Adapted from the DGF Agent Basics series — consumer-first guides for working with a personal AI agent. Pick only what you need.
> Pick only what you need. This skill is individual. This is one person's thoughts, offered as a pre-configured help, not a must. Take only the value you need from it, prune it to what fits you, and leave the rest. You do not have to use what the author thinks, and you do not have to take any other skill with it.
Summary: Explore the area itself: unique-only local items, restaurants above 4.7 with at least 300 reviews, area tours, and day-by-day itineraries with at least one unique experience per day. Your agent never books or buys. Optional.
Use this skill when the user wants to explore an area they are going to, or are already in. It finds what is unique to that area only, finds top reviewed restaurants by a strict rule, finds excursions and tours, and builds a daily itinerary of unique experiences, sequenced in order, as affordably as possible. It never books, buys a ticket, or spends money for the user.
This skill stands alone. An agent that knows nothing else can follow it from the startup sequence below, then the travel method. This skill works on its own, with no other skill needed, and no knowledge of any other skill assumed.
Startup and how to use
Start by getting your own personal agent. Get your own personal agent and set it up. Bring your own accounts and logins. Use nothing that belongs to anyone else.
Tell your agent what you care about in plain words. Name your business, your work, your family, your hobbies, or any topic you want it to follow. Talking is the setup. You do not have to set up a system first.
Ask for the plan first, before any work runs. Say the task, then ask for the exact steps it will take, what it needs from you, and anything it cannot do. Wait for you to approve or correct the plan. Review the plan like a checklist and fix a wrong step or add a missing step before work starts.
Check that your agent understood you, before it runs. Ask it to show back what it thinks you mean and what output it will give you. Correct its repeat back right there when it does not match what you pictured.
Work in small single steps. Count the steps first. Give one step, check it, then give the next step. A ten step run is a huge run for an agent, so break it down and keep each step to exactly one thing.
Show it once, then save it by name. This is how you create a new task or a new skill. Take over the browser and do the task once yourself while your agent pauses. You drive alone and your agent does not watch your clicks. There is no record button to press. After you hand control back, tell your agent the steps in chat and tell it to save them by name, such as save this as Fun Things. Later, say pull up Fun Things and it picks up where you left off.
Correct it in small plain words when it does it wrong. Do not start over. Say what to change and say to remember that correction. That preference sticks and it gets better for you specifically over time.
Let it keep learning your interests every day. Your Feed looks like a newspaper with articles and topics related to what you told it you care about, updated daily. Your Ideas look like a lightbulb with suggestions for things you might like. It is not mind reading. It learns from what you actually talk about.
Use easy first and deep only when you want it. Never require a deep setup to use a basic task. Keep the wording in plain benefits and do not lead with virtual machine or VM. Say it has its own browser and workspace built in, you do not have to set anything up, it keeps your logins safe, and it saves and remembers your stuff.
Setup: the area, the days, and the budget
Ask for the area first, in plain words, plus the dates, the number of days, who is travelling, and any mobility, diet, or access needs. A travel plan without an area, dates, and budget is a guess.
Ask for the budget ceiling for the whole trip, and for each day, and ask what affordable means to them in numbers, not in vague words. Affordable is a budget, not a feeling.
Ask what the user cares about: food, history, nature, shopping, music, sports, family, or a mix. Use interests they already told your agent about, confirmed or corrected by them, never assumed.
Ask how they will get around: walking, driving, public transport, or a mix. Navigation help depends on that answer.
What is unique to this area only
Look up local novelty items, interesting facts, and special items that would not be found anyplace else, for that area. Search for the area's own history, its own foods, its own shops, its own landmarks, and its own stories, not for generic tourist lists.
Check uniqueness before presenting anything as unique. A place, a food, or an item counts as unique to the area only when it is local to that area, not a national chain, not a franchise, and not sold everywhere. If a place has branches elsewhere, say so, and do not call it unique to the area.
Present each unique item with one sentence on why it belongs to this area only, plus its address and hours when known. State the source and date for interesting facts, and do not present a legend as a fact.
Use unique items as the spine of the itinerary, not as filler. Every day gets at least one experience that could only happen in this area.
Restaurants: the strict rating rule
Follow this rule exactly, and state it to the user before searching. Find restaurants rated above 4.7, with at least 300 reviews. Aim for at least three restaurants that meet both parts of the rule.
Check ratings and review counts on the place's own listing or details, on the date searched, and state that date. A rating from last year is not a rating today.
