create-skill

name	create-skill
description	Bootstraps a new agent skill by generating SKILL.md, README.md, and LICENSE, initializing a git repo, creating a GitHub repo, and registering in the pavelsimo/skills index. Use when the user wants to create a new Claude Code skill from scratch.
trigger	/create-skill

create-skill skill

A Claude Code skill that scaffolds a new agent skill from a plain-text description — generates SKILL.md, README.md, and LICENSE; initializes a git repository; creates a public GitHub repo; and registers the skill as a submodule in pavelsimo/skills.

features

• generates SKILL.md (frontmatter + features + usage + workflow + best practices) from the user's description
• produces a README.md matching the standard skill template (usage, installation via npx skills@latest add, license)
• writes an MIT LICENSE with the current year and "Pavel Simo" as the copyright holder
• initializes a git repo and makes the first 🎉 init commit
• creates a public GitHub repo via gh cli
• registers the new skill in scripts/sync.sh in pavelsimo/skills and syncs it locally
• updates skills/README.md: adds a table row and a detailed ### [name] section
• commits and pushes both repos

usage

/create-skill                    # prompt for name and description
/create-skill <name>             # prompt for description only
/create-skill --no-index         # create files + GitHub repo, skip skills index

what gets created

<name>/
├── SKILL.md     # full skill specification (generated from your description)
├── README.md    # user-facing docs with usage + installation
└── LICENSE      # MIT, current year, Pavel Simo

workflow

1. parse args:

   • if <name> is provided, use it; otherwise ask: skill name (kebab-case):
   • validate: all lowercase, only [a-z0-9-], no spaces; reject anything else with a clear error
   • check that <name>/ does not already exist in the CWD; if it does, abort: "directory <name>/ already exists — choose a different name or delete it first"

2. collect the skill description:

   • ask: "describe this skill — what it does, what triggers it, its key flags/modes, and the workflow steps it follows:"
   • wait for the user's response (a paragraph or several paragraphs is fine)

3. generate SKILL.md from the description:

   • frontmatter: name, description (one-line imperative summary), trigger (/<name>)
   • ## features — 4–8 bullet points extracted from the description
   • ## usage — command + flag examples in a fenced code block
   • ## workflow — numbered steps in imperative mood; include exact bash commands where applicable; conditional branches use sub-bullets ("if X: …")
   • ## best practices — 4–8 bullets
   • ## <topic> reference — include only when the skill involves an enumerated set of values (types, severities, emoji codes, etc.)

4. generate README.md:

   • # <name> skill title + one-sentence description
   • ## Usage — copy the usage block from SKILL.md
   • one skill-specific section (e.g., output format, examples, what it produces) inferred from the description
   • ## Installation — single bash code block: npx skills@latest add pavelsimo/<name>
   • ## Contributing — "open an issue or pull request. keep commits atomic."
   • ## License — "MIT"

5. generate LICENSE:

   • MIT License text
   • year: run date +%Y to get the current year
   • copyright holder: Pavel Simo

6. show all three generated files and ask: create <name>/ with these files? yes / edit / cancel

   • edit: ask which file to revise and what to change; regenerate and re-show; repeat
   • cancel: stop immediately, delete nothing (nothing was written yet)
   • yes: proceed

7. create the directory and write files:

   mkdir <name>
   # write SKILL.md, README.md, LICENSE into <name>/
   

8. initialize git and make the first commit:

   cd <name>
   git init
   git add SKILL.md README.md LICENSE
   git commit -m "🎉 init <name> skill"
   

9. create the GitHub repo and push:

   gh repo create pavelsimo/<name> --public \
     --description "<one-line description>" \
     --source . --remote origin --push
   

   • if gh fails (not authenticated, name taken, network error), surface the full error message and ask the user to fix it; do not proceed to the skills index until this succeeds

10. register in the skills index (skip if --no-index):

    • locate the skills index repo:
      • look for a directory named skills/ that is a sibling of <name>/ and contains scripts/sync.sh; use it if found
      • otherwise run gh repo clone pavelsimo/skills to a temp location and use that
    • add a new entry to the SKILLS array in scripts/sync.sh (before the closing )), matching the existing 2-space-indented quoted-triplet format:

        "<name> https://github.com/pavelsimo/<name>.git main"
      

    • run the sync script to clone the new skill locally:

      bash scripts/sync.sh --skill <name>
      

    • update README.md in the skills index:
      • add a row to the existing skills table: | [<name>](https://github.com/pavelsimo/<name>) | <description> |
      • append a detailed section at the bottom of the file:

        ### [<name>](https://github.com/pavelsimo/<name>)
        
        <one-paragraph summary derived from the skill description>
        
        

        / # example invocation

    • commit and push:

      git add scripts/sync.sh README.md
      git commit -m "➕ add <name> skill"
      git push
      

11. offer global install:

    • ask: install to ~/.claude/commands/<name>.md so /<name> is available in every project? yes / skip
    • on yes: cp <name>/SKILL.md ~/.claude/commands/<name>.md

12. report results:

    • GitHub repo: https://github.com/pavelsimo/<name>
    • skills index: https://github.com/pavelsimo/skills
    • to install manually: cp SKILL.md ~/.claude/commands/<name>.md
    • invoke with: /<name>

best practices

• validate the name first — reject uppercase, spaces, or special characters before doing anything else
• show drafts before writing — always show generated files and wait for confirmation; never write to disk without approval
• gh errors are blocking — if gh repo create fails, stop and surface the full error; do not attempt the skills index update on a non-existent repo
• one atomic commit per repo — 🎉 init in the skill repo; ➕ add in the skills index
• preserve README.md structure — insert the table row inside the existing | Skill | Description | table; add the detailed ### section at the bottom
• derive the year dynamically — run date +%Y rather than hardcoding the current year in the LICENSE
• sync.sh entry format — each entry in the SKILLS array must be a quoted triplet: "name url branch"; use main as branch unless the skill repo uses master