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

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

Core Principles

Concise is Key

The context window is a public good. Skills share the context window with everything else Claude needs: system prompt, conversation history, other Skills' metadata, and the actual user request.

Default assumption: Claude is already very smart. Only add context Claude doesn't already have. Challenge each piece of information: "Does Claude really need this explanation?" and "Does this paragraph justify its token cost?"

Prefer concise examples over verbose explanations.

Set Appropriate Degrees of Freedom

Match the level of specificity to the task's fragility and variability:

High freedom (text-based instructions): Use when multiple approaches are valid, decisions depend on context, or heuristics guide the approach.

Medium freedom (pseudocode or scripts with parameters): Use when a preferred pattern exists, some variation is acceptable, or configuration affects behavior.

Low freedom (specific scripts, few parameters): Use when operations are fragile and error-prone, consistency is critical, or a specific sequence must be followed.

Think of Claude as exploring a path: a narrow bridge with cliffs needs specific guardrails (low freedom), while an open field allows many routes (high freedom).

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)

Every SKILL.md consists of:

• Frontmatter (YAML): Contains name and description fields. These are the only fields that Claude reads to determine when the skill gets used, thus it is very important to be clear and comprehensive in describing what the skill is, and when it should be used.
• Body (Markdown): Instructions and guidance for using the skill. Only loaded AFTER the skill triggers (if at all).

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.

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

What to Not Include in a Skill

A skill should only contain essential files that directly support its functionality. Do NOT create extraneous documentation or auxiliary files, including:

• README.md
• INSTALLATION_GUIDE.md
• QUICK_REFERENCE.md
• CHANGELOG.md
• etc.

The skill should only contain the information needed for an AI agent to do the job at hand.

Progressive Disclosure Design Principle

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

1. Metadata (name + description) - Always in context (~100 words)
2. SKILL.md body - When skill triggers (<5k words)
3. Bundled resources - As needed by Claude (Unlimited because scripts can be executed without reading into context window)

Progressive Disclosure Patterns

Keep SKILL.md body to the essentials and under 500 lines to minimize context bloat. Split content into separate files when approaching this limit.

Pattern 1: High-level guide with references

# PDF Processing

## Quick start
Extract text with pdfplumber:
[code example]

## Advanced features
- **Form filling**: See [FORMS.md](FORMS.md) for complete guide
- **API reference**: See [REFERENCE.md](REFERENCE.md) for all methods

Pattern 2: Domain-specific organization

For Skills with multiple domains, organize content by domain:

bigquery-skill/
├── SKILL.md (overview and navigation)
└── reference/
    ├── finance.md (revenue, billing metrics)
    ├── sales.md (opportunities, pipeline)
    └── product.md (API usage, features)

Pattern 3: Conditional details

Show basic content, link to advanced content:

# DOCX Processing

## Creating documents
Use docx-js for new documents. See [DOCX-JS.md](DOCX-JS.md).

## Editing documents
For simple edits, modify the XML directly.
**For tracked changes**: See [REDLINING.md](REDLINING.md)

Skill Creation Process

Skill creation involves these steps:

1. Understand the skill with concrete examples
2. Plan reusable skill contents (scripts, references, assets)
3. Initialize the skill (run init_skill.py)
4. Edit the skill (implement resources and write SKILL.md)
5. Package the skill (run package_skill.py)
6. Iterate based on real usage

Step 1: Understanding the Skill with Concrete Examples

To create an effective skill, clearly understand concrete examples of how the skill will be used. Ask questions like:

• "What functionality should the skill support?"
• "Can you give some examples of how this skill would be used?"
• "What would a user say that should trigger this skill?"

Step 2: Planning the Reusable Skill Contents

Analyze each example to identify what scripts, references, and assets would be helpful when executing these workflows repeatedly.

Step 3: Initializing the Skill

Run the init_skill.py script to create a new skill template:

python3 scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>

Default path is ~/dotfiles/.claude/skills/ if not specified.

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/

Step 4: Edit the Skill

When editing the skill, remember that the skill is being created for another instance of Claude to use. Include information that would be beneficial and non-obvious to Claude.

Learn Proven Design Patterns

Consult these helpful guides based on your skill's needs:

• Multi-step processes: See references/workflows.md for sequential workflows and conditional logic
• Specific output formats or quality standards: See references/output-patterns.md for template and example patterns

Update SKILL.md

Writing Guidelines: Always use imperative/infinitive form.

Frontmatter

Write the YAML frontmatter with name and description:

• name: The skill name (hyphen-case: lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens only)
• description: This is the primary triggering mechanism for your skill
  • Include both what the Skill does and specific triggers/contexts for when to use it
  • Include all "when to use" information here - Not in the body

Do not include any other fields in YAML frontmatter.

Step 5: Packaging a Skill

Once development is complete, package into a distributable .skill file:

python3 scripts/package_skill.py <path/to/skill-folder> [output-directory]

The packaging script will:

1. Validate the skill automatically
2. Package if validation passes, creating a .skill file (zip format)

Step 6: Iterate

After testing the skill, users may request improvements. Use the skill on real tasks, notice struggles or inefficiencies, and update accordingly.