askit-build-output-style

name: askit-build-output-style description: Creates and improves Claude Code output styles (Claude-only response-mode definitions) to the Advanced Skill Library Standard. Use when you need to author a custom output style for Claude Code, define a response mode, or improve an existing output style. metadata: version: 0.1.0 tier: universal audience: advanced

Purpose

Author a Claude Code output style: a definition that changes how the agent formats and frames its responses (for example an explanatory or terse mode). Output styles are CLAUDE-ONLY - Codex and the wider agentskills.io ecosystem have no equivalent (Standard sec 2.3) - so this skill emits no Codex artifact and the authored component declares agent-targets: [claude]. Two modes: create scaffolds a new output style; improve refines an existing one. Authoring depth is in references/authoring-output-styles.md. Follows the shared builder contract (../../docs/reference/builder-pattern.md).

When to use

When the user asks to create, scaffold, write, or improve a Claude Code output style (a response mode or response-formatting definition).

create mode

Brief interview: the style's purpose (when Claude should use it), the response shape it enforces (structure, tone, length), and any required elements. Skip if in context.
Scaffold the output-style markdown (copy templates/output-style.md): a name, a description of when it applies, and the response-formatting instructions.
Declare agent-targets: [claude] (Claude-only) and state the asymmetry plainly; do not emit a Codex artifact.
Register it in library.json components.outputStyles as { name, version, tier, status }.
Evaluate (node scripts/evaluate.mjs . --json).

improve mode

Run evaluate and read findings.
Tighten the description (when-to-use) and the formatting instructions; remove ambiguity about when the style applies and what it requires.
Re-run to confirm.

Scope

Claude-only (sec 2.3). The build SKILL is portable, but the artifact it produces runs only on Claude Code; state this clearly rather than silently emitting nothing for other targets (the F-06 expectation-setting principle). Output styles are an Advanced, agent-specific capability.