The Replica skill

Eleven Claude skills that clone any app. Free, MIT, no signup, no API key, nothing to connect.

One reverse-engineers the app you want to clone. One rebuilds it. One tests it for bugs. And one is the Entrepreneur: it reads what the app's users hate and fixes it in yours, so you have an app you can sell.

In between, the others plan the stack and the database, rebuild the design system, wire up auth and payments, score your clone against the original, give it a name and a brand of its own, write the landing page and the store listing, and put it live on your domain.

It rebuilds what an app does, never what it owns. Features and flows, clean-room style. Not its code, its logo, its copy or its content. The fine print is at the bottom, and the skills enforce it.

Install

Paste this into Claude:

https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/replica-skill

install skill

Or as a plugin, in Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add Jakeschincariol/replica-skill
/plugin install replica-skill@replica-skill

Claude Code namespaces plugin skills, so installed as a plugin they show up as /replica-skill:replica-recon and so on. Copy the folders instead if you want plain /replica-recon:

git clone https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/replica-skill.git
cp -r replica-skill/replica-* ~/.claude/skills/

Project-local instead of global: copy the same folders into your repo's .claude/skills/. No Claude Code at all? Paste any single SKILL.md at the top of a chat and it runs as a mode. You lose the Python tools, but the method works.

The tools need Python 3.8 or newer. Nothing to pip install.

The eleven

How to use it

Run them in order. Each one reads what the last one wrote, in a replica/ folder in your project.

recon -> architect -> design -> build -> backend -> test -> diff -> entrepreneur -> brand -> launch -> deploy

An example: cloning a scheduling app, the kind where you share a link and people book a time with you.

1. /replica-recon with the app's URL. It reads the help center, the pricing page, the store listing and public walkthroughs, and you click through your own account with it. Out comes replica/recon.md: 18 screens, 7 flows (guest books a meeting, host sets availability, guest reschedules...), the components, an inferred data model (users, event types, availability, bookings) and features.csv. The partner marketplace is marked out of scope: that is their network, not a feature.
2. /replica-architect picks Next.js, Postgres, Stripe and Resend, writes the schema (with a constraint so two guests can never book the same slot) and orders the build: the booking flow end to end first.
3. /replica-design measures the screenshots into tokens: colour roles, type scale, 8px spacing, the date picker and slot button specs. Open icons, an open font, your own words.
4. /replica-build builds the shell, then the booking flow, then every screen with all its states, ticking off features.csv as it goes.
5. /replica-backend adds sign up, Google Calendar through Google's own API with your keys, Stripe for paid bookings, reminder emails.
6. /replica-test writes a test plan from the 7 flows, Playwright specs for the happy paths and edge cases (time zones, a slot taken mid-booking, double submit), and logs bugs by severity until no S1 or S2 is open.
7. /replica-diff scores it. Features 86, all must-haves done, booking page layout 91. Missing: round-robin for teams, the website embed.
8. /replica-entrepreneur reads 140 real reviews across the App Store, G2, Capterra and Reddit. Top complaints: per-seat price jumps, no text reminders, guests confused by time zones. Each with counts and linked quotes. Fix plan: flat pricing, SMS reminders, a time zone confirm step. Angle: booking links for small teams that hate per-seat pricing.
9. /replica-brand names it (with the trademark and domain checks to run), gives it a new palette, a logo brief and a voice, then sweeps the codebase until nothing of the original is left.
10. /replica-launch writes the landing page around the angle, sets pricing against the original's public page, and lints the store listing.
11. /replica-deploy runs the preflight (tests, parity, sweep, listing), sets up production, gives you the DNS records for your domain, and ships it when you say go.

You can also run any one on its own. /replica-entrepreneur on an app you are only thinking about cloning is a good way to find out if you should.

The tools

Six of them, all standard-library Python. None touch the network.

python3 replica-diff/imgdiff.py original.png clone.png --out diff.png   # layout diff, ignores colour
python3 replica-diff/parity.py replica/features.csv                     # parity score + missing list
python3 replica-entrepreneur/reviews.py replica/reviews.csv             # what users hate, ranked, linked
python3 replica-design/contrast.py replica/design/tokens.json           # WCAG contrast on your tokens
python3 replica-brand/sweep.py . --avoid "Original App"                 # anything of the original left?
python3 replica-launch/listing.py replica/launch/listing.json           # store limits + copycat checks

imgdiff.py reads PNGs with no libraries, turns both screenshots into edge maps and compares where things are, so your new colours do not count against you. It tells you which regions differ, in the original's pixels.

parity.py weights must, should and could, counts partial as half, and never scores what you left out on purpose or what you added. Missing must-haves means not shippable, and it says so.

reviews.py drops every review without a link. Every quote it prints is copied from a row you gave it, with that row's URL. Themes with under three reviews or one source are marked thin.

sweep.py finds the original's name, domain and colours anywhere in your code, including inside identifiers like OriginalAppEmbed, and blocks the deploy until it is clean.

listing.py checks App Store and Google Play limits, ranking claims in the title, wasted keyword characters, and the original's name anywhere in your listing.

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Fine print

It rebuilds functionality and UX patterns, clean-room style. It studies what the app does and how people move through it, then writes everything fresh. It never copies the target's source code, proprietary assets, logos, trademarks, copy or private APIs.

It only reads what you are allowed to read. Public pages and your own account. It never scrapes behind a login or against a site's terms, never logs into anyone else's account, and never gets past a paywall. If your account's terms forbid using it to build a competitor, it says so and sticks to public sources.

It always rebrands before launch. New name, new palette, new logo, new words. /replica-deploy will not ship until the sweep is clean.

"Clone any app" means the features and the flow. Not the content, the network or the licences an app owns. You can rebuild a music app's player, playlists and sharing. You cannot clone its catalogue.

No guarantee of a "perfect" clone. Results depend on how complex the app is. A booking tool is weeks. A spreadsheet engine is not. /replica-recon sizes it honestly before you start, and /replica-diff gives you a real number, not a vibe.

The Entrepreneur never makes things up. No invented reviews, quotes or numbers. Every claim has a link, and the sample size is stated.

Check before you sell. Run the trademark checks /replica-brand lists, read the terms of anything you used, and talk to a lawyer before launch if there is money on the line. This is not legal advice.

Files

replica-recon/         SKILL.md, recon-map.md, features.csv (the matrix template)
replica-architect/     SKILL.md, architecture.md
replica-design/        SKILL.md, tokens.json, contrast.py
replica-build/         SKILL.md
replica-backend/       SKILL.md
replica-test/          SKILL.md, test-plan.md, bug-report.md, e2e.example.spec.ts
replica-diff/          SKILL.md, imgdiff.py, parity.py
replica-entrepreneur/  SKILL.md, reviews.py, themes.json
replica-brand/         SKILL.md, sweep.py
replica-launch/        SKILL.md, listing.py, listing.example.json
replica-deploy/        SKILL.md, preflight.md
tests/                 the tests for every tool

Your own files live in replica/ in your project. The skills read each other's.

Credit

Made by Jake Schincariol, opusjake.ai. Siblings: Arena, X, LinkedIn, Instagram.

License

MIT. Take it, change it, ship it.