Adk Skill Creation

ADK Skill Creation — The Meta-Skill

This skill teaches you how to create SKILL.md files for ADK agents. Every skill you generate must follow this specification exactly.

Directory Structure

skills/
  my-skill/
    SKILL.md              # Required — frontmatter + instructions
    references/           # Optional — L3 detailed resource files
      patterns.md
      examples.md
      api-reference.md

SKILL.md File Format

Every SKILL.md has two parts: YAML frontmatter and a markdown body.

---
name: my-skill-name
description: >-
  What this skill does and WHEN to load it. Under 1024 characters.
  Be specific: "SEO checklist for blog posts" not "A helpful skill".
---

# Skill Title

## Step-by-step instructions here (L2 content)

1. First step...
2. Second step...

## References

- Load `pattern-name` for detailed implementation patterns.

Frontmatter Rules

1. name (REQUIRED): kebab-case, max 64 characters. Examples: security-review, api-integration, data-pipeline.
2. description (REQUIRED): under 1024 characters. This is the L1 metadata — the only thing the LLM sees before deciding whether to load the full skill. Write it to answer: "When should I load this skill?"

Progressive Disclosure — L1 / L2 / L3

This is the most important concept in skill design.

Why this matters

• L1 is cheap (loaded every turn), so keep descriptions concise but specific.
• L2 is the working instruction set — step-by-step, actionable, under 500 lines.
• L3 holds the bulk: full code examples, specs, reference tables. Only loaded when needed.

Writing Good Descriptions (L1)

The description determines whether the LLM loads the skill. Be specific about when and what for.

Good descriptions:

• "OWASP Top 10 security review checklist for Python web applications. Load when reviewing code for security vulnerabilities."
• "Building REST API wrapper tools with retry logic, rate limiting, and error handling. Load when creating tools that call external HTTP APIs."

Bad descriptions:

• "A helpful skill for developers." (too vague — when would the LLM load this?)
• "This skill helps with things." (meaningless)

Writing Good Instructions (L2)

3. Use numbered steps — the LLM follows them sequentially.
4. Be imperative: "Check for X", "Add Y", "Validate Z" — not "You might want to consider..."
5. Reference L3 resources by name: "Load api-patterns for complete request/response examples."
6. Keep under 500 lines. If instructions grow beyond that, move details to references.
7. Include a quick-start template or minimal example directly in the instructions.
8. End with a References section listing all L3 resources and what each contains.

Writing Good References (L3)

9. One file per topic: patterns.md, examples.md, api-reference.md.
10. Include complete, runnable code — not pseudocode.
11. Use clear headings so the LLM can scan quickly.
12. Keep each reference file focused — under 300 lines if possible.

The References Table (ADK 2.0 convention)

When a skill has 2 or more reference files, list them in a markdown table near the top of the SKILL.md body, with three columns:

Why a table beats a bullet list

The pre-2.0 convention was - Load name for details on X. at the bottom of SKILL.md. Two problems with that:

1. Ambiguity. "details on X" tells the LLM nothing about whether X.md actually contains what's needed — so it loads, reads, then often loads another. Wasted turns.
2. Position. Bullets at the bottom mean the LLM has to read the whole SKILL.md before seeing the routing. The table near the top lets it route immediately.

The new convention: a routing table the LLM can scan in one pass to pick the right L3 file on the first try, without load_skill_resource round-trips.

Example table

| Resource | Description | Load when |
|----------|-------------|-----------|
| api-patterns | Retry/backoff with jitter, rate-limit handling, idempotency keys | Building a tool that calls an external HTTP API |
| error-handling | Mapping HTTP status codes to user-facing error messages; redaction rules | The agent needs to report a failure to the user |
| auth-flows | OAuth 2.0 code flow, PKCE, refresh-token rotation | The API requires user-delegated auth |

Place it after a short Overview/Steps section but before the long-form prose. Reference files mentioned inline in the body are still fine — the table is the index, the inline mentions are the cross-refs.

Skill Design Patterns

Before writing a skill from scratch, load adk-skill-design-patterns to identify which canonical pattern fits. The 5 patterns (Tool Wrapper, Generator, Reviewer, Inversion, Pipeline) provide proven structures with skeleton templates. Use the decision matrix to match the agent's needs to the right pattern, then load the pattern's reference for a starting template.

Naming Conventions

• Skill directory: kebab-case (e.g., security-review/)
• SKILL.md: always exactly SKILL.md (uppercase)
• References: kebab-case.md (e.g., owasp-checklist.md)

Complete Example — Minimal Skill

---
name: code-review-checklist
description: >-
  Structured code review checklist covering correctness, security, performance,
  and maintainability. Load this skill when reviewing pull requests or code
  changes.
---

# Code Review Checklist

## Steps

1. **Correctness**: Does the code do what it claims? Check edge cases.
2. **Security**: Look for injection, auth bypass, data exposure. Load `security-checks` for the full OWASP checklist.
3. **Performance**: Check for N+1 queries, unnecessary allocations, missing indexes.
4. **Maintainability**: Are names clear? Is complexity manageable? Are there tests?
5. **Style**: Does it follow the project's conventions?

## Output Format

Produce a structured review with sections for each category above. Use severity levels: CRITICAL, WARNING, INFO.

## References

- Load `security-checks` for OWASP Top 10 patterns to look for.
- Load `performance-patterns` for common performance anti-patterns.

Skills proposed by the agent itself

A generated agent can optionally propose its own SKILL.md files: the skill curator (NUVEL_SKILL_CURATOR, default off) observes tool usage during a run and writes candidate skills into NUVEL_SKILL_PROPOSALS_DIR for a human to review before they become live skills — the conventions in this skill are exactly what such a proposal should be judged against before it's accepted. Load adk-memory-self-improvement for how the curator decides when to propose and where proposals land.

Wiring Skills into an Agent

After creating SKILL.md files, they must be wired into the agent via SkillToolset. Load the skilltoolset-wiring reference for the complete wiring code.

The short version:

from google.adk.tools.skill_toolset import SkillToolset
from google.adk.skills import load_skill_from_dir

skill = load_skill_from_dir(Path("skills/my-skill"))
toolset = SkillToolset(skills=[skill])
# Pass toolset to agent's tools list

This auto-generates three tools the LLM can call:

• list_skills — returns L1 metadata for all skills (name + description)
• load_skill(skill_name) — returns L2 content (full instructions)
• load_skill_resource(skill_name, resource_filename) — returns L3 content

References

• Load skill-spec for the complete agentskills.io specification summary.
• Load example-skills for 4 complete example SKILL.md files across different domains.
• Load skilltoolset-wiring for the full agent.py wiring code with SkillToolset.