| name | skill-creator-pro |
| description | Use when creating new skills, iterating on existing skills, auditing skill quality, bumping skill versions, or optimizing skill trigger descriptions. Pro-grade lifecycle covering scaffold, baseline testing, evals, lint, semver, CHANGELOG, and description optimization. Triggers on "create a skill", "new skill", "迭代 skill", "优化 skill", "skill 版本", "skill lint", "review this skill", "write a skill for X", "turn this into a skill", or whenever the user starts or edits a SKILL.md. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Requires Python 3.8+ (stdlib only). Optional: subagents for pressure testing and a benchmark-review HTML viewer for eval comparison.
|
| metadata | {"author":"zwbao","version":"0.3.0","tags":"meta skill-lifecycle tdd-for-docs lint semver changelog"} |
skill-creator-pro — A pro-grade skill lifecycle
You are about to create or change a skill. That is a high-leverage act: one
skill lives in the system prompt of every future conversation and gets invoked
tens, hundreds, or thousands of times. Treat it like production code.
The lifecycle is one pipeline: RED → GREEN → EVAL → LINT → BUMP →
OPTIMIZE-DESC → PACKAGE / SYNC. Each step exists because skipping it has
produced a specific failure mode in real use.
The Core Loop
Understand intent
│
▼
RED: Run 1-2 baseline subagent scenarios WITHOUT the skill
│ (watch it fail; record rationalizations verbatim)
▼
GREEN: scripts/init_skill.py <name> → fill SKILL.md addressing those failures
│ (description = "Use when ..."; body explains WHY, not just WHAT)
▼
EVAL (optional, recommended for non-trivial skills):
│ write evals.json → spawn with-skill + baseline subagents → benchmark.json
│ → eval-viewer → user feedback → improve → re-run
▼
REFACTOR: close new rationalizations surfaced by evals
│
▼
LINT: scripts/lint_skill.py <name> → fix all errors, then warns
│
▼
BUMP: scripts/bump_version.py <name> --type <patch|minor|major> -m "..."
│ (creates/updates CHANGELOG.md, badges, frontmatter.metadata.version)
▼
OPTIMIZE TRIGGER DESC: (when accuracy matters)
│ iterate the description against 20 trigger queries (10 should-trigger, 10 near-miss)
▼
PACKAGE / SYNC: deploy to ~/.claude/skills/ — or ship a multi-platform library
(npx skills add + .claude/.codex/.cursor plugin manifests)
Do not skip RED. The biggest failure mode of hand-written skills is that
they solve problems the model never had — you assumed a rationalization that
never appears, and missed the one that does.
Decide the Track Up Front
Not every skill earns the full pipeline. Pick a track before you start:
| Track | When | Skip |
|---|
| Lightweight | Personal utility, narrow scope, pure-reference, one user | RED, EVAL, description optimization |
| Full | Discipline skill (TDD-like), shipped to others, >1 use case, high stakes | Nothing; run the whole loop |
| Audit-only | Existing skill the user wants polished | Start at LINT, skip RED/GREEN |
Announce the track to the user in one line: "Going with the lightweight track
because X." Let them redirect.
Decide the Skill Shape (orthogonal to track)
A skill has one of two shapes. Pick before scaffolding — retrofitting is costly.
| Shape | Structure | Use when |
|---|
| Single-file | one SKILL.md (+ references/, scripts/) | the skill does one thing, or a few tightly-related things sharing one procedure |
| Router + workflows | thin router SKILL.md indexing workflows/*.md; agent loads only the selected one | ≥3 distinct user intents, body would exceed ~400 lines of independently-invoked sections, or the capability set will grow |
The router shape is how LLMQuant/skills ships 18 category skills and how
meta+companion families (firefly / cancer-buddy / beacon) scale. A router is
progressive disclosure: the model reads a ~40-line index + the one relevant
workflow instead of skimming a 2000-line monolith on every near-miss. Less
irrelevant text in context is a correctness lever, not just a cost one.
