creating-skills

name	creating-skills
description	Guide for creating new Agent Skills when patterns emerge or improvements are needed. Use when encountering repeated patterns, making the same mistakes, discovering better approaches, or receiving user corrections.

Creating Skills

Recognize when new skills would be valuable and create them. Follow the Agent Skills specification.

When to Create a New Skill

• Repeated patterns: Same pattern explained multiple times
• Mistakes: Same error repeatedly
• User corrections: "Do it this way, not that way"
• Better approaches: More effective pattern discovered
• Domain knowledge: Specialized context not already captured

Skill Structure

.cursor/skills/
└── skill-name/
    ├── SKILL.md          # Required
    ├── scripts/          # Optional
    ├── references/       # Optional
    └── assets/           # Optional

SKILL.md Format

YAML frontmatter + Markdown body.

Required Frontmatter

---
name: skill-name
description: What the skill does and when to use it. Use when [triggers].
---

Name (Required)

• 1–64 chars, lowercase alphanumeric and hyphens only
• Must match the parent directory name
• No leading/trailing hyphens, no consecutive hyphens

Description (Required)

• 1–1024 chars
• Third person; describe WHAT and WHEN
• Include trigger keywords for discovery

Body Template

# Skill Title
## When to Use
[Trigger scenarios]
## Instructions
[Concise, actionable steps]
## Examples
[Concrete examples]

Best Practices

• Keep SKILL.md under ~500 lines; move details to references/
• Be concise; only add context the agent doesn’t already have
• One concept per skill
• Update or remove when patterns evolve