Skill Creation

Skill Creation

Create Agent Skills following the agentskills.io specification for platform-agnostic AI capabilities.

When to Use This Skill

• Creating a new skill from scratch
• Converting an existing prompt to skill format
• Refactoring or validating existing skills
• Understanding skill structure and best practices

Asset Resolution

1. Check ./assets/skill-template.md for the SKILL.md template
2. If not found, search **/skill-template.md in repository
3. If still not found, use the specification below to generate from scratch

Process

Step 1: Gather Context

Before creating a skill, understand:

• Purpose: What task does this skill accomplish?
• Triggers: What keywords or scenarios should activate this skill?
• Inputs: What information does the agent need from the user?
• Outputs: What should the agent produce?
• Assets: Are there templates or reference materials needed?

When refactoring from existing prompt/content:

Analyze the original for critical elements that must be preserved:

Active user feedback: Present your analysis of what to keep, improve, or remove. Ask:

• Are there critical behaviors to preserve?
• What should be improved or modernized?
• Any new requirements to add?

Step 2: Create Directory Structure

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md              # Required: instructions + frontmatter
├── README.md             # Required: human documentation
├── assets/               # Optional: templates, static resources
├── references/           # Optional: detailed docs, acceptance criteria
└── scripts/              # Optional: executable code

Naming rules (from agentskills.io):

• Lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only
• 1-64 characters
• No leading/trailing hyphens
• No consecutive hyphens (--)
• Directory name must match name field in frontmatter

Step 3: Write SKILL.md

Read the skill template from Asset Resolution. Fill in all bracket placeholders with project-specific values.

Frontmatter guidelines:

• description: 1-1024 chars. First sentence: what the skill does. Second sentence: when to use it, including trigger keywords.
• license: Project license name or file reference
• See Specification Reference below for all available fields

Body guidelines:

• Adapt template sections to the skill's domain - remove unused optional sections, add domain-specific ones
• For skills interacting with external systems, uncomment and fill in the Safety section (the template provides the pattern)
• Keep under 500 lines; move supplementary detail to references/

Step 4: Create Assets (if needed)

Place templates in assets/ subdirectory:

• Use descriptive names: {purpose}-template.md
• Templates should be self-documenting with placeholders
• Include version footer in templates

Step 5: Create README.md

Create human-readable documentation with: description, quick start, file listing, and related links. Follow the pattern of existing skill READMEs in the repository.

Output Format

When creating a skill, produce three files:

1. SKILL.md - Complete with frontmatter and body
2. README.md - Human documentation
3. assets/*.md - Template files (if applicable)

Present each file in a markdown code block with the filename as header.

Constraints

• Frontmatter: Must be valid YAML with name and description
• Name matching: Directory name must equal name field
• Line limit: Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines (move details to references/)
• Token budget: Body should be <5000 tokens for efficient loading
• Progressive disclosure: Only essential instructions in SKILL.md; details in assets/references
• Asset resolution: Always instruct to check local ./assets/ first, then search
• Characters: QWERTY keyboard typeable only - no em-dashes, smart quotes, emojis, or special Unicode. Exception: ↑ for ToC navigation

Specification Reference

Full specification: agentskills.io/specification

Frontmatter Fields

Optional Directories

Skill Creation Skill v1.2.0 - KemingHe/common-devx