skill-generator

name	skill-generator
description	Meta-skill for creating, refining, and managing Agent Skills. Use when needing to create new skills, improve existing skills, analyze skill performance, or teach the agent new capabilities. Enables self-improvement and knowledge capture.
metadata	{"author":"coachone","version":"1.0"}
compatibility	Works with any VS Code Insiders with chat.useAgentSkills enabled

🧬 Skill Generator - Self-Evolving Capabilities

This skill enables the agent to create, refine, and manage new skills autonomously, capturing learned patterns and domain expertise into reusable capabilities.

When to Create a New Skill

Create a skill when you observe:

• Repeated context provided across multiple conversations
• Domain-specific knowledge that Claude doesn't have by default
• Multi-step workflows that benefit from consistent execution
• Project-specific conventions that should be encoded
• Debugging patterns discovered during problem resolution

Skill Creation Workflow

Step 1: Identify the Need

Ask yourself:

• Is this knowledge reusable across sessions?
• Would encoding this save significant tokens in future conversations?
• Does this represent procedural knowledge Claude lacks?

Step 2: Design the Skill Structure

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md              # Required: Main instructions (<500 lines)
├── scripts/              # Optional: Executable code
│   └── helper.ts
├── references/           # Optional: Detailed documentation
│   └── REFERENCE.md
└── assets/               # Optional: Templates, data
    └── template.md

Step 3: Write the SKILL.md

Template:

---
name: [lowercase-hyphen-name]
description: [What it does AND when to use it. Max 1024 chars. Be specific with keywords.]
metadata:
  author: [author]
  version: "1.0"
---

# [Skill Title]

## Quick Reference
[Table or list of most common operations]

## Core Functionality
[Main instructions, organized by task]

## Examples
[Concrete input/output examples]

## Guidelines
[Rules and constraints]

Step 4: Validate the Skill

Checklist before saving:

• Name is lowercase with hyphens only
• Description includes WHAT and WHEN
• SKILL.md body < 500 lines
• No time-sensitive information
• Consistent terminology
• Clear examples provided
• File references are one level deep

Skill Categories for This Project

Debug Skills (.github/skills/debug-*)

For capturing debugging patterns:

• debug-nextjs - Next.js specific debugging
• debug-prisma - Database debugging
• debug-react-query - State management debugging

Feature Skills (.github/skills/feature-*)

For feature development patterns:

• feature-api-routes - API route conventions
• feature-components - Component patterns

Process Skills (.github/skills/process-*)

For workflow automation:

• process-deploy - Deployment procedures
• process-migration - Database migrations

Auto-Generation from Debug Sessions

When a debug session reveals new patterns, create a skill:

## Pattern Discovered: [Name]

**Problem Type**: [category]
**Root Cause**: [description]
**Solution Pattern**: [reusable fix]
**Prevention Strategy**: [how to avoid]

→ Suggest: Create skill `debug-[category]` capturing this pattern

Skill Evolution

Improving Existing Skills

When a skill proves insufficient:

1. Identify the gap
2. Propose enhancement
3. Add to appropriate section (or new reference file)
4. Update version in metadata

Deprecating Skills

When a skill becomes obsolete:

1. Add deprecation notice at top of SKILL.md
2. Point to replacement skill
3. Remove after migration period

Example: Creating a Debug Skill

After discovering a recurring Next.js hydration issue pattern:

---
name: debug-hydration
description: Diagnose and fix React hydration mismatches in Next.js. Use when seeing hydration errors, content flickering, or server/client mismatches.
metadata:
  author: coachone
  version: "1.0"
---

# Hydration Debugging

## Quick Diagnosis

1. Check browser console for specific hydration error
2. Identify the component mentioned in error
3. Compare server-rendered HTML with client-rendered output

## Common Causes

| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---------|-------|-----|
| Date/time mismatch | Server/client timezone | Use `suppressHydrationWarning` or standardize timezone |
| Random IDs | useId() not used | Replace Math.random() with React.useId() |
| Browser APIs | window/document access | Check typeof window !== 'undefined' |
| Extension interference | Browser extensions | Test in incognito mode |

## Fix Patterns

### Pattern 1: Deferred Client Rendering
\`\`\`tsx
const [mounted, setMounted] = useState(false);
useEffect(() => setMounted(true), []);
if (!mounted) return <Skeleton />;
return <DynamicContent />;
\`\`\`

### Pattern 2: Suppress Warning (use sparingly)
\`\`\`tsx
<time suppressHydrationWarning>{new Date().toLocaleString()}</time>
\`\`\`

Skill Discovery Tips

Skills are activated when their description matches user intent. Write descriptions that:

• Use specific keywords users might mention
• Cover synonyms and alternative phrasings
• Describe both the capability AND the trigger context

Good: "Debug and fix React hydration errors, content mismatches between server and client rendering, SSR issues" Bad: "Helps with React problems"

File Locations

Skills for this project should be created in:

.github/skills/[skill-name]/
├── SKILL.md
└── [optional resources]