skill-author

name	skill-author
description	Authoring skills for skillet. Covers the skill format, discovery via suggest, and project manifests.
version	2026.02.27
trigger	Use when the user wants to create a new skill, validate a skillpack, or publish a skill to a registry
license	MIT OR Apache-2.0
author	Josh Rotenberg
categories	["tools","development"]
tags	["skillet","skills","authoring","publishing","validate"]

Skill Authoring Guide

Skill Format

A skill is a directory with a required SKILL.md file:

owner/skill-name/
  SKILL.md         # the skill prompt with YAML frontmatter (required)
  scripts/         # optional executable scripts
  references/      # optional reference docs
  assets/          # optional templates, configs

SKILL.md

Agent Skills spec-compatible markdown with YAML frontmatter for metadata:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does and when to use it.
version: 2026.02.27
trigger: When to activate this skill
license: MIT
author: Your Name
categories:
  - development
tags:
  - rust
  - testing
---

## My Skill

Instructions for the agent...

Frontmatter fields: name, description, version, trigger, license, author, categories, tags. All optional -- skillet infers what it can from the directory name, git remote, and content.

Zero-config mode: a directory with only a bare SKILL.md (no frontmatter) is still discoverable. Frontmatter improves search results.

Extra Files

• scripts/ -- executable scripts the skill references
• references/ -- reference documentation for context
• assets/ -- templates, configs, or other static files

Scaffolding

skillet init-skill owner/skill-name
skillet init-skill owner/skill-name --description "My skill" --category development --tags "rust,testing"

Discovery via Suggest

Use [[suggest]] in your repo's skillet.toml to create a decentralized discovery graph. Each suggest entry points to another repo that skillet can traverse to find more skills:

[[suggest]]
url = "https://github.com/org/their-skills.git"
description = "Skills from org"

This lets users discover skills across repos without a central authority.

Project Manifest

Embed skills in any repository with skillet.toml:

skillet init-project path --skill     # single inline skill
skillet init-project path --multi     # multi-skill directory
skillet init-project path --registry  # repo configuration

[project]
name = "my-tool"
description = "A CLI tool"

# Single inline skill (SKILL.md at project root)
[skill]
name = "my-tool-usage"
description = "How to use my-tool"

# Or multiple skills in a subdirectory
[skills]
path = ".skillet"
members = ["api", "debug"]