Skill Creator

This skill provides guidance for creating effective skills.

About Skills

Skills are modular, self-contained packages that extend Claude's capabilities by providing specialized knowledge, workflows, and tools. Think of them as "onboarding guides" for specific domains or tasks—they transform Claude from a general-purpose agent into a specialized agent equipped with procedural knowledge that no model can fully possess.

What Skills Provide

Specialized workflows - Multi-step procedures for specific domains
Tool integrations - Instructions for working with specific file formats or APIs
Domain expertise - Company-specific knowledge, schemas, business logic
Bundled resources - Scripts, references, and assets for complex and repetitive tasks

Anatomy of a Skill

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)
│   └── 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.)

SKILL.md (required)

Metadata Quality: The name and description in YAML frontmatter determine when Claude will use the skill.

Writing Effective Descriptions (max 1024 chars):

A good description answers two questions:

What does this skill do? - List specific capabilities/actions
When should Claude use it? - Include trigger terms users would naturally say

Strong example:

description: Extract text and tables from PDF files, fill forms, merge documents. Use when working with PDF files or when the user mentions PDFs, forms, or document extraction.

Weak example (avoid):

description: Helps with documents

Best practices:

Include specific trigger terms users would naturally mention
Name specific actions (extract, fill, merge), not just domains
Use phrases like "Use when..." or "Triggers on..."
Include question formats users might ask ("how does this work?")
Differentiate similar skills with distinct trigger terms
Use third-person: "This skill should be used when..." not "Use this skill when..."

Required Frontmatter Fields:

---
name: skill-name                          # Lowercase, hyphens only, max 64 chars
description: This skill should be used when [triggers]. It provides [capabilities].
---

Optional Frontmatter Fields:

---
name: skill-name
description: This skill should be used when [triggers].
# Tool restrictions (two syntax options)
allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob           # Comma-separated string
allowed-tools:                            # YAML list (cleaner)
  - Read
  - Grep
  - Glob
# Execution context
context: fork                             # Run in forked sub-agent context
agent: my-agent                           # Use specific agent's config
# Hooks in frontmatter
hooks:
  PreToolUse:
    - matcher: "Bash(*)"
      hooks:
        - type: command
          command: "./validate.sh"
  PostToolUse:
    - matcher: "Write(*.py)"
      hooks:
        - type: command
          command: "./format.sh"
      once: true                          # Execute only once per session
  Stop:
    - hooks:
        - type: command
          command: "./cleanup.sh"
---

Field	Required	Description
`name`	Yes	Lowercase, hyphens only, max 64 chars
`description`	Yes	Max 1024 chars, must include trigger conditions
`allowed-tools`	No	Comma-separated string or YAML list; applied to tools invoked by skill
`context`	No	`fork` runs skill in forked sub-agent context
`agent`	No	Use specific agent's system prompt, tools, and model
`hooks`	No	PreToolUse, PostToolUse, Stop hooks for this skill

Note: Skills automatically hot-reload when modified—no restart required.

Bundled Resources (optional)

Scripts (`scripts/`)

Executable code (Python/Bash/etc.) for tasks that require deterministic reliability or are repeatedly rewritten.

When to include: When the same code is being rewritten repeatedly or deterministic reliability is needed
Example: scripts/rotate_pdf.py for PDF rotation tasks
Benefits: Token efficient, deterministic, may be executed without loading into context
Note: Scripts may still need to be read by Claude for patching or environment-specific adjustments

References (`references/`)

Documentation and reference material intended to be loaded as needed into context to inform Claude's process and thinking.

When to include: For documentation that Claude should reference while working
Examples: 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 specifications
Use cases: Database schemas, API documentation, domain knowledge, company policies, detailed workflow guides
Benefits: Keeps SKILL.md lean, loaded only when Claude determines it's needed
Best practice: If files are large (>10k words), include grep search patterns in SKILL.md
Avoid duplication: Information should live in either SKILL.md or references files, not both. Prefer references files for detailed information unless it's truly core to the skill—this keeps SKILL.md lean while making information discoverable without hogging the context window. Keep only essential procedural instructions and workflow guidance in SKILL.md; move detailed reference material, schemas, and examples to references files.

