skill-creator

Files (1)

• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

A skill is a procedure the agent loads when a task matches it. It is not
documentation: every line is paid for in context on the turn it is used.

## The file

```markdown
---
name: my-skill
description: Use when <situation> — <the concrete cases it covers>.
---

Body.
```

`name` must match the folder. `description` is what the agent matches against,
so it must say WHEN to use the skill, not what it is about. "Excel helper" never
triggers; "Use when creating, editing or analysing Excel workbooks" does.

## What makes a skill work

**Write the reason, not just the rule.** "Use styles, not manual formatting"
gets ignored the moment it is inconvenient. "A heading made by bolding large
text is invisible to the navigation pane, the table of contents and screen
readers" gets followed, because the agent can tell when it applies.

**Say what the tool cannot do.** The most valuable lines in a skill are the
limits — python-docx cannot recompute a table of contents, `extract_text()`
returns nothing for a scanned PDF. Without them the agent invents a plausible
result. With them it tells the user the truth.

**Give runnable code, not prose about code.** Short, complete snippets that can
be pasted into RunPython.

**Name the failure the agent would otherwise hit.** `data_only=True` returning
None for a never-opened workbook; fpdf2's Latin-1 core fonts mangling Cyrillic.
These are the moments a skill earns its place.

**End with verification.** How to prove the output is right — reopen the file,
check the content, look at the image.

## What to leave out

Background the agent already knows. Long option tables — it can read the
library's docs. Anything that is taste rather than consequence.

## Length

One screen is usually right. If a skill grows past two, it is probably two
skills.

## Testing a new skill

Ask for the task in plain language without naming the skill, and see whether it
loads. If it does not, the `description` is wrong — that is almost always the
problem, not the body.

## Adding it to the store

Put the folder under `skills/` in the repo the store points at (Settings →
Skills). Every directory containing a SKILL.md is offered as a skill.

From iaa2005/monet-directory, MIT.

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