adding-a-skill

name	adding-a-skill
description	extending yourself with a new reusable skill by interviewing the user

If the user wants to add a new skill, you can help them with this:

1. Ask the user for a short name and description of the skill. The name should be something that can be rendered as a short (10-30 character) descriptive sequence of words separated by hyphens. The description should be a line of text that is focused on conveying to a future agent when the skill would be appropriate to use and roughly what it does.

2. Ask the user for details. You can build up an idea of what the skill should do over multiple rounds of questioning. You want to find out:

   • If the skill should involve any key thoughts or considerations.
   • If the skill has an order of steps, or is an unordered set of tasks.
   • If the skill involves running sub-agents and if so how many.
   • If the skill involves a lot of work that might benefit from splitting into subagent tasks (see below for considerations).
   • If the skill should include commands to run.
   • If the skill should include code to write.
   • If for code or commands to there is specific text or more of a sketch or template of text like some example to include.
   • Any hard rules that an agent doing the skill should ALWAYS or NEVER do.
   • A set of conditions for stopping, looping/extending, or resetting/restarting.
   • How the result of applying the skill should be conveyed to the user.

   Subagent considerations

   Skills that involve a lot of work may benefit from splitting into pieces and running each piece as a subagent. This keeps each subagent focused on a moderate amount of work so it doesn't get lost or wander off track. If the skill might use subagents, identify:

   • How the work could be split into moderate-sized pieces
   • What information each subagent needs to do its piece
   • The skill file should have an "Inputs" section listing what's needed
   • The skill should suggest a format for the subagent prompt

3. Once you have learned this information from the user, assemble it into a file in the repository. Add a file named .claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md with the following structure:

   • YAML frontmatter with the fields name and description drawn from the name and description.
   • An introductory paragraph or two describing the goal of the skill and any thoughts or special considerations to perform, as well as any description of the meta-parameters like how to split work among subagents and how to stop/loop/restart. If the skill involves a lot of work, suggest how it might be split into moderate-sized subagent tasks.
   • If the skill might use subagents: An "Inputs" section that lists what information is needed for each piece, and suggests a format for the subagent prompt. This section comes right after the overview.
   • Either a sequential list of steps or an unordered list of tasks.
   • Any code or commands in either specific or example form.
   • Any of the ALWAYS/NEVER conditions.
   • A "Completion" section describing how to summarize the work, noting that if invoked as a subagent, the summary should be passed back to the invoking agent.

When you're done, save that file and then present the user with a link to it so they can open it and review it.