Scaffold a router with init_skill.py <name> --router (creates the router,
workflows/, a sample workflow, and multi-platform plugin manifests). Full
guide: references/router-and-workflows.md. Templates:
templates/SKILL_ROUTER_TEMPLATE.md + templates/WORKFLOW_TEMPLATE.md.
Classify the School (capability vs discipline)
Every top-tier skill is one of two schools. Classify before writing — they have
different body structures, trigger styles, and verification methods, and
blending them produces an incoherent skill.
| Capability / reference | Discipline / process |
|---|
| PRD says | "extract / convert / generate / analyze X" | "always / never / enforce / stop the agent from Z" |
| Body | table-first, ✅/❌ code recipes, scripts, QA loop | flowchart + one Iron Law + rationalization table + red-flags |
| Trigger | exhaustive keyword enumeration + Do NOT clause | minimal "Use when " |
| Verify | mandatory "assume-failure" QA loop (fresh-eyes subagent) | RED-GREEN-REFACTOR under multi-pressure scenarios |
Full taxonomy + the distilled quality bar from the top-50 starred skill repos:
references/top-skills-playbook.md.
PRD-Driven Generation (input a PRD → finished skill)
When the user hands you a PRD / spec and says "build the skill", run the whole
pipeline driven by the PRD. Do not stop at a draft — a PRD asks for a
finished, top-tier skill.
- Ingest & classify — extract the PRD intake (school, shape, trigger
phrasings, inputs/outputs, dangerous-to-guess values, acceptance criteria,
target models). Missing trigger phrasings or acceptance criteria → ask the
user once (
AskUserQuestion); both gaps produce a bad skill.
- Derive evals from the PRD — each acceptance criterion → ≥1 checkable
assertion (≥3 scenarios). Eval-first: tests before docs.
- RED → scaffold → GREEN — run the baseline, then fill SKILL.md by school,
applying the playbook.
- Verify → LINT → OPTIMIZE-DESC → BUMP → PACKAGE — to completion.
- Report against the PRD — list every requirement and whether the shipped
skill meets it, with eval evidence; be honest about anything deferred.
Full procedure + the PRD intake template: references/prd-to-skill.md.
Step-by-Step
1. Understand intent (2 min)
Ask, using AskUserQuestion when available:
- What should this skill enable a future Claude to do?
- What would a user actually type that should trigger it? (Get 2-3 real
phrasings, not abstract intents.)
- Input → output: concrete shape, formats, file types.
- One sentence on why it doesn't already work without a skill — this is the
gap the skill fills.
If the user says "turn this conversation into a skill", mine the transcript
instead of asking: extract the steps they corrected, the tools used, the
unobvious judgment calls. Then confirm the gaps.
2. RED — baseline subagent test (full track only)
Before writing a single line of the skill, run one pressure scenario with a
subagent without the skill. Use the Agent tool:
Execute this task: [the realistic user prompt]. Report what you did and how
you decided, verbatim. No skill is available.
Record: what did it do wrong? what rationalizations did it use? These become
the specific things your skill must counter. If the baseline succeeds
effortlessly, the skill is probably unnecessary — tell the user.
See references/tdd-for-skills.md for pressure-scenario patterns, pressure
types (time, sunk cost, authority, exhaustion), and a catalog of
rationalizations.
3. GREEN — scaffold + write
python scripts/init_skill.py <name> --dest ~/.claude/skills
python scripts/init_skill.py <name> --dest ~/.claude/skills --router
The default creates <dest>/<name>/ with:
SKILL.md — frontmatter template + TODO placeholdersREADME.md — human-readable, version badge, install snippet, options tablescripts/ — empty; create if the skill has deterministic helpersreferences/ — empty; create for heavy reference material (>100 lines)
--router instead creates a router SKILL.md, a workflows/ dir with a sample
workflow, and .claude-plugin/ + .codex-plugin/ + .cursor-plugin/ manifests
for multi-platform install. See references/router-and-workflows.md.
