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Claude Code Skills are reusable prompt templates stored as markdown files in your project's .claude/skills/ directory. They let you codify best practices and common workflows into slash commands that Claude follows consistently.

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Create a markdown file in .claude/skills/ with instructions for Claude. The filename becomes the command name — for example, .claude/skills/code-review.md can be invoked with /code-review during a Claude Code session.

Can I share skills with my team?

Yes. Skills stored in .claude/skills/ can be committed to version control so every team member has access to the same standardized workflows. You can also organize skills into subdirectories by category.

What is the difference between project and global skills?

Project skills (.claude/skills/) are specific to the current project and are committed to git. Global skills (~/.claude/skills/) are personal skills available across all your projects.

cam-skill

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1GitHubDocumentationby earth-space-ai

Deep skill / knowledge package for the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM). SKILL.md routing hub plus reference/ deep-dive docs covering architecture, physics packages, CESM case workflow, history output, debugging, and contributing.

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Overview

CAM (Community Atmosphere Model) Complete Guide

CAM = Community Atmosphere Model, the atmospheric component of the
Community Earth System Model (CESM).
Maintainer: NSF NCAR / Atmosphere Model Working Group (AMWG)
Source: https://github.com/ESCOMP/CAM
Wiki: https://github.com/ESCOMP/CAM/wiki
Docs: https://ncar.github.io/CAM/doc/build/html/
Scientific reference: Danabasoglu et al. 2020, JAMES (CESM2 paper),
doi:10.1029/2019MS001916
Skill author: Koutian Wu ([email protected])

What CAM does: Solves the primitive equations of atmospheric motion on a global grid, coupled to a full physics suite (radiation, turbulence, clouds, convection, microphysics, aerosols, optionally chemistry). Runs as the atmospheric component of CESM, paired with land (CLM), ocean (POP / MOM6), sea ice (CICE), and runoff (MOSART) components. Three main scientific configurations: standard CAM (climate), CAM-Chem (tropospheric chemistry), WACCM (whole atmosphere with stratosphere and mesosphere chemistry).

Who this skill is for: Agents, students, and researchers who want to download, build, configure, run, customize, debug, and contribute to CAM inside the CESM modeling framework.

Quick Decision Tree

code

"What do I need?"
│
├─ 🆕 First time, what is CAM and how do I get the code?
│  └─ Read: reference/getting-started.md
│     (CESM vs CAM-standalone, ESCOMP/CAM branches, git-fleximod, prereqs)
│
├─ 🚀 I want to run a CAM case end-to-end
│  └─ Read: reference/running-cesm-case.md
│     (create_newcase, case.setup, case.build, case.submit, xmlchange)
│
├─ 🧩 I want to understand how CAM is organized
│  └─ Read: reference/architecture.md
│     (src tree, dycores FV/SE/MPAS, physics package layer, CCPP-style suites)
│
├─ ⚙️ I want to know what physics is in CAM6 / CAM7
│  └─ Read: reference/physics-packages.md
│     (CLUBB, MG2/MG3, ZM, RRTMG/RRTMGP, MAM4, gravity wave drag, COSP)
│
├─ 🌫️ I'm running CAM-Chem or WACCM (chemistry, stratosphere)
│  └─ Read: reference/chemistry-waccm.md
│     (MOZART-T1/TS1, WACCM6 high-top, WACCM-X ionosphere, gravity waves)
│
├─ 📤 I need to control output / add a history field
│  └─ Read: reference/output-and-history.md
│     (h0/h1/.../h9 tapes, fincl/fexcl, mfilt, nhtfrq, addfld/outfld, IOPs)
│
├─ 🐛 The build fails / case crashes / output looks wrong
│  └─ Read: reference/debugging.md
│     (DEBUG=TRUE, atm.log vs cesm.log, cam_pio_dump_field, snapshots, timing)
│
└─ 🤝 I want to submit a pull request to ESCOMP/CAM
   └─ Read: reference/contributing-pr.md
      (fork, cam_development, ChangeLog, Externals_CAM.cfg, code review)

