| name | project-skill-creator-governance |
| description | Use before creating, copying, adapting, or updating project skills so new skills stay concise, non-overlapping, source-grounded, and compatible with the research agent rule stack; use with the system skill-creator when authoring SKILL.md files. |
Project Skill Creator Governance
Use this skill before creating or updating any project-level skill in .agents/skills/.
Purpose
Make sure new skills improve the research-agent system instead of adding duplicated, stale, or unsafe instructions.
This project can use the global skill-creator skill for SKILL.md authoring. This governance skill adds research-agent-specific rules.
Required Checks
Before adding or editing a skill:
- Identify the user problem the skill solves.
- Check whether an existing project skill already covers it.
- Decide whether to:
- create a new skill;
- update an existing skill;
- add a wrapper around a global skill;
- leave it as a preference/rule instead of a skill.
- Keep
SKILL.md concise.
- Do not include extra README, changelog, or install guide files inside the skill folder.
- Add safety gates if the skill can affect formal documents, institution requirements, participant data, GitHub sharing, browser automation, or external tools.
- Update
AGENTS.md, PROJECT_AGENT_PREFERENCES.md, and research-wiki/TASK_STATE.md when the new skill changes routing.
Skill Or Rule Decision
Create or update a skill when the behaviour is repeated, easy to forget, high-risk if skipped, and needs a clear trigger.
Prefer documentation, templates, scripts, or project preferences when the issue is one-time setup, user onboarding, or a deterministic helper.
Examples:
- Obsidian vault entry confusion is best handled by setup docs, a clean vault template, and
.obsidian boundaries. It should not become a skill unless the agent repeatedly maintains or audits Obsidian state.
- External-review fallback is best handled by a local review-bundle script and reusable prompt. It should not become a separate skill unless agent behaviour around reviewer routing becomes unreliable.
- Public release visible-surface verification should become a skill because the agent can easily mistake commits, tags, or local files for a completed GitHub release page, About sidebar, rendered README, or public documentation update.
When To Use Global skill-creator
Use the global skill-creator when:
- writing a new
SKILL.md;
- revising a skill's frontmatter;
- designing concise trigger descriptions;
- deciding whether references/scripts/assets are needed.
Do not copy the global skill-creator into this project unless the user explicitly asks for a frozen local copy.
Skill Acceptance Checklist
Skill check:
- Unique purpose:
- Trigger clear:
- Existing overlap checked:
- Safety boundary present:
- Source-first needed:
- Document-quality needed:
- External tool/install boundary:
- AGENTS.md updated:
- TASK_STATE.md updated:
