// Guide for creating effective skills. Use when creating a new skill or updating an existing skill that extends agent capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations.
| name | skill-creator |
| description | Guide for creating effective skills. Use when creating a new skill or updating an existing skill that extends agent capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations. |
| license | Proprietary. LICENSE.txt has complete terms |
This skill provides guidance for creating effective skills.
Skills are modular, self-contained packages that extend agent capabilities by providing specialized knowledge, workflows, and tools. Think of them as "onboarding guides" for specific domains or tasks—they transform a general-purpose agent into a specialized agent equipped with procedural knowledge that no model can fully possess.
The context window is a public good. Skills share the context window with everything else the agent needs: system prompt, conversation history, other Skills' metadata, and the actual user request.
Default assumption: The agent is already very capable. Only add context the agent doesn't already have. Challenge each piece of information: "Does the agent really need this explanation?" and "Does this paragraph justify its token cost?"
Prefer concise examples over verbose explanations.
Match the level of specificity to the task's fragility and variability:
High freedom (text-based instructions): Use when multiple approaches are valid, decisions depend on context, or heuristics guide the approach.
Medium freedom (pseudocode or scripts with parameters): Use when a preferred pattern exists, some variation is acceptable, or configuration affects behavior.
Low freedom (specific scripts, few parameters): Use when operations are fragile and error-prone, consistency is critical, or a specific sequence must be followed.
Think of the agent exploring a path: a narrow bridge with cliffs needs specific guardrails (low freedom), while an open field allows many routes (high freedom).
Every skill consists of a required SKILL.md file and optional bundled resources:
skill-name/
├── SKILL.md (required)
│ ├── YAML frontmatter metadata (required)
│ │ ├── name: (required)
│ │ ├── description: (required)
│ │ └── compatibility: (optional, rarely needed)
│ └── Markdown instructions (required)
└── Bundled Resources (optional)
├── scripts/ - Executable code (Python/Bash/etc.)
├── references/ - Documentation intended to be loaded into context as needed
└── assets/ - Files used in output (templates, icons, fonts, etc.)
Every SKILL.md consists of:
name and description fields (required), plus optional fields like license, metadata, and compatibility. Only name and description are read by the agent to determine when the skill triggers, so be clear and comprehensive about what the skill is and when it should be used. The compatibility field is for noting environment requirements (target product, system packages, etc.) but most skills don't need it.scripts/)Executable code (Python/Bash/etc.) for tasks that require deterministic reliability or are repeatedly rewritten.
scripts/rotate_pdf.py for PDF rotation tasksreferences/)Documentation and reference material intended to be loaded as needed into context to inform the agent's process and thinking.
references/finance.md for financial schemas, references/mnda.md for company NDA template, references/policies.md for company policies, references/api_docs.md for API specificationsassets/)Files not intended to be loaded into context, but rather used within the output the agent produces.
assets/logo.png for brand assets, assets/slides.pptx for PowerPoint templates, assets/frontend-template/ for HTML/React boilerplate, assets/font.ttf for typographyA skill should only contain essential files that directly support its functionality. Do NOT create extraneous documentation or auxiliary files, including:
The skill should only contain the information needed for an AI agent to do the job at hand. It should not contain auxilary context about the process that went into creating it, setup and testing procedures, user-facing documentation, etc. Creating additional documentation files just adds clutter and confusion.
Skills use a three-level loading system to manage context efficiently:
Keep SKILL.md body to the essentials and under 500 lines to minimize context bloat. Split content into separate files when approaching this limit. When splitting out content into other files, it is very important to reference them from SKILL.md and describe clearly when to read them, to ensure the reader of the skill knows they exist and when to use them.
Key principle: When a skill supports multiple variations, frameworks, or options, keep only the core workflow and selection guidance in SKILL.md. Move variant-specific details (patterns, examples, configuration) into separate reference files.
