mediar-ai Skill Creator
Guide for creating effective skills that extend Claude's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, and tool integrations.
Prerequisites
- Clear understanding of skill purpose
- Concrete usage examples
- Knowledge of target domain
Instructions
Step 1: Understand with Concrete Examples
- What functionality should the skill support?
- How will it be used? (trigger phrases, use cases)
- What would a user say to trigger this skill?
Step 2: Plan Reusable Contents
Identify what to include:
- scripts/: Executable code for deterministic tasks
- references/: Documentation loaded as needed
- assets/: Templates, images, fonts for output
Step 3: Initialize the Skill
scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>
Creates: SKILL.md template, example directories
Step 4: Edit the Skill
SKILL.md Structure:
---
name: skill-name
description: What it does AND when to use it
---
# Instructions in Markdown
Key Principles:
- Concise is key - context window is shared
- Only add context Claude doesn't already have
- Set appropriate degrees of freedom (high/medium/low)
Progressive Disclosure:
- Metadata (~100 words) - always in context
- SKILL.md body (<5k words) - when triggered
- Bundled resources - as needed
Step 5: Package the Skill
scripts/package_skill.py <path/to/skill-folder>
Validates and creates .skill file for distribution.
Step 6: Iterate
Test on real tasks, identify struggles, improve, repeat.
Error Handling
- If validation fails, fix errors and re-package
- Don't create extraneous docs (README, CHANGELOG)
- Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines
Notes
- Skills are "onboarding guides" for specific domains
- Default assumption: Claude is already smart
- Avoid deeply nested references
Source: anthropics/skills