skill-creator

name	skill-creator
description	Creating and maintaining AI skills for this project. Use when creating new skills, updating existing skills, or troubleshooting skill formatting issues.

Skill Creator

Guidance for creating and maintaining AI skills.

File Structure

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md (required)
│   └── Markdown instructions
└── (optional resources)

SKILL.md Format

CRITICAL: Skills are fussy with frontmatter. The --- must be the very first line in the file.

Correct Structure

---
name: skill-name
description: When to use this skill. Be specific about triggers.
---

<!--
SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright © 2026 Caleb Cushing

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0
-->

# Skill Title

Content here...

Common Mistakes

❌ WRONG: Comment before frontmatter

<!--
SPDX-FileCopyrightText: ...
-->

---

name: skill-name
...

❌ WRONG: Blank line before frontmatter

---
name: skill-name
...

✅ CORRECT: Frontmatter first, then HTML comment for copyright

---
name: skill-name
description: ...
---

<!--
SPDX-FileCopyrightText: ...
-->

Copyright and Licensing

• Year: Use current year (e.g., 2026) for new skills, not a range
• Location: Place in HTML comment after frontmatter
• Tool: Do NOT use reuse annotate - it doesn't work with skill files
• Manual: Add the SPDX comment block manually

Code Style

• Run yarn exec prettier --write SKILL.md after editing
• Prettier handles Markdown formatting
• No additional linting tools required for skills

Testing Skills

Skills are recognized by Kimi when:

1. File is named SKILL.md
2. Located in .agents/skills/<skill-name>/
3. Frontmatter is valid (starts with ---)
4. Has both name and description fields

Best Practices

1. Keep it concise - Skills share context window with everything else
2. Clear description - The description determines when skill triggers
3. Specific triggers - Describe exact scenarios for skill usage
4. Progressive disclosure - Put detailed info in references/, keep SKILL.md focused