create-skill

name	create-skill
description	Bootstrap a new Gemini CLI skill or command for the project. Use when creating a new skill from scratch — setting up the directory, frontmatter, required sections, and initial SKILL.md content. For evaluating, benchmarking, or iteratively improving an existing skill, use the skill-iterate skill instead. Use when this capability is needed.
metadata	{"author":"dokipen"}

Create a Skill

Skills live in skills/<name>/SKILL.md (model-invoked) or commands/<name>/SKILL.md (user-invoked).

Filesystem Scope

IMPORTANT: See the Filesystem Scope section in CLAUDE.md.

Frontmatter quick reference

All supported frontmatter fields:

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Kebab-case name — must match the directory name
description	Yes	When/why to invoke this skill; drives auto-invocation matching
user-invokable	No	true to allow /plugin:name slash command invocation (default: false)
tools	No	Comma-separated tool allowlist for agent definitions (omit to inherit defaults)
model	No	Model override: opus, sonnet, or haiku (omit to inherit from parent)
disable-model-invocation	No	true to prevent Claude from auto-invoking; use for user-only commands with side effects

Notes:

• tools and model are primarily used in agent files (agents/*.md), not skill files
• disable-model-invocation: true is appropriate for commands like /lead and /create-ticket that should only run when explicitly invoked
• Skills in skills/ that are also user-invokable should set user-invokable: true; commands in commands/ are always user-invokable and do not need this field

Choosing commands/ vs skills/

Type	Directory	Invocation
User-invoked slash command (side effects)	commands/	/plugin:name only
Model-invoked background knowledge	skills/	Claude auto-invokes based on context
Both user and model	skills/	Either can invoke

Required sections

New SKILL.md files must include a ## Filesystem Scope section with the single-line reference:

## Filesystem Scope

> **IMPORTANT:** See the **Filesystem Scope** section in `CLAUDE.md`.

Example SKILL.md

A realistic mini-skill showing all frontmatter fields and required sections:

---
name: run-checks
description: Run linting and tests for the project. Use before committing or creating a PR.
user-invokable: true
tools: read_file, run_shell_command, glob, Grep
model: sonnet
---

# Run Checks

Runs the project's verification suite. Always run before opening a PR.

## Filesystem Scope

> **IMPORTANT:** See the **Filesystem Scope** section in `CLAUDE.md`.

## Commands

Run from the project root:

- Lint: `shellcheck scripts/**/*.sh`
- Test: `npm test`

## What to check

- All shellcheck warnings are errors — fix them before proceeding
- Test failures block the PR; flaky tests should be marked or fixed, not ignored

## Scripts

Helper scripts live in `skills/run-checks/scripts/`:
- `scripts/check-and-report.sh` — runs checks and formats output for issue comments

Writing the content

• Use imperative/verb-first language ("Create the file" not "You should create")
• Keep SKILL.md under ~100 lines; move large references to separate files in the same directory
• Include concrete values (constants, commands) — save Claude a file lookup
• No prose padding; every line should earn its place in context
• Co-locate scripts in a scripts/ subdirectory within the skill/command directory (e.g., skills/my-skill/scripts/), not at the project root

After creating

Commit the new skill and push to its open PR.

Next step: evaluate and iterate

Once the first draft is committed, hand off to the skill-iterate skill if the user wants to:

• Measure how reliably the skill triggers (description accuracy)
• Run quantitative evals on skill output quality
• Iteratively improve the skill through a test/evaluate/rewrite loop

Cadence's create-skill handles bootstrap conventions (directory layout, frontmatter, required sections). The skill-iterate skill handles the eval/iterate/optimize loop using Anthropic's upstream skill-creator tooling.

---

Source: dokipen/claude-cadence — distributed by TomeVault.