What's Inside CAM (cam_development branch)

code

CAM/                                       ← top level (ESCOMP/CAM)
├── bin/
│   └── git-fleximod                       ← external manager (replaces manage_externals)
├── cime_config/                           ← CIME glue: compsets, namelist defaults, build
│   ├── config_compsets.xml
│   ├── config_pes.xml
│   └── buildnml · buildlib
├── doc/
│   └── ChangeLog                          ← MUST update on every PR
├── Externals_CAM.cfg                      ← pins atmospheric_physics, chem_proc, MPAS, etc.
├── src/
│   ├── control/                           ← top-level driver, namelist read, time control
│   ├── physics/
│   │   ├── cam/                           ← shared physics (cam_diagnostics, physpkg, tphysbc)
│   │   ├── clubb/                         ← CLUBB unified turb / shallow conv / cloud macro
│   │   ├── rrtmg/   · rrtmgp/             ← longwave + shortwave radiation
│   │   ├── carma/                         ← sectional aerosol / cloud microphysics
│   │   └── waccm/                         ← WACCM-specific (gw_drag, qbo, sad, lbc)
│   ├── chemistry/
│   │   ├── mozart/                        ← MOZART chemistry preprocessor outputs
│   │   ├── modal_aero/                    ← MAM3/MAM4/MAM7 modal aerosol
│   │   └── pp_*/                          ← per-mechanism preprocessed code
│   ├── dynamics/
│   │   ├── fv/                            ← Finite Volume (lat-lon)
│   │   ├── se/                            ← Spectral Element (cubed sphere; CAM7 default)
│   │   ├── mpas/                          ← MPAS-A unstructured Voronoi
│   │   ├── fv3/                           ← GFDL FV3 (cubed sphere)
│   │   └── eul/ · sld/                    ← legacy Eulerian / semi-Lagrangian
│   ├── infrastructure/                    ← physics_buffer, cam_history, cam_pio, abortutils
│   └── advection/
├── bld/
│   ├── build-namelist                     ← perl namelist generator
│   ├── namelist_files/
│   │   ├── namelist_definition.xml        ← every namelist variable defined here
│   │   └── namelist_defaults_cam.xml      ← per-compset defaults
│   └── configure                          ← legacy; CAM7 uses CIME directly
├── test/                                  ← CIME tests + unit tests
└── tools/

CAM is not a runnable program by itself. You build and run it through CIME (Common Infrastructure for Modeling the Earth) inside a CESM checkout: $CESMROOT/cime/scripts/create_newcase .... See reference/running-cesm-case.md.

Critical Rules

Never clone the `main` branch alone. ESCOMP/CAM:main contains only a

README and Code of Conduct. Source code lives on: - cam_development (active dev, unsupported) - cam_cesm2_2_rel (CESM2.2 release) - cam_cesm2_1_rel (CESM2.1 release) - Tagged release branches like cam6_3_162

After checkout, run bin/git-fleximod update to pull externals (atmospheric_physics, chem_proc, MPAS, etc.). For science work, use a release tag, not cam_development.

You almost always want a CESM checkout, not a CAM-standalone checkout.

Clone ESCOMP/CESM and let its Externals.cfg pull CAM. The CAM-standalone path exists but is for CAM-only developers and still requires CIME.

CAM7 dropped the FV dycore. CAM7 production runs use the Spectral

Element (SE) dycore on a cubed sphere (ne30pg3 is the standard 1-degree grid). FV is still available in CAM6.

Edit XML, not bash. CAM cases are configured by xmlchange editing

env_*.xml files in the case directory. Do not edit the case bash scripts directly: those are regenerated by case.setup.

`case.build` is heavy. It uses parallel make and can saturate a node.

On NCAR Derecho run qcmd -- ./case.build, never on a login node.

Master MPI task writes to `atm.log`. Other tasks write to `cesm.log`.

Buffered output may not flush at crash. To see a fatal error, read both, and search for endrun calls.

History file tapes are numbered `h0` through `h9` in CAM6, but **CAM7

splits each tape into h0i (instantaneous) and h0a (averaged)** because their timestamps differ. Set nhtfrq, mfilt, and fincl1..fincl10 per tape; empty_htapes=.true. disables defaults so you write only what you ask for.

