Skills Meta

🚨 MANDATORY: Invoke docs-management First

STOP - Before providing ANY response about Claude Code skills:

1. INVOKE docs-management skill
2. QUERY using keywords: skills, skill creation, YAML frontmatter, progressive disclosure, skill best practices, or related topics
3. BASE all responses EXCLUSIVELY on official documentation loaded

Skipping this step results in outdated or incorrect information.

Verification Checkpoint

Before responding, verify:

• Did I invoke docs-management skill?
• Did official documentation load?
• Is my response based EXCLUSIVELY on official docs?

If ANY checkbox is unchecked, STOP and invoke docs-management first.

Overview

This meta-skill provides workflows, templates, keyword registries, and patterns for working with Claude Code skills. It does NOT duplicate official documentation - instead, it teaches you how to efficiently query the docs-management skill for any skills-related information you need.

What this skill provides:

• Skill template (5 structural patterns to choose from)
• Creation and validation workflows
• Keyword registry for efficient documentation lookups
• Naming conventions and common patterns
• Quick decision trees for navigation

What this skill does NOT provide:

• Duplicated official documentation (use docs-management skill instead)
• YAML frontmatter specifications (query docs-management)
• Progressive disclosure details (query docs-management)
• Complete best practices lists (query docs-management)

When to Use This Skill

This skill should be used when:

• Creating a new skill → Provides template and creation workflow
• Validating an existing skill → Provides validation workflow and patterns
• Auditing skill quality → Provides comprehensive audit checklist and workflow
• Understanding skill architecture → Directs you to right official docs
• Needing skill templates → Provides 5 structural pattern options
• Learning YAML frontmatter → Shows you how to query docs-management
• Troubleshooting activation → Provides diagnostic patterns
• Distributing skills → Provides distribution workflow

Quick Decision Tree

What do you want to do?

1. Create a new skill from scratch → See workflows/creating-skills-workflow.md
2. Validate an existing skill → See workflows/validating-skills-workflow.md
3. Audit skill quality and compliance → See quality/skill-audit-guide.md or use /audit-skills command
4. Test skill activation → See workflows/testing-skills-workflow.md
5. Share or distribute a skill → See workflows/distributing-skills-workflow.md
6. Understand skill architecture → Query docs-management for "agent skills architecture progressive disclosure"
7. Fix activation issues → See Troubleshooting section below

Official Documentation Discovery

How to Query docs-management for Skills Documentation

The docs-management skill contains all official Claude Code skills documentation. Use natural language queries to access it:

For creation guidance:

Find documentation about creating skills with best practices

For YAML frontmatter requirements:

Locate the official YAML frontmatter specification for skills

For progressive disclosure patterns:

Get the official progressive disclosure documentation for skills

For tool restrictions:

Find documentation about allowed-tools configuration for skills

Keyword Registry for Efficient Searches

Use these keyword combinations with the docs-management skill for specific topics:

Creation & Structure:

• Keywords: skills, skill creation, skill structure, YAML frontmatter
• Use case: Understanding how to create skills and required structure

Validation & Quality:

• Keywords: skill validation, skill best practices, skill patterns
• Use case: Ensuring skill quality and following conventions

Architecture & Patterns:

• Keywords: progressive disclosure, skill composition, agent skills
• Use case: Understanding architectural patterns and advanced topics

Tool Configuration:

• Keywords: allowed-tools, tool restrictions, skills
• Use case: Configuring which tools Claude can use within a skill

Activation & Discovery:

• Keywords: skill description, skill activation, skill triggers
• Use case: Ensuring Claude discovers and uses your skill correctly

Distribution & Sharing:

• Keywords: plugin skills, skill locations, personal skills, project skills
• Use case: Understanding where skills live and how to share them

Creating Skills Workflow (Quick Reference)

1. Choose Template: Use assets/skill-template/ (5 structural patterns: workflow, task, reference, capabilities, validation)
2. Query Official Docs: Load current requirements from docs-management
3. Complete TODOs: Fill in frontmatter, content, examples
4. Validate: Check frontmatter, naming, structure, activation

