| name | skill-authoring |
| description | Admission bar and structure for writing a new skill, so the skill library stays lean and discoverable. |
| triggers | ["create / add a new skill","this procedure keeps coming up"] |
| allowed-tools | Read Write Edit Grep Glob |
| argument-hint | <skill-name> |
skill-authoring (principle 4, 8)
Skills are procedural memory. A bloated skill library is as useless as no library, so new skills
must clear an admission bar.
Admission test (all must hold)
- Reusable, not one-off. It encodes how to do one recurring thing well — not a single task.
- Not already covered. Search
.agents/skills/; if an existing skill is close, sharpen it
instead of adding a near-duplicate.
- A procedure, not a reflex. Passive, always-on constraints belong in
.agents/rules/, not a
skill.
Structure
SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter: name, a description < 250 chars, triggers,
allowed-tools (scope the blast radius), and an optional argument-hint.- Body: short, imperative steps. Cap iteration loops and state the fallback.
- Put long reference material in a sibling
references/ file and link to it, so the skill itself
stays small and the agent loads detail only on demand.
- Scope
allowed-tools to the minimum (e.g. Bash Read Grep Glob).
Keep surfaces in sync
When you add or remove a skill, update the skills inventory in AGENTS.md (the
AGENTRIG:skills-inventory block) so every surface advertises the same set. If the repo mirrors
skills across vendor dirs (.claude/.copilot/.agents/…), they should all point at one canonical
source (AgentRig wires these as symlinks).
