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FileMaker XMLsnippet Layout Claude Skill — Design skill for Claude Code

Design community

Reverse-engineered specification of FileMaker's undocumented layout XML format (fmxmlsnippet LayoutObjectList).

How to install FileMaker XMLsnippet Layout Claude Skill

This entry records only its repository, not the path inside it, so there is no exact command to give. Open andykear/FileMaker-XMLsnippet-Layout-Claude-Skill and copy the folder into ~/.claude/skills/, or the file into ~/.claude/agents/.

What FileMaker XMLsnippet Layout Claude Skill does

Reverse-engineered specification of FileMaker's undocumented layout XML format (fmxmlsnippet LayoutObjectList). All 18 object types covered, flags decoded, element order confirmed, verified against production layouts. Packaged as a Claude skill that generates pasteable layout XML.

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README

FileMaker Layout XML Skill for Claude

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A Claude skill that gives AI models a deterministic, empirically verified foundation for generating and analysing FileMaker Layout mode XML (`fmxmlsnippet type="LayoutObjectList"`).

Created by Andrew Kear of Clockwork Creative Technology and shared openly with the FileMaker/Claris community under CC BY 4.0. Attribution required on any reuse, adaptation or redistribution, including any derived or excerpted work.

The problem this solves

FileMaker's Layout mode accepts layout objects via clipboard paste in a specific XML format. Without explicit knowledge of that format, AI models guess — and FileMaker pastes malformed objects silently.

Effective AI-to-FileMaker workflows require a clear boundary between what AI should determine (the layout logic and content) and what must be deterministic (the XML structure). This skill provides that boundary.

The XML shape is knowable. This spec makes it known.

Keeping AI focused on what it is good at

AI models are generative by nature — they predict, they infer, they improvise. That is exactly what you want when reasoning about what fields belong on a layout and how they should be arranged. It is the opposite of what you want when emitting XML element order or flag bit patterns.

This skill keeps AI focused on what it is good at. The structure is handled deterministically. Claude handles the logic.