Full workflow: references/workflows/creating-skills-workflow.md

Validating Skills Workflow (Quick Reference)

YAML Frontmatter:

• name: Lowercase, hyphens only, max 64 chars, matches directory
• description: Max 1024 chars, includes what + when to use

Naming Convention: Use "The Sentence Test" - "I'm going to reach for the [skill-name] skill" should sound natural

Activation Testing: Test with direct mention, domain mention, task mention, file type mention

Full workflow: references/workflows/validating-skills-workflow.md

Auditing Skills Workflow (Quick Reference)

Use /audit-skills command for automated auditing:

• Single skill: /audit-skills skill-name
• Multiple skills: /audit-skills skill-1 skill-2
• All skills: /audit-skills --all
• Smart prioritization: /audit-skills --smart

Manual audit checklist: references/quality/skill-audit-guide.md

External Technology Validation

When auditing skills that reference external technologies (scripts, packages, runtimes), the auditor MUST validate claims using MCP servers before flagging findings.

Technologies Requiring MCP Validation:

• .NET/C# scripts: Validate with microsoft-learn + perplexity
• Node.js/npm packages: Validate with context7 + perplexity
• Python scripts/packages: Validate with context7 + perplexity
• Shell scripts: Validate with perplexity
• Any version-specific claims: ALWAYS validate with perplexity

Validation Rule:

Never flag a technology usage as incorrect without first:

1. Querying appropriate MCP server(s) for current documentation
2. Verifying with perplexity for recent changes (especially .NET 10+)
3. Documenting MCP sources in the finding

Stale Data Warning:

• microsoft-learn can return cached/outdated documentation
• ALWAYS pair microsoft-learn with perplexity for version verification
• Trust perplexity for version numbers and recently-released features

SKILL.md Length Guidance

Official Recommendation: Keep SKILL.md body under 500 lines for optimal performance.

This is GUIDANCE, not a hard rule. The 500-line recommendation exists because:

1. Context window is a shared resource (competes with conversation history, other skills)
2. Concise skills load faster and use fewer tokens
3. Progressive disclosure prevents token bloat

When exceeding 500 lines may be acceptable:

• Complex skills with genuinely essential content (no fluff)
• Domain-specific skills where core workflows require detail
• Skills where splitting would harm usability or add navigation overhead

Tradeoff Framework:

Factor	Stay Under 500	Exceed If Necessary
Content type	Platform-specific, examples, troubleshooting	Core workflows, critical requirements
Loading frequency	Rarely used sections	Always needed on every invocation
Alternative	Can extract to references/	Extraction would harm usability
Token cost	High (verbose explanations)	Low (essential, concise content)

Decision Rule: If content is needed on EVERY skill invocation AND cannot be made more concise, it may stay in SKILL.md even if it exceeds 500 lines. Conditional content should ALWAYS go to references/.

Query docs-management for current official guidance:

Find SKILL.md size recommendations and token budget guidance

Common Patterns

Progressive Disclosure Pattern

Load content in layers: Metadata → SKILL.md body → references/ files

Key Context Clues for Good Progressive Disclosure:

1. Clear reference links: Each reference file should have explicit pointers from SKILL.md
2. Descriptive filenames: Use names like troubleshooting.md, platform-windows.md (not doc1.md)
3. When-to-load guidance: SKILL.md should indicate when each reference is needed
4. One level deep: References should NOT link to other references (Claude may use head -100 for nested files)
5. Table of contents: Reference files over 100 lines should have a TOC at the top

Example of good context clues:

## Advanced Features

**For form filling workflows**: See [FORMS.md](FORMS.md) - load when user mentions forms, fillable PDFs
**For API reference**: See [REFERENCE.md](REFERENCE.md) - load for method signatures, parameters
**For troubleshooting**: See [TROUBLESHOOTING.md](TROUBLESHOOTING.md) - load on errors, failures

Query docs-management for complete guidance:

Find documentation about progressive disclosure patterns for skills

Skill Composition Pattern

Skills can invoke other skills for modular architectures.

