Artist Catalog

Build a playlist containing every studio song by one or more artists, organized by album in chronological release order. When multiple artists are specified, their albums are interleaved chronologically — the playlist flows through time across all artists together. The playlist includes only original studio recordings — no live versions, remixes, demos, or compilation-only tracks unless explicitly requested.

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when the user:

•Wants all songs by an artist in a playlist
•Wants all songs by multiple artists mixed together chronologically
•Asks for a "complete discography" or "catalog" playlist
•Says "gather all studio songs" for an artist or artists
•Wants an artist's (or artists') albums collected into one playlist

Workflow

Phase 1: Identify the Artist(s)

Confirm the artist name(s). If ambiguous (e.g., "Genesis" could be the band or Phil Collins solo), ask for clarification. For multiple artists, confirm the full list before proceeding.

Phase 2: Research the Discography

For each artist, use web search to find their complete studio album discography:

•Search for "[artist] discography wikipedia" or "[artist] studio albums"
•Collect all studio albums in chronological release order
•Note the release year for each album
•Exclude: live albums, compilation albums, EPs (unless user requests), soundtrack-only releases, remix albums

Present the combined album list to the user, sorted chronologically across all artists:

code

Found N studio albums across M artist(s):

1. Artist A — Album Name (Year)
2. Artist B — Album Name (Year)
3. Artist A — Album Name (Year)
...

Ask: "Does this look right? Any albums to add or skip?"

Phase 3: Find Album Permalinks

For each confirmed album, find its Apple Music album permalink:

•Search Apple Music for "[artist] [album name]"
•Navigate to the album page and capture the permalink URL
•Format: https://music.apple.com/us/album/{album-slug}/{albumId}

Present the albums with their Apple Music links for the user to verify.

Phase 4: Build the Track List

For each album permalink (in chronological order across all artists), visit the album page to get the exact track listing as it appears on Apple Music. This ensures:

•Track titles match Apple Music exactly (capitalization, punctuation, subtitles)
•Track order matches the album
•Only available tracks are included

Record each track with: song title, artist, album name, year, and the individual song permalink (derived from the album page).

Phase 5: Save the Playlist

Save the playlist as a markdown file in the playlists/ folder.

Single artist:

markdown

# [Artist]

Complete studio discography for [Artist], organized by album in chronological order.

Multiple artists:

markdown

# [Artist A] / [Artist B]

Combined studio discography for [Artist A] and [Artist B], with albums interleaved in chronological order.

Include playlist instructions:

markdown

## Playlist Instructions

### Management

- The playlist is defined in this file — this is the source of truth
- Use the **artist-catalog** skill for rebuilding or updating
- Use the **apple-music-sync** skill for syncing to Apple Music
- Sync with: `node .github/skills/apple-music-sync/sync.mjs playlists/<name>.md --headless`

### Ordering

- Tracks are ordered by album release date, then by track number within each album
- Albums from different artists are interleaved chronologically
- Do not shuffle — the chronological album order is intentional

### Sync Strategy

- Sync adds tracks **album-at-a-time** — navigating to each album page and adding all tracks to the playlist in sequence
- This is faster and more reliable than individual song lookups

| # | Song | Artist | Album | Year | Note |
|---|------|--------|-------|------|------|
| 1 | [Track Title][1] | Artist A | Album Name | Year | |
| 2 | [Track Title][2] | Artist A | Album Name | Year | |
| 3 | [Track Title][3] | Artist B | Album Name | Year | |

Use footnote-style link references for Apple Music permalinks:

code

[1]: https://music.apple.com/us/song/slug/id
[2]: https://music.apple.com/us/song/slug/id

Phase 6: Sync to Apple Music

Use the apple-music-sync skill to sync the playlist:

bash

node .github/skills/apple-music-sync/sync.mjs playlists/<artist>.md --headless

Important Guidelines

What to Include

•All tracks from standard studio album editions
•Bonus tracks only if requested by the user
•Greatest hits / best-of albums are excluded (tracks already appear on their original albums)

What to Exclude

•Live albums (but live tracks on studio albums/EPs are included by default — ask the user if many tracks on an album appear to be live)
•Remixes and remix albums
•Demo versions
•Compilation-only tracks (unless they are original studio recordings not on any album)
•Soundtrack contributions (unless the user specifically requests them)

Handling Variants

•If a song appears on multiple albums (e.g., remastered reissue), use the original album version
•For remastered editions: prefer the remastered version on Apple Music if available, but list the original album name and year
•For self-titled albums: use "[Artist] (Album)" in the Note column to distinguish from the artist name

Multi-Artist Ordering

•When multiple artists are specified, merge all albums into a single chronological timeline by release date
•If two albums share the same release year, order by release month/day if known; otherwise alphabetically by artist name
•The Artist column in the table distinguishes which artist each track belongs to

Naming Convention

•Single artist: playlists/<artist-slug>.md (e.g., playlists/nine-inch-nails.md)
•Multiple artists: playlists/<artist1>-<artist2>.md (e.g., playlists/nin-depeche-mode.md)
•Single artist title: [Artist]
•Multiple artist title: [Artist A] / [Artist B]