write-a-skill

name: write-a-skill description: Create new agent skills with proper structure, progressive disclosure, and bundled resources. Use when user wants to create, write, or build a new skill.

Writing Skills

Process

1. Gather requirements — ask user:

   • What task/domain does the skill cover?
   • What specific use cases should it handle?
   • Does it need scripts or just instructions?

2. Draft the skill — create:

   • SKILL.md with concise instructions
   • Additional reference files if content exceeds 100 lines

3. Review with user — present draft and ask:

   • Does this cover your use cases?
   • Anything missing or unclear?

Structure

skill-name/
└── SKILL.md        # Required

SKILL.md Template

---
name: skill-name
description: Brief description. Use when [specific triggers].
---

# Skill Name

## Quick start
[Minimal working example]

## Workflow
[Step-by-step process]

Description Requirements

The description is the only thing the agent sees when deciding to load a skill.

• Max 1024 chars
• First sentence: what it does
• Second sentence: "Use when [specific triggers]"

Good: Extract text from PDF files. Use when working with PDFs or user mentions document extraction. Bad: Helps with documents.

Review Checklist

• Description includes "Use when..." triggers
• SKILL.md under 100 lines
• No time-sensitive info
• Concrete and actionable instructions