If three restaurants meeting both parts cannot be found in that area, use the fallback, and say plainly that the fallback was used. The fallback is: pull the top rated restaurants at 4.8 or 4.9, with fewer reviews than 300, in rating order, until three are found. Do not lower the rating to 4.6 or below to fill the list, and do not present a fallback restaurant as if it met the full rule.
Check hours, price level, diet options, and accessibility on the restaurant's own site or details before presenting it as a fit. A high rating does not establish suitability, and opening hours do not establish that a table can be booked.
Present restaurants with name, rating, review count, price level, address, and one sentence on why it fits, plus what makes it unique to the area when it is unique. Offer to book a table through the restaurant skill route, but do not book it from this skill. The user books and pays themselves.
Excursions, city tours, and specialty tours
Look through excursion opportunities, city tours, and specialty tours that belong to this area, and that help with navigation of the area. A tour that could run in any city is not a specialty tour for this area.
For each tour, check what it covers, how long it runs, what it includes, its price, its cancellation terms, and its reviews. State the source and date for price and reviews.
Find the cheapest and most affordable tour with the best review, in that order of judgment. Compare tours that cover the same ground, at the same length, with the same inclusions, and pick the cheapest among the best reviewed, not the cheapest overall regardless of reviews. State the trade in plain words when the cheapest tour is shorter, covers less, or has worse reviews than a dearer tour.
Offer free and low cost alternatives alongside paid tours, such as a self guided walk, a public park, or a free museum day, when they cover the same ground. Affordable means the whole day stays inside the budget, not that one tour was cheap.
Build the itinerary: daily unique experiences, sequenced
Build the itinerary day by day, with one unique experience per day at minimum, and no day repeating the previous day's experience. Give each day a theme in plain words, such as food day, water day, or history day, tied to what is unique to the area.
Sequence each day in order, with times, places, and travel between places. Check opening hours for each stop, and order stops so the day flows geographically, not back and forth across the area. Give navigation help for each move: walking route, driving route, or public transport route, with an estimated travel time from a route tool, never a guessed time.
Keep the whole itinerary as affordable as possible. Show the cost of each day, the cost of the whole trip, and what is left against the budget ceiling. If a day goes over budget, say so plainly, and offer a cheaper swap that keeps the unique experience, such as a free alternative, a shorter tour, or a different restaurant that still meets the rating rule.
Include rest, food, and practical stops in the sequence, not just attractions. A day with no food stop, no rest, and no travel time is not a real day.
Deliver the itinerary as a document the user can carry, with each day in order, each place with address, hours, price, and rating when known, plus a map when places have coordinates. Deliver it with a link or an attachment in the same message that says it is done. A file saved on your agent's machine has not reached anyone yet.
Save the itinerary by name when the user wants to repeat or adjust it, such as save this as Tampa Trip, so the next version starts from the same plan, not from scratch.
Cheapest route to get there
Look at the cheapest route to get to the area, as part of the trip, not as an afterthought. Compare driving, flying, and public transport for the same dates and party size, with delivered totals, travel time, and what is included.
Present the cheapest route with its trade, in plain words, such as a longer drive, a worse flight time, or a transfer. Cheapest is not automatically best, and the user decides the trade.
If the user already has flights or stays booked, use this skill for the area itself only, so the work does not duplicate their bookings.
Diverse, not concrete: let the user prune
Do not make this skill concrete, narrow, or one size fits all. Present a diverse set of options first, across price, style, risk, format, and approach, so different people can see themselves in it.
Let the user prune. Ask what to cut, what to keep, and what to change, and then narrow to what they kept. Pruning is the user's job, not your agent's guess. Do not prune for them before they have seen the options.
Do not lock a single choice early. Offer at least two or three meaningfully different options at each decision point, with the trade for each, unless the user already locked that choice themselves.
Keep options that do not fit one person, because they may fit another person using the same skill. A skill that only works for one kind of person is too concrete to reuse.
When the user prunes, save the pruned version by name when they want to repeat it, so their version starts from what they kept, not from the full diverse set again.
Present the result
Lead with the area, the days, and the total cost in plain words, then the daily itinerary in order.
State what you could not verify. State when a rating was not rechecked, hours were not confirmed, a tour price was not listed, or a unique claim could not be confirmed.
Stop after a denial. Do not re-pitch a rejected restaurant, tour, or day plan in new words.
Available connectors
[Places Search](/opt/hatch/connectors/places/CONNECTOR.md) for place search results, rich details, photos, and identifying a place from a photo.
Use your agent's connector and skill search, if it has one, to find other connectors and related skills.
If nothing here fits, look on the web for a maintained API or MCP server and set it up with your agent's custom connector setup, if it has one, or build a custom connector.