managers/
• •Pattern: {Resource}Manager (e.g., WorkflowsManager)
• •Purpose: Separate business logic from API layer

Flow: API Router → Manager → Model

FastAPI Structure

Modern Galaxy API follows FastAPI patterns:

• •Routers: lib/galaxy/webapps/galaxy/api/*.py
• •Schemas: lib/galaxy/schema/*.py (Pydantic models)
• •Tests: lib/galaxy_test/api/test_*.py

Quick Architecture Reference

Backend (Python)

lib/galaxy/
├── model/                 # SQLAlchemy models
│   └── migrations/       # Alembic migrations
├── managers/             # Business logic (Manager pattern)
├── schema/               # Pydantic API schemas
├── webapps/galaxy/api/   # FastAPI routers
├── tools/                # Tool execution engine
└── workflow/             # Workflow engine

Frontend (Vue.js)

client/src/
├── components/           # Vue components
├── stores/               # Pinia stores
├── composables/          # Composition functions
└── api/                  # API client + generated schemas

Tests

test/
├── unit/                 # Fast unit tests
├── integration/          # Integration tests
└── integration_selenium/ # E2E browser tests

lib/galaxy_test/
└── api/                  # API endpoint tests

When to Use Each Approach

Parallel Tool Calls

When operations are independent:

Read: lib/galaxy/managers/workflows.py
Read: client/src/stores/workflowStore.ts
Read: test/unit/test_workflows.py

Targeted Searches

For specific patterns in large files:

Grep: pattern="class Workflow\(" path="lib/galaxy/model/__init__.py" output_mode="content" -A=20

Galaxy-Explorer Agent

For understanding architecture or locating functionality across multiple files.

Direct Tool Use

For known file paths or simple operations.

Proactive Skill Usage Summary

Before starting implementation:

1. •Detect user intent from their message
2. •Match to skill routing guide above
3. •Invoke appropriate skill BEFORE writing code
4. •Follow skill's guided workflow

Key principle: Skills prevent mistakes by enforcing Galaxy conventions and best practices. Use them proactively rather than reactively.

Additional Notes

• •Galaxy uses Python 3.9+ with FastAPI, SQLAlchemy 2.0, Celery, Pydantic
• •Frontend: Vue.js 2.7 with TypeScript, Pinia, Vite
• •Main branch: dev (not main)
• •Code style: Black (120 chars), isort, Ruff, mypy with strict mode
• •Always use type hints in Python
• •Prefer TypeScript over JavaScript for new frontend code

This context is optimized for the Galaxy codebase as of January 2026.