Now fill SKILL.md:
-
Frontmatter (see references/frontmatter-spec.md for the full spec):
---
name: <kebab-case-name>
description: Use when <specific triggering conditions>. Triggers on
<concrete phrases>.
license: MIT
metadata:
author: <you>
version: "0.1.0"
tags: <space-separated>
---
name and description are the only hard requirements; the rest improves
discoverability, versioning, and lint signal.
-
Body (≤500 lines; split to references/ beyond that):
- One-paragraph overview.
- "When to Use" bullet list of symptoms, and "When NOT to Use" for adjacent
cases.
- Workflow steps (imperative: "Do X", not "You should do X").
- A quick-reference table for scanning.
- Common mistakes with fixes.
- Explain the WHY for every non-obvious rule. Today's models have theory
of mind — rigid MUSTs without reasoning produce brittle compliance.
-
Evidence Contract (any skill that touches external facts — strongly
recommended for medical / research / financial skills). Declare three things
so the model never re-litigates "can I just make this up?" under pressure:
- Sources of record — the API / DB / files / tools that supply ground
truth. Prefer live retrieval over the model's memory.
- Fallback — if a required input is missing, name the exact missing input
and continue only with retrieved or user-provided evidence; never fill the
gap from memory.
- Never fabricate — the value types that are dangerous to guess (quotes,
prices, citations, lab values, dosages, trial IDs). A model synthesizing
these is the failure the contract exists to stop.
Match the contract to the domain's "things dangerous to guess". See
references/router-and-workflows.md § The Evidence Contract pattern.
-
README.md — humans read this on GitHub or in the file browser. Keep the
version badge, install command, and a minimal usage example.
4. EVAL — objective benchmark (full track)
Write 2-3 realistic test prompts in evals/evals.json, spawn with-skill
and baseline subagents in the same turn, collect outputs into
<skill>-workspace/iteration-1/, grade against assertions, aggregate into
benchmark.json, review the side-by-side output, iterate.
See references/evals-and-benchmark.md for the schemas, workspace layout, and
what a benchmark review should surface.
5. REFACTOR — close new rationalizations
When you read the transcripts (not just outputs) from the with-skill runs, look
for:
- Repeated helper scripts the subagent wrote independently — bundle one
into
scripts/.
- New rationalizations the skill didn't counter — add them to a
rationalization table in the body, keep the why attached.
- Instructions the model ignored — they're likely too abstract or too
rigid; rewrite as a principle with a concrete example.
6. LINT — automated audit
python scripts/lint_skill.py <name> --path <skill-dir>
Checks (see references/lint-rules.md for the full list):
- Structure:
SKILL.md present, optional README.md, CHANGELOG.md.
- Frontmatter:
name + description required; description starts with "Use
when"; metadata.version is semver; tags present; description ≥ 80
chars (below = almost never enough trigger info).
- Description anti-pattern: warns if the description reads like a workflow
summary ("then ... next ... finally ..."). When the description describes
what the skill does, the model follows the description and skips the body.
Keep it strictly "when to use".
- Body: no
TODO placeholders left, ≤500 lines, interactive skills mention
AskUserQuestion (or explicitly declare non-interactive).
- Scripts: Python CLIs use
argparse, no pip --break-system-packages in
production code paths.
Fix error-severity findings before shipping. Treat warn as a checklist.
7. BUMP — semver + CHANGELOG
python scripts/bump_version.py <name> --path <skill-dir> \
--type patch \
--message "primary change summary" \
--change "additional bullet" \
--change "additional bullet"
| Bump | Use for |
|---|
patch | Bug fix, wording, frontmatter tweak, CJK rendering fix |
minor | New CLI flag, new option, new reference doc, expanded scope |
major | Breaking CLI change, removed option, renamed skill |
Stay in 0.x until the skill has stabilized across real use.
