creating-skills

name	creating-skills
description	How to create new Agent Skills following the open standard. Use when authoring new skills, extending agent capabilities, or packaging specialized knowledge into reusable formats.

Creating Skills

This skill teaches you how to create new Agent Skills following the Agent Skills open standard.

What Is a Skill?

A skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file that gives agents specialized capabilities. Skills can include:

• Instructions — How to perform a specific task
• Scripts — Executable code agents can run
• References — Additional documentation loaded on demand
• Assets — Templates, schemas, or other resources

Directory Structure

At minimum, a skill is a directory with a SKILL.md file:

skill-name/
└── SKILL.md          # Required

For more complex skills:

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md          # Required: instructions + metadata
├── scripts/          # Optional: executable code
├── references/       # Optional: documentation
└── assets/           # Optional: templates, resources

SKILL.md Format

Every SKILL.md must have YAML frontmatter followed by Markdown content.

Required Frontmatter

---
name: skill-name
description: What this skill does and when to use it.
---

Frontmatter Fields

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	1-64 chars, lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens only. Must match folder name.
description	Yes	1-1024 chars. Describes what the skill does AND when to use it.
license	No	License name or reference to bundled license file.
compatibility	No	Environment requirements (runtime, tools, network access).
metadata	No	Arbitrary key-value pairs for additional properties.

Name Rules

The name field:

• Must be lowercase alphanumeric with hyphens (a-z, 0-9, -)
• Must NOT start or end with -
• Must NOT contain consecutive hyphens (--)
• Must match the parent directory name

Valid: git, code-review, pdf-processing Invalid: Git, -git, git-, code--review

Description Best Practices

The description should include:

1. What the skill does
2. When to use it (trigger keywords)

Good:

description: Git hygiene for multi-agent collaborative work. Use when performing version control operations, syncing with remote, committing changes, or ensuring work is properly shared with the team.

Poor:

description: Helps with git.

Body Content

The Markdown body after frontmatter contains the skill instructions. There are no format restrictions—write whatever helps agents perform the task effectively.

Recommended Sections

1. Core Principle — The single most important concept
2. When to Use — Specific triggers or scenarios
3. Step-by-Step Instructions — How to perform the task
4. Examples — Inputs, outputs, edge cases
5. Quick Reference — Commands or checklists

Progressive Disclosure

Skills should be structured for efficient context use:

Layer	Size	When Loaded
Metadata	~100 tokens	At agent startup
Instructions	<5000 tokens	When skill is activated
References	As needed	Only when required

Keep your main SKILL.md under 500 lines. Move detailed reference material to separate files in references/.

File References

When referencing other files in your skill, use relative paths from the skill root:

See [the reference guide](references/REFERENCE.md) for details.

Run the extraction script:
scripts/extract.py

Keep file references one level deep from SKILL.md.

Creating a New Skill

Step 0: Check the Skills Catalog

Before creating a new skill, check if one already exists in the Skills Catalog:

# Option 1: Check the GitHub repository
# Visit: https://github.com/All-The-Vibes/skills-catalog
# Browse .claude/skills/ directories

# Option 2: Use WebFetch or WebSearch to check
# Search for skills related to your need

What to check:

1. Browse by category:

   • core/ — Fundamental skills (git, bd, subagent, etc.)
   • engineering/ — Software development (refactoring, tdd, etc.)
   • devops/ — Infrastructure and deployment (ci-cd, etc.)
   • documentation/ — Writing and docs (technical-writing, etc.)
   • research/ — Investigation and analysis (technical-research, etc.)

2. Search for keywords:

   • Use the skill catalog's README or search the repository
   • Look for skills with similar names or descriptions

3. Evaluate existing skills:

   • If a skill exists that does what you need → Use it!
   • If a skill is close but needs enhancement → Consider extending it
   • If no skill exists → Proceed to create a new one

Benefits of checking first:

• ✅ Avoid duplicating work
• ✅ Discover related skills you didn't know existed
• ✅ Learn from existing skill patterns
• ✅ Maintain consistency across the catalog

If you find a similar skill but need modifications:

Consider contributing to the catalog instead of creating a project-specific version:

1. Fork the skills-catalog repository
2. Enhance the existing skill
3. Submit a pull request
4. Everyone benefits from the improvement!

---

Step 1: Create the Directory

mkdir -p skills/my-skill-name

Step 2: Create SKILL.md

cat > skills/my-skill-name/SKILL.md << 'EOF'
---
name: my-skill-name
description: Describe what this skill does and when to use it.
---

# My Skill Name

## Core Principle

[The single most important concept]

## When to Use

Use this skill when:
- [Trigger condition 1]
- [Trigger condition 2]

## Instructions

[Step-by-step instructions]

## Quick Reference

[Commands or checklists]
EOF

Step 3: Update AGENTS.md

Add the skill to the Required Skills table in AGENTS.md:

| [skills/my-skill-name](skills/my-skill-name) | Brief description | `first command` |

Step 4: Commit

git add skills/my-skill-name
git commit -m "feat: add my-skill-name skill"
git push

Skill Quality Checklist

Before committing a new skill:

• Checked skills catalog — Verified no similar skill exists
• name is lowercase with hyphens only
• name matches the folder name
• description explains WHAT and WHEN
• Body has clear, actionable instructions
• Examples are included for complex tasks
• SKILL.md is under 500 lines
• Referenced in AGENTS.md if all agents need it
• Consider contributing — If skill is reusable, submit to skills-catalog repo