Encoding Handler

SkillDev tools

Handle text encoding across platforms including UTF-8, Windows codepages, and BOM handling.

Instructions available. Your AI can read the instructions. Execution depends on the setup they require.

Account requirements not reviewed. Check the skill instructions before use; ahel provides instructions and does not run this skill.

Add ahel to your AI once: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code or Codex. Then ask it to use this.

Then ask your AI: use the Encoding Handler skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by a5c-ai/babysitter in library/specializations/cli-mcp-development/skills/encoding-handler/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Handle text encoding across platforms.

Capabilities

Detect file encoding
Convert between encodings
Handle BOM markers
Configure Windows codepage support
Normalize text encoding
Handle encoding errors

Generated Patterns

import { Buffer } from 'buffer';
import iconv from 'iconv-lite';

export function detectBOM(buffer: Buffer): string | null {
  if (buffer[0] === 0xEF && buffer[1] === 0xBB && buffer[2] === 0xBF) return 'utf-8';
  if (buffer[0] === 0xFF && buffer[1] === 0xFE) return 'utf-16le';
  if (buffer[0] === 0xFE && buffer[1] === 0xFF) return 'utf-16be';
  return null;
}

export function stripBOM(content: string): string {
  return content.charCodeAt(0) === 0xFEFF ? content.slice(1) : content;
}

export function decodeBuffer(buffer: Buffer, encoding = 'utf-8'): string {
  const bom = detectBOM(buffer);
  if (bom) {
    return stripBOM(iconv.decode(buffer, bom));
  }
  return iconv.decode(buffer, encoding);
}

export function encodeString(content: string, encoding = 'utf-8', addBOM = false): Buffer {
  const encoded = iconv.encode(content, encoding);
  if (addBOM && encoding.toLowerCase() === 'utf-8') {
    return Buffer.concat([Buffer.from([0xEF, 0xBB, 0xBF]), encoded]);
  }
  return encoded;
}

Target Processes

cross-platform-cli-compatibility
cli-output-formatting
configuration-management-system

Signals

GitHub stars: 2k
Forks: 112
Last commit: Sep 2026

Advanced

Item type: skill
Key: encoding-handler
Source: github.com/a5c-ai/babysitter

github.com/a5c-ai/babysitter