TYPO3 TypoScript Reference Skill

Version-aware TypoScript, TSconfig and Fluid reference lookup for Claude Code with always-on best practices.

What this skill solves

AI coding agents frequently hallucinate TypoScript properties, invent non-existent ViewHelpers, or suggest patterns that were deprecated several TYPO3 versions ago. Generic documentation tools like Context7 provide raw library docs but lack the TYPO3-specific curation needed to produce correct, modern TypoScript.

This skill solves that by providing structured, version-aware reference data tailored for AI agents:

Capability	This Skill	Generic Docs
Version detection	Auto from composer.json	Manual
Offline usage	Local cache after first fetch	API call per request
Annotations	deprecated/required/recommended	Not available
Migration guides	Before/after code, v12-v13, v13-v14	Not available
Recipes	14 curated patterns	Raw docs only
Code review mode	Deprecations, checklists, lint rules	Not available
Debugging support	Maps error messages to solutions	Not available
Lint integration	Reads typoscript-lint.yml config	Not available
Scope	TypoScript, TSconfig, Fluid, ViewHelpers	General-purpose

The skill enforces correctness through rules: agents must look up references before writing TypoScript, follow annotation levels, and check project lint rules. This prevents the most common AI mistakes — using removed properties, mixing v12 and v13 syntax, or ignoring site-specific coding standards.

Use when

• Writing or editing TypoScript, TSconfig or Fluid templates in a TYPO3 project (v12, v13 or v14)
• Reviewing TypoScript/Fluid changes for deprecations and anti-patterns
• Migrating a TYPO3 site between major versions (v12 to v13, v13 to v14)
• Debugging TypoScript errors such as "The page is not configured" or "No TypoScript template found"
• Looking up cObjects, stdWrap functions, DataProcessors, conditions or ViewHelpers without guessing property names

Expected outputs

• Reference excerpts from the official TYPO3 documentation for the detected TYPO3 version, prefixed with best-practice annotations (required/recommended/deprecated/tip)
• Ready-to-use recipes (page setup, menus, Extbase plugins, Site Sets, ...)
• Code review findings with deprecation tables, checklists and project lint rules
• Migration guidance with before/after TypoScript snippets
• Debugging hints mapping error messages to causes and fixes

Context requirements

• gh CLI (authenticated with GitHub) for fetching the documentation cache
• Python 3 (for rST conversion and JSON parsing)
• Bash 4+
• Network access on first run (scripts/lookup.sh --update); all lookups are served from the local cache afterwards
• A composer.json in the project for automatic TYPO3 version detection (falls back to the latest supported version)

Features

• Version-aware documentation (TYPO3 v12, v13, v14)
• Local cache — no network dependency after initial fetch
• Always-on best practice annotations (deprecated/recommended/required)
• 14 ready-to-use recipes for common TYPO3 patterns
• Code review support with deprecation checks and migration guides
• Project-specific lint rule detection (helmich/typo3-typoscript-lint)
• Debugging reference for common TypoScript error messages

Installation

Claude Code Marketplace

/plugin marketplace add netresearch/claude-code-marketplace

Then install the skill via /plugin.

Composer

composer require netresearch/typo3-typoscript-ref-skill

Manual

Download the latest release and extract to ~/.claude/skills/typo3-typoscript-ref/

Usage

First Run

Populate the local cache for your TYPO3 version:

scripts/lookup.sh --update

Reference Lookup

scripts/lookup.sh "stdWrap wrap"
scripts/lookup.sh "PAGEVIEW" --with-fluid

Recipes

scripts/lookup.sh --recipe page-setup
scripts/lookup.sh --recipe menu-setup

Code Review

scripts/lookup.sh "FLUIDTEMPLATE" --review
scripts/lookup.sh --deprecations
scripts/lookup.sh --checklist typoscript

Debugging

scripts/lookup.sh --debug "The page is not configured"

Example prompts

• "Look up how stdWrap.wrap works in TYPO3 v13 TypoScript."
• "Review this TypoScript file for deprecated syntax before our v14 upgrade."
• "Show me the recipe for a PAGEVIEW-based page setup with Site Sets."
• "Why does my [getTSFE() && getTSFE().id == 42] condition fail after upgrading to TYPO3 v14?"

Supported TYPO3 Versions

TYPO3	TypoScript Ref	Fluid	ViewHelpers
12.4	12.4	2.12	12.4
13.4	13.4	4.6	13.4
14.3	14.3	5.3	14.3

Documentation Sources

• TypoScript Explained (TYPO3-Documentation/TYPO3CMS-Reference-Typoscript)
• Fluid Explained (TYPO3/Fluid)
• Fluid ViewHelper Reference
• TYPO3 Explained — Fluid chapter

Skill metadata

Field	Value
action_level	read-only (lookups and local cache writes under cache/)
risk_level	low

agents/openai.yaml is intentionally absent: the skill targets Claude Code; other agent platforms are served via the Composer and npm distribution channels (documented exception per skill-repo validation checklist).

When discovery-relevant fields change (description, topics, summary), update the marketplace entry in netresearch/claude-code-marketplace as well.

Related skills

• typo3-docs-skill — TYPO3 documentation authoring
• typo3-conformance-skill — extension conformance checks
• typo3-testing-skill — unit and functional tests for TYPO3 extensions
• typo3-upgrade-effort-model-skill — upgrade effort estimation
• typo3-vite-skill — Vite frontend pipeline for TYPO3

Contributing

Contributions are welcome via pull request. CI validates the repository via the reusable workflows from skill-repo-skill; to run the same validation locally, execute validate-skill.sh from a checkout of that repository against this repo root.

Content changes (references, recipes, annotations) must be verified against the official TYPO3 documentation for the affected version.

License

MIT (code) and CC-BY-SA-4.0 (documentation content) — see LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-CC-BY-SA-4.0. Copyright Netresearch DTT GmbH.

Credits

Developed by Netresearch DTT GmbH for the Claude Code ecosystem.