Pattern 1: High-level guide with references
# PDF Processing
## Quick start
Extract text with pdfplumber:
[code example]
## Advanced features
- **Form filling**: See [FORMS.md](FORMS.md) for complete guide
- **API reference**: See [REFERENCE.md](REFERENCE.md) for all methods
- **Examples**: See [EXAMPLES.md](EXAMPLES.md) for common patterns
The agent loads FORMS.md, REFERENCE.md, or EXAMPLES.md only when needed.
Pattern 2: Domain-specific organization
For Skills with multiple domains, organize content by domain to avoid loading irrelevant context:
bigquery-skill/
├── SKILL.md (overview and navigation)
└── reference/
├── finance.md (revenue, billing metrics)
├── sales.md (opportunities, pipeline)
├── product.md (API usage, features)
└── marketing.md (campaigns, attribution)
When a user asks about sales metrics, the agent only reads sales.md.
Similarly, for skills supporting multiple frameworks or variants, organize by variant:
cloud-deploy/
├── SKILL.md (workflow + provider selection)
└── references/
├── aws.md (AWS deployment patterns)
├── gcp.md (GCP deployment patterns)
└── azure.md (Azure deployment patterns)
When the user chooses AWS, the agent only reads aws.md.
Pattern 3: Conditional details
Show basic content, link to advanced content:
# DOCX Processing
## Creating documents
Use docx-js for new documents. See [DOCX-JS.md](DOCX-JS.md).
## Editing documents
For simple edits, modify the XML directly.
**For tracked changes**: See [REDLINING.md](REDLINING.md)
**For OOXML details**: See [OOXML.md](OOXML.md)
The agent reads REDLINING.md or OOXML.md only when the user needs those features.
Important guidelines:
Skill creation involves these steps:
Follow these steps in order, skipping only if there is a clear reason why they are not applicable.
Skip this step only when the skill's usage patterns are already clearly understood. It remains valuable even when working with an existing skill.
To create an effective skill, clearly understand concrete examples of how the skill will be used. This understanding can come from either direct user examples or generated examples that are validated with user feedback.
For example, when building an image-editor skill, relevant questions include:
To avoid overwhelming users, avoid asking too many questions in a single message. Start with the most important questions and follow up as needed for better effectiveness.
Conclude this step when there is a clear sense of the functionality the skill should support.
To turn concrete examples into an effective skill, analyze each example by:
Example: When building a pdf-editor skill to handle queries like "Help me rotate this PDF," the analysis shows:
scripts/rotate_pdf.py script would be helpful to store in the skillExample: When designing a frontend-webapp-builder skill for queries like "Build me a todo app" or "Build me a dashboard to track my steps," the analysis shows:
assets/hello-world/ template containing the boilerplate HTML/React project files would be helpful to store in the skillExample: When building a big-query skill to handle queries like "How many users have logged in today?" the analysis shows:
references/schema.md file documenting the table schemas would be helpful to store in the skillTo establish the skill's contents, analyze each concrete example to create a list of the reusable resources to include: scripts, references, and assets.
At this point, it is time to actually create the skill.
Skip this step only if the skill being developed already exists, and iteration or packaging is needed. In this case, continue to the next step.
When creating a new skill from scratch, always run the init_skill.py script. The script conveniently generates a new template skill directory that automatically includes everything a skill requires, making the skill creation process much more efficient and reliable.
Usage (run from the skill-creator skill directory):
python scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>
Note: The scripts are located in this skill's scripts/ directory. Use the full path if running from a different directory.
The script:
scripts/, references/, and assets/After initialization, customize or remove the generated SKILL.md and example files as needed.
When editing the (newly-generated or existing) skill, remember that the skill is being created for an agent to use. Include information that would be beneficial and non-obvious to the agent. Consider what procedural knowledge, domain-specific details, or reusable assets would help the agent execute these tasks more effectively.
Consult these helpful guides based on your skill's needs:
These files contain established best practices for effective skill design.