Assets (`assets/`)

Files not intended to be loaded into context, but rather used within the output Claude produces.

When to include: When the skill needs files that will be used in the final output
Examples: assets/logo.png for brand assets, assets/slides.pptx for PowerPoint templates, assets/frontend-template/ for HTML/React boilerplate, assets/font.ttf for typography
Use cases: Templates, images, icons, boilerplate code, fonts, sample documents that get copied or modified
Benefits: Separates output resources from documentation, enables Claude to use files without loading them into context

Progressive Disclosure Design Principle

Skills use a three-level loading system to manage context efficiently:

Metadata (name + description) - Always in context (~100 words)
SKILL.md body - When skill triggers (max 500 lines for optimal performance)
Bundled resources - As needed by Claude (Unlimited*)

*Unlimited because scripts can be executed without reading into context window.

The 500-line guideline: Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines. If content exceeds this, split detailed reference material into references/ files. This keeps context focused and avoids consuming tokens upfront—Claude loads additional files only when needed.

Skill Creation Process

To create a skill, follow the "Skill Creation Process" in order, skipping steps only if there is a clear reason why they are not applicable.

Step 1: Understanding the Skill with Concrete Examples

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:

"What functionality should the image-editor skill support? Editing, rotating, anything else?"
"Can you give some examples of how this skill would be used?"
"I can imagine users asking for things like 'Remove the red-eye from this image' or 'Rotate this image'. Are there other ways you imagine this skill being used?"
"What would a user say that should trigger this skill?"

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.

Step 2: Planning the Reusable Skill Contents

To turn concrete examples into an effective skill, analyze each example by:

Considering how to execute on the example from scratch
Identifying what scripts, references, and assets would be helpful when executing these workflows repeatedly

Example: When building a pdf-editor skill to handle queries like "Help me rotate this PDF," the analysis shows:

Rotating a PDF requires re-writing the same code each time
A scripts/rotate_pdf.py script would be helpful to store in the skill

Example: 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:

Writing a frontend webapp requires the same boilerplate HTML/React each time
An assets/hello-world/ template containing the boilerplate HTML/React project files would be helpful to store in the skill

Example: When building a big-query skill to handle queries like "How many users have logged in today?" the analysis shows:

Querying BigQuery requires re-discovering the table schemas and relationships each time
A references/schema.md file documenting the table schemas would be helpful to store in the skill

To establish the skill's contents, analyze each concrete example to create a list of the reusable resources to include: scripts, references, and assets.

Step 3: Initializing the Skill

At this point, it is time to actually create the skill.

Skip this step only if the skill being developed already exists and iteration 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:

scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>

The script:

Creates the skill directory at the specified path
Generates a SKILL.md template with proper frontmatter and TODO placeholders
Creates example resource directories: scripts/, references/, and assets/
Adds example files in each directory that can be customized or deleted

After initialization, customize or remove the generated SKILL.md and example files as needed.

Step 4: Edit the Skill

When editing the (newly-generated or existing) skill, remember that the skill is being created for another instance of Claude to use. Focus on including information that would be beneficial and non-obvious to Claude. Consider what procedural knowledge, domain-specific details, or reusable assets would help another Claude instance execute these tasks more effectively.

Start with Reusable Skill Contents

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/.

Also, delete any example files and directories not needed for the skill. The initialization script creates example files in scripts/, references/, and assets/ to demonstrate structure, but most skills won't need all of them.

Update SKILL.md

Writing Style: Write the entire skill using imperative/infinitive form (verb-first instructions), not second person. Use objective, instructional language (e.g., "To accomplish X, do Y" rather than "You should do X" or "If you need to do X"). This maintains consistency and clarity for AI consumption.

To complete SKILL.md, answer the following questions:

What is the purpose of the skill, in a few sentences?
When should the skill be used?
In practice, how should Claude use the skill? All reusable skill contents developed above should be referenced so that Claude knows how to use them.

Step 5: Iterate

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:

Use the skill on real tasks
Notice struggles or inefficiencies
Identify how SKILL.md or bundled resources should be updated
Implement changes and test again