Skill Template

Skill Template Generator

When to use this skill

Activate when the user wants to:

• Create a new Agent Skill from scratch
• Bootstrap a skill directory with proper structure
• Generate SKILL.md boilerplate with valid frontmatter
• Scaffold scripts/, references/, assets/, or tests/ subdirectories

Instructions

Quick scaffold

1. Ask the user for: skill name, short description, and which optional directories they need
2. Run the scaffold script:

   node scripts/scaffold.js --name <skill-name> --desc "<description>" [--dirs scripts,references,assets,tests]
   

3. The script creates the full directory structure with template files
4. Walk the user through customising the generated SKILL.md body

Interactive mode

If the user is unsure what they need, ask these questions in order:

1. What does this skill do? → becomes the description field
2. Does it need executable scripts? → adds scripts/ with a starter script
3. Does it need reference docs? → adds references/ with a template
4. Does it need static assets? → adds assets/
5. Should it include test scenarios? → adds tests/scenarios.json
6. Which tools should agents use? → sets allowed-tools
7. Any runtime requirements? → sets compatibility
8. License? → defaults to MIT

Validating the result

After scaffolding, always validate:

skill validate <output-dir>/SKILL.md
skill lint <output-dir>/SKILL.md

Fix any issues before the user starts editing.

Name rules

Skill names must:

• Be 1-64 characters
• Match ^[a-z0-9]([a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?$
• Use lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens only
• Not start or end with a hyphen

Valid: code-review, test-gen, my-skill-v2 Invalid: Code-Review, -bad-start, has_underscores, UPPERCASE

Output structure

<skill-name>/
  SKILL.md              # Always created
  scripts/              # If --dirs includes scripts
    run.sh              #   Starter bash script
  references/           # If --dirs includes references
    GUIDE.md            #   Template reference doc
  assets/               # If --dirs includes assets
    .gitkeep            #   Placeholder
  tests/                # If --dirs includes tests
    scenarios.json      #   Empty test scenarios array

Gotchas

• Skill name must match the directory name — the script enforces this
• Description must include "Use when" for best lint score
• Keep SKILL.md body under 500 lines for optimal agent performance
• The allowed-tools field accepts space-separated tool names (e.g., Bash Read Write)
• If the user wants Python/Java/TS scripts, update the starter script language after scaffolding