/workplace-programmer

What it does

Type /as:workplace-programmer in Claude Code and describe your project. The skill turns Claude into a senior workplace strategy consultant that builds a complete office space program through conversation — no spreadsheets, no templates.

Recommendations draw on research retrieved from original sources and cited with their locators, plus the specifics of your project. Where no source applies, the skill proposes a labelled assumption you can adjust — never presented as a standard.

Install

Claude Desktop:

1. Open Customize → Browse plugins
2. Click + → Add marketplace from GitHub
3. Enter AlpacaLabsLLC/skills-for-architects
4. Install Architecture Studio

Claude Code (terminal):

claude plugin marketplace add AlpacaLabsLLC/skills-for-architects
claude plugin install as@skills-for-architects

Or symlink just this skill:

git clone https://github.com/AlpacaLabsLLC/skills-for-architects.git
ln -s $(pwd)/skills-for-architects/skills/workplace-programmer ~/.claude/skills/workplace-programmer

Usage

/as:workplace-programmer 30,000 RSF tech company, 200 people, 3 days hybrid

Or start with no context and let discovery guide the conversation:

/as:workplace-programmer

The skill works through four phases:

• Discover — Learns about your organization while sharing relevant research
• Synthesize — Generates custom area splits reconciled to your area basis
• Detail — Proposes seat types, room schedules, and support spaces
• Refine — Handles adjustments with explicit tradeoff analysis

Demo: Creative Agency — 10,000 RSF

Real output from a session. The brief: “10K RSF creative agency in NYC, 100 headcount, ~50 peak occupancy, no private offices, heavy pin-up/crit wall needs, client-facing.”

The skill recommended 26% work (low, because only 50 people peak out of 100 hybrid headcount) and 24% meeting (high, to support client presentations and enclosed crit rooms):

Zone	%	SF
Work	26%	2,600
Meeting	24%	2,400
Common	17%	1,700
Circulation	27%	2,700
BOH	6%	600
Total	100%	10,000

43 seats (30 assigned height-adj desks + 13 hot desks) at a 0.86:1 seat-to-peak ratio. 22 rooms including 2 dedicated crit/project rooms with pin-up walls and 8 phone booths for hybrid video calls.

Demo: Law Firm — 20,000 RSF

Brief: “Maximize attorney headcount, 1 private office per 10 attorneys, 1 support per 10, 5 days in office.”

The skill pushed work to 41% and landed at 111 attorneys + 11 support = 122 headcount at 164 SF/seat:

Zone	%	SF
Work	41%	8,200
Meeting	17%	3,400
Common	7%	1,400
Circulation	27%	5,400
BOH	8%	1,600
Total	100%	20,000

30 rooms including a boardroom for depositions, 10 phone booths (1:10 ratio for attorney calls), and 2 file rooms sized for a digital-first firm.

Recommendations name the tradeoff and separate sourced research from design assumptions. Programs can be written to program.json or an export in the destination you choose.

What’s not bundled

No archetypes, room sizes, circulation ratios, or research percentages ship with the skill. Each program is built from your inputs and from sources retrieved for the task, with every zone, room, and seat type recording its quantity, area, capacity, provenance, and whether it is an assumption. Seat counts are programming intent, not code occupant load — for that, use /as:occupancy-calculator.