Example: "Find and use the current-date skill to get today's date"

Query docs-management for composition details:

Find documentation about skill composition and skills invoking other skills

Tool Restriction Pattern

Use allowed-tools to limit Claude's capabilities within a skill (read-only analysis, audit workflows, safety-critical operations).

Example:

---
name: readonly-analyzer
description: Analyze code without modifications
allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob
---

Query docs-management for complete specification:

Find documentation about allowed-tools configuration and tool restrictions

Troubleshooting Activation

Skill doesn't activate:

1. Check description specificity (add trigger keywords)
2. Verify YAML syntax (opening/closing ---, valid YAML)
3. Confirm file paths (correct directory structure)
4. Test with direct invocation ("Use the [skill-name] skill to...")
5. Check for conflicts (make descriptions distinct)

Query docs-management for troubleshooting:

Find documentation about skill activation issues and troubleshooting

Skill Template

Location: assets/skill-template/

5 Structural Patterns:

1. Workflow-Based - Sequential processes
2. Task-Based - Collections of operations
3. Reference-Based - Guidelines and standards
4. Capabilities-Based - Integrated features
5. Validation Feedback Loop - Operations requiring correctness

Usage:

cp -r .claude/skills/skill-development/assets/skill-template .claude/skills/[new-skill-name]

Best Practices Summary

DO:

• ✅ Query docs-management skill for all official documentation
• ✅ Use the skill template for new skills
• ✅ Write specific descriptions with trigger keywords
• ✅ Test activation with varied phrasings
• ✅ Use progressive disclosure (SKILL.md → references/)
• ✅ Follow naming conventions (gerund or noun, avoid agent nouns)

DON'T:

• ❌ Duplicate official documentation
• ❌ Create mega-skills that do too much
• ❌ Use vague descriptions
• ❌ Skip activation testing
• ❌ Use uppercase or special characters in skill names

For complete best practices:

Query docs-management:

Find the complete skill authoring best practices documentation

References

Detailed workflows:

• Creating Skills Workflow
• Validating Skills Workflow
• Testing Skills Workflow
• Distributing Skills Workflow

Quality and auditing:

• Skill Audit Guide

Metadata and conventions:

• Search Keywords Registry
• Common Use Cases
• Naming Conventions
• YAML Frontmatter Reference

Pattern examples:

• Progressive Disclosure Examples
• Skill Composition Patterns
• Tool Restriction Patterns

Template:

• Skill Template

Test Scenarios

Scenario 1: Creating a new skill

Query: "I need to create a new skill for processing Excel files"

Expected: Skill activates, guides to template, provides creation workflow

Success: User gets template location, knows to query docs-management, understands structural patterns

Scenario 2: Validating an existing skill

Query: "Validate this skill's YAML frontmatter and structure"

Expected: Skill activates, provides validation workflow, directs to docs-management

Success: User validates YAML, checks naming, verifies structure, tests activation

Scenario 3: Troubleshooting activation

Query: "My skill isn't activating when I expect it to"

Expected: Skill activates, provides diagnostic steps, suggests description improvements

Success: User identifies issue, improves description, tests successfully

Related Skills

• docs-management - Official documentation access (all documentation queries delegate here)
• current-date - Get current UTC date for version history and audit timestamps
• markdown-linting - Validate SKILL.md formatting and structure

Version History

• v1.0.4 (2025-11-25): Enhancements - Added Related Skills section, enhanced reference files, improved progressive disclosure
• v1.0.3 (2025-11-25): Comprehensive audit - Replaced hardcoded versions with generic names, added tool verification
• v1.0.2 (2025-11-24): Decoupling improvements - Replaced doc_ids with natural language queries
• v1.0.1 (2025-11-17): Post-audit improvements - Added Reference Loading Guide, fixed links
• v1.0.0 (2025-11-17): Initial release - Delegation-first meta-skill with zero duplication

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Last Updated

Date: 2025-11-28 Model: claude-opus-4-5-20251101