The script updates README.md version badge, SKILL.md frontmatter
metadata.version, and prepends a dated entry to CHANGELOG.md
(auto-created in Keep-a-Changelog format if missing).
8. OPTIMIZE trigger description (optional, full track)
Build a 20-query eval set (≈10 should-trigger, ≈10 near-miss
should-not-trigger) and iterate the description against it. Split 60/40
train/test and pick the winner by test score, not train, to avoid
overfitting.
See references/description-optimization.md for the "when-to-use-only" rule,
a worked set of good/bad description examples, and how to write realistic
near-miss queries.
9. PACKAGE / SYNC
The Three Iron Laws
1. No skill without a failing test (or a documented reason why)
If you skipped RED, write one sentence in the skill's commit message
explaining why: "Lightweight track, pure reference, verified by eyeballing
the rendered output." Forcing yourself to justify it in writing prevents
lazy skipping.
2. Description = what + when, never how
Anthropic's official shape is <what it does>. Use when <triggers/keywords>. —
state the capability AND the triggering conditions, third person. The red line
is the workflow: when the description summarizes the steps, the model
follows the description instead of reading the body. A description saying
"performs code review between tasks" (a how) caused the model to do ONE review;
the skill required TWO. "Reviews code for X. Use when executing plans with
independent tasks" (what + when) fixed it.
So: name what it does and when to fire — never recite first/then/finally. The
lint's FM_DESC_WORKFLOW_SUMMARY enforces the how red line, not the what.
See references/top-skills-playbook.md § The description is the product.
3. Violating the letter = violating the spirit
If the skill says "run lint before bump", running bump first and lint after
"because it's faster" is a violation. The letter exists because the spirit
isn't self-enforcing. When tempted to bend a rule, update the skill
instead so the rule reflects your current judgment.
When NOT to create a skill
Push back on the user — politely — if:
- The task is a one-off; skills are for repeated patterns.
- The rule is mechanically enforceable (regex, linter, type system). A skill
documents judgment calls; automate the rest.
- The project-specific convention belongs in
CLAUDE.md, not in a globally
loaded skill.
- There's already a skill doing this; improve the existing one rather
than forking.
Rationalization Table — watch yourself for these
| Excuse | Reality |
|---|
| "Skipping RED because the skill is obvious" | Obvious to you ≠ obvious under pressure. Takes 3 minutes. Run it. |
| "I'll polish the description later" | Description is the only thing that makes the skill discoverable. Polish it before shipping, not "later". |
| "Just this once I'll summarize the workflow in the description" | The model will shortcut past the body. This is the single most tested failure mode. |
| "The lint warning isn't a real problem" | If you're right, fix the lint rule. If the rule is right, fix the skill. Don't suppress. |
| "I'll bump version later" | Every change without a CHANGELOG entry is a loss of history. Bump now. |
| "It's working for me" | A skill's job is to work for future Claude in conversations you won't see. Test from that stance. |
Where to go next
references/top-skills-playbook.md — the distilled quality bar from the
top-50 starred skill repos: two schools, description craft, progressive-
disclosure hard rules, degrees of freedom, anti-patterns, pre-ship checklist.references/prd-to-skill.md — PRD → finished top-tier skill: ingest/classify,
derive evals from acceptance criteria, the PRD intake template.references/router-and-workflows.md — the two skill shapes, when to use a
router, anatomy of routers/workflows, the Evidence Contract pattern.references/shipping-a-skill-library.md — multi-platform packaging (npx skills add, plugin manifests), CONTRIBUTING contract, Conventional Commits.references/frontmatter-spec.md — every field, when to set it, common
mistakes.references/tdd-for-skills.md — RED pressure scenarios, subagent prompts,
rationalization capture.references/description-optimization.md — the "when-to-use-only" rule, good
vs bad examples, iteration loop mechanics.references/evals-and-benchmark.md — evals.json schema, workspace layout,
benchmark review, grading assertions.references/lint-rules.md — full list of lint checks, severities, and the
reasoning behind each.
