Refine Skill Terse

Tighten a SKILL.md so agents (not humans) read it fast - cut prose, keep the procedure, move rationale out. Use when the user says "make the skill succinct", "skill improvement keep it minimal", "스킬 간결하게/개선", or a SKILL.md body has grown wordy.

cskwork Updated

File contents

refine-skill-terse

A skill is read by agents on every load; trim it to the minimum that still drives the procedure correctly.

When to use

  • "make skill improvement, keep succinct - agents use it not humans", "스킬 간결하게 다듬어"
  • A SKILL.md body is wordy, repeats itself, or carries rationale that belongs in a changelog.

Not for: writing a brand-new skill (use the skill template), or changing what the skill does.

Steps

  1. Read the target SKILL.md. Note its required procedure and trigger phrases (do not lose these).
  2. Cut: filler sentences, restated context, motivation/rationale prose, duplicated lines.
  3. Keep: imperative steps, the gate/stop conditions, and the trigger phrases in description.
  4. Move rationale ("why we chose X") to a log/changelog-*.md entry, not the body.
  5. Keep body <~5k tokens; push long reference/data to a sibling file loaded on demand.
  6. Re-check: the directory-name command still resolves; description+when_to_use <=1536 chars.

Notes

Terseness is for the agent's token budget, not style. If cutting a line could change behavior, keep it.

cskwork/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/refine-skill-terse commit 732a140cac

Frequently asked questions

npx skillmds@latest add cskwork/refine-skill-terse