Every PR to ESCOMP/CAM needs a ChangeLog entry. Edit

doc/ChangeLog with the standard heading (Tag, Originator, Date, Purpose, Bugs fixed, Files changed, Test status). Without it, the PR will not be reviewed.

Quick Start (CESM2.2 + CAM6, 1-month FHIST run on Derecho)

bash

# 1. Get CESM (which pulls CAM via Externals)
git clone -b release-cesm2.2.2 https://github.com/ESCOMP/CESM
cd CESM
./bin/git-fleximod update           # or: ./manage_externals/checkout_externals (older)

# 2. Create a case (1-degree FV CAM6, AMIP-like SST)
cd cime/scripts
./create_newcase \
  --case /glade/derecho/scratch/$USER/cases/F2000climo.f09.test \
  --compset F2000climo \
  --res f09_f09_mg17 \
  --machine derecho --project $PROJECT
cd /glade/derecho/scratch/$USER/cases/F2000climo.f09.test

# 3. Set up, change run length, build, submit
./case.setup
./xmlchange STOP_OPTION=nmonths,STOP_N=1
./xmlchange JOB_WALLCLOCK_TIME=01:00:00
qcmd -- ./case.build
./case.submit

# 4. Find output
./xmlquery RUNDIR,DOUT_S_ROOT
ls $RUNDIR/*.cam.h0.*.nc

→ Full walkthrough: reference/running-cesm-case.md.

Reference Documents

Document	What's inside
`reference/getting-started.md`	CESM vs CAM-standalone, ESCOMP branches, git-fleximod, externals, prereqs
`reference/architecture.md`	src tree, dycores (FV / SE / SE-CSLAM / MPAS / FV3), physics layer, infrastructure (cam_history, physics_buffer)
`reference/running-cesm-case.md`	create_newcase, env_*.xml, case.setup / build / submit, xmlchange, compsets, resolutions
`reference/physics-packages.md`	CAM6 suite: CLUBB, MG2, MG3, ZM, RRTMG, RRTMGP, MAM4, GW drag, COSP. Per-package switches
`reference/chemistry-waccm.md`	CAM-Chem (MOZART-T1, TS1), WACCM6 (high-top, MOZART-TSMLT1), WACCM-X (ionosphere)
`reference/output-and-history.md`	h0/h1/... tapes, CAM7 i/a split, fincl/fexcl, mfilt, nhtfrq, addfld/outfld, IOPs, COSP
`reference/debugging.md`	DEBUG=TRUE, atm.log/cesm.log, endrun, cam_pio_dump_field, snapshots, timing mismatches, mass conservation
`reference/contributing-pr.md`	Fork, branch off cam_development, ChangeLog format, Externals_CAM.cfg, code review committee, aux_cam tests

Where this skill comes from

Grounded in:

ESCOMP/CAM GitHub README and wiki
CAM7.0 / CAM6.3 / CAM6 User's Guides at https://ncar.github.io/CAM/doc/build/html/
CESM2 description paper: Danabasoglu et al. 2020, JAMES, doi:10.1029/2019MS001916
CAM6 physics: Bogenschutz et al. 2018 JAMES (CLUBB), Gettelman & Morrison 2015 (MG2), Liu et al. 2016 (MAM4)
CESM Quickstart: https://escomp.github.io/CESM/release-cesm2/

When a source could not be fetched, the relevant reference doc says so and links out.

Install & Usage

Create the skills directory

mkdir -p .claude/skills

Download the skill file

mkdir -p .claude/skills && curl -o .claude/skills/cam-skill.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/earth-space-ai/cam-skill/main/SKILL.md

Invoke in Claude Code

/cam-skill

View source on GitHub

Frequently Asked Questions

What is cam-skill?

How to install cam-skill?

To install cam-skill, create the .claude/skills directory in your project, then run the curl command to download the skill file. Once installed, invoke it in Claude Code with /cam-skill.

What is cam-skill best for?

cam-skill is a community categorized under Documentation. Created by earth-space-ai.