write-a-skill

Files (1)

• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Writing Skills

## Overview

Create new agent skills with proper structure, progressive disclosure, and bundled resources, following this project's genre templates (see CLAUDE.md).

## When to Use

- The user wants to create, write, or build a new skill
- An existing skill needs restructuring to match the conventions

## Process

1. **Gather requirements** - ask user about:
   - What task/domain does the skill cover?
   - What specific use cases should it handle?
   - Does it need executable scripts or just instructions?
   - Any reference materials to include?

2. **Draft the skill** - create:
   - SKILL.md with concise instructions
   - Additional reference files if content exceeds 500 lines
   - Utility scripts if deterministic operations needed

3. **Review with user** - present draft and ask:
   - Does this cover your use cases?
   - Anything missing or unclear?
   - Should any section be more/less detailed?

## Skill Structure

```
skill-name/
├── SKILL.md           # Main instructions (required)
├── REFERENCE.md       # Detailed docs (if needed)
├── EXAMPLES.md        # Usage examples (if needed)
└── scripts/           # Utility scripts (if needed)
    └── helper.js
```

## SKILL.md Template

Required sections: **Overview**, **When to Use**, the **core procedure**, and **Verification**. Process/discipline skills add **Red Flags** (and **Common Rationalizations** when corner-cutting is tempting); reference catalogs use rule tables as the body; prompt skills stay minimal. See CLAUDE.md for the genre templates.

```md
---
name: skill-name
description: Third-person summary of what it does. Use when [specific triggers].
---

# Skill Name

## Overview

[What this does and why, in 1–2 lines]

## When to Use

[Triggers, plus when NOT to fire]

## Process

[Step-by-step procedure — or rule tables for a reference catalog]

## Verification

[How to confirm the output is correct]
```

## Description Requirements

The description is **the only thing your agent sees** when deciding which skill to load. It's surfaced in the system prompt alongside all other installed skills. Your agent reads these descriptions and picks the relevant skill based on the user's request.

**Goal**: Give your agent just enough info to know:

1. What capability this skill provides
2. When/why to trigger it (specific keywords, contexts, file types)

**Format**:

- Max 1024 chars
- Write in third person
- First sentence: what it does
- Second sentence: "Use when [specific triggers]"

**Good example**:

```
Extract text and tables from PDF files, fill forms, merge documents. Use when working with PDF files or when user mentions PDFs, forms, or document extraction.
```

**Bad example**:

```
Helps with documents.
```

The bad example gives your agent no way to distinguish this from other document skills.

## When to Add Scripts

Add utility scripts when:

- Operation is deterministic (validation, formatting)
- Same code would be generated repeatedly
- Errors need explicit handling

Scripts save tokens and improve reliability vs generated code.

## When to Split Files

Split into separate files when:

- SKILL.md exceeds 100 lines
- Content has distinct domains (finance vs sales schemas)
- Advanced features are rarely needed

## Review Checklist

From sgpopov/ai-kit, MIT.

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