To begin implementation, start with the reusable resources identified above: scripts/, references/, and assets/ files. Note that this step may require user input. For example, when implementing a brand-guidelines skill, the user may need to provide brand assets or templates to store in assets/, or documentation to store in references/.
Added scripts must be tested by actually running them to ensure there are no bugs and that the output matches what is expected. If there are many similar scripts, only a representative sample needs to be tested to ensure confidence that they all work while balancing time to completion.
Any example files and directories not needed for the skill should be deleted. The initialization script creates example files in scripts/, references/, and assets/ to demonstrate structure, but most skills won't need all of them.
Writing Guidelines: Always use imperative/infinitive form.
Write the YAML frontmatter with name and description:
name: The skill namedescription: This is the primary triggering mechanism for your skill, and helps the agent understand when to use the skill.
docx skill: "Comprehensive document creation, editing, and analysis with support for tracked changes, comments, formatting preservation, and text extraction. Use when the agent needs to work with professional documents (.docx files) for: (1) Creating new documents, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with tracked changes, (4) Adding comments, or any other document tasks"Do not include any other fields in YAML frontmatter.
Write instructions for using the skill and its bundled resources.
Once development of the skill is complete, it must be packaged into a distributable .skill file that gets shared with the user. The packaging process automatically validates the skill first to ensure it meets all requirements.
Usage (run from the skill-creator skill directory):
python scripts/package_skill.py <path/to/skill-folder>
Optional output directory specification:
python scripts/package_skill.py <path/to/skill-folder> ./dist
Note: The scripts are located in this skill's scripts/ directory. Use the full path if running from a different directory.
The packaging script will:
Validate the skill automatically, checking:
Package the skill if validation passes, creating a .skill file named after the skill (e.g., my-skill.skill) that includes all files and maintains the proper directory structure for distribution. The .skill file is a zip file with a .skill extension.
If validation fails, the script will report the errors and exit without creating a package. Fix any validation errors and run the packaging command again.
After testing the skill, users may request improvements. Often this happens right after using the skill, with fresh context of how the skill performed.
Iteration workflow:
Security auditing for code, configs, and infrastructure. Use when the user wants to audit or improve security: scan for vulnerabilities (SQL injection, XSS, command injection, path traversal), detect hardcoded secrets and credentials, review auth and authorization, check dependencies for known CVEs, audit config files for insecure defaults, or generate security reports. Trigger on "security audit", "vulnerability scan", "code review for security", "find secrets", "check for vulnerabilities", "OWASP", "CVE", or questions about code security.
Use this skill any time a .pptx file is involved in any way — as input, output, or both. This includes: creating slide decks, pitch decks, or presentations; reading, parsing, or extracting text from any .pptx file (even if the extracted content will be used elsewhere, like in an email or summary); editing, modifying, or updating existing presentations; combining or splitting slide files; working with templates, layouts, speaker notes, or comments. Trigger whenever the user mentions "deck," "slides," "presentation," or references a .pptx filename, regardless of what they plan to do with the content afterward. If a .pptx file needs to be opened, created, or touched, use this skill.
Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files). Triggers include: any mention of "Word doc", "word document", ".docx", or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a "report", "memo", "letter", "template", or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.
Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling PDF forms, encrypting/decrypting PDFs, extracting images, and OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill.
Use this skill any time a spreadsheet file is the primary input or output. This means any task where the user wants to: open, read, edit, or fix an existing .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv, or .tsv file (e.g., adding columns, computing formulas, formatting, charting, cleaning messy data); create a new spreadsheet from scratch or from other data sources; or convert between tabular file formats. Trigger especially when the user references a spreadsheet file by name or path — even casually (like "the xlsx in my downloads") — and wants something done to it or produced from it. Also trigger for cleaning or restructuring messy tabular data files (malformed rows, misplaced headers, junk data) into proper spreadsheets. The deliverable must be a spreadsheet file. Do NOT trigger when the primary deliverable is a Word document, HTML report, standalone Python script, database pipeline, or Google Sheets API integration, even if tabular data is involved.