| name | Skill Creator |
| description | Guidance for creating effective modular skills for Claude. Use when creating or refining skills to ensure they are concise, follow progressive disclosure patterns, and provide appropriate degrees of freedom. |
Skill: Skill Creator
This skill provides a comprehensive framework for designing and implementing effective skills. Skills are modular packages that extend capabilities by providing specialized knowledge and workflows.
Core Principles
Concise is Key
The context window is a limited resource. Claude is already smart; only add context it doesn't already have.
- Challenge every paragraph: Does this justify its token cost?
- Prefer examples: Use concise code/text snippets over verbose explanations.
Set Appropriate Degrees of Freedom
Match the level of specificity to the task's fragility:
- High Freedom (Text/Heuristics): Use when multiple approaches are valid or decisions are context-dependent.
- Medium Freedom (Pseudocode/Templates): Use when a preferred pattern exists but some variation is acceptable.
- Low Freedom (Specific Scripts): Use when operations are fragile, consistency is critical, or a specific sequence must be followed.
Anatomy of a Skill
A skill consists of a required SKILL.md and optional bundled resources.
SKILL.md: Main entry point with metadata and core workflow instructions.scripts/: Executable code for deterministic reliability.references/: Heavy-lifting documentation loaded only when needed.assets/: Files used in output (templates, icons, boilerplate) not loaded into context.
Design Patterns
To keep skills lean and effective, follow these patterns:
- Progressive Disclosure: Use a multi-level loading system to manage context efficiently.
- Resource Management: Properly utilize scripts, references, and assets.
Skill Creation Workflow
The creation process follows a systematic 6-step approach:
- Understand with concrete examples.
- Plan reusable contents.
- Initialize the skill structure.
- Edit and implement resources.
- Package into a
.skill file.
- Iterate based on usage.
Detailed instructions: See Creation Workflow
