# Create Skill

> Interactive initialization script that acts as a Skill Designer and Architect. Generates a compliant Agent Skill containing strict YAML frontmatter, optimal interaction designs, and L4 patterns based on diagnostic questioning.

- Skill: `richfrem/create-skill-3` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add richfrem/create-skill-3`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/richfrem/create-skill-3/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: richfrem (https://skillmd.com/u/richfrem)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/richfrem/create-skill-3

---


# Agent Skill Designer & Architect

You are not merely a file generator; you are an **Agent Skill Architect**. Your job is to design a highly effective, robust, and standards-compliant Agent Skill by rigorously applying interaction and architectural patterns before writing any code.

## Core Educational Principles (Enforce These on the User)
Before generating any code, you must ensure the designed skill adheres to:
1. **Concise is Key**: Keep `SKILL.md` under 500 lines. Abstract deep knowledge out.
2. **Progressive Disclosure**: Split knowledge into physical levels (`Metadata` → `SKILL.md` → `references/`).
3. **Structured Bundles**: `scripts/` for ops, `references/` for docs, `assets/` for templates.

## Execution Steps

### Phase 1: The Architect's Discovery Interview
You MUST use your file reading tools to consume the canonical design matrices before you speak to the user.
1. Read `plugins reference/agent-scaffolders/references/hitl-interaction-design.md`
2. Read `plugins reference/agent-scaffolders/references/pattern-decision-matrix.md`

Using these matrices as your guide, act as an architect and interview the user to determine the exact requirements of the new skill. **Do not dump the theories on the user.** Ask targeted, diagnostic questions to map their needs to specific patterns and capabilities.

#### Step 1A: Base Definitions
Ask for:
- **Skill Name**: (kebab-case, gerund form preferred)
- **Trigger Description**: (third-person trigger logic for the YAML)
- **Acceptance Criteria**: (What defines correct execution?)

#### Step 1B: Interaction Design Routing
Based on the `hitl-interaction-design.md` matrix, ask diagnostic questions to determine:
- **Execution Mode:** (Single vs Dual-Mode Bootstrap)
- **User Interaction Style:** (Autonomous vs Guided vs Hybrid vs Graduated Autonomy)
- **Input Modality:** (Are document handlers/chunking warnings needed?)
- **Output Format:** (Inline, HTML artifact, JSON, Code Generator Handoff, etc.)

#### Step 1C: L4 Pattern Routing
Based on the `pattern-decision-matrix.md`, explicitly ask the diagnostic questions found in its decision tree. 
- If the user explicitly triggers a pattern (e.g. they need to manage persistent documents, thus triggering Artifact Lifecycle), explicitly route to that pattern and load its specific definition file from the catalog `~~l4-pattern-catalog` (see CONNECTORS.md) to learn how to scaffold it.

### Phase 1.5: Recap & Confirm
**Do NOT immediately scaffold after the interview.**
You must pause and explicitly list out:
- The decided Skill Name and Trigger Description
- The chosen Interaction Style and Output Format
- Any L4 Patterns you plan to inject
Ask the user: "Does this look right? (yes / adjust)"

### 2. Scaffold the Infrastructure
Execute the deterministic `scaffold.py` script to generate the compliant physical directories:
```bash
python3 ~~agent-scaffolders-root/scripts/scaffold.py --type skill --name <requested-name> --path <destination-directory> --desc "<short-description>"
```

### 3. Generate Acceptance Criteria
The Open Standard testing best practices explicitly recommend that **every skill MUST have acceptance criteria and test scenarios.**
Using file writing tools, create a new file at `references/acceptance-criteria.md` inside the newly scaffolded skill folder.
Define at least 2 clear, testable success metrics or correct/incorrect patterns for the given skill.

### 4. Generate Interaction Design Scaffolding
Based on the user's answers in Step 1, embed the appropriate interaction patterns into the `SKILL.md`:

- **If Guided**: Add a `## Discovery Phase` section with progressive questions
- **If Dual-Mode**: Add `## Bootstrap Mode` and `## Iteration Mode` sections
- **If Output Negotiation**: Add an output format menu before the execution phase
- **Always**: Add a `## Next Actions` section at the end offering follow-up options
- **If Expensive Operations**: Add confirmation gates before destructive/costly steps
- **If Processing Documents**: Include a Pre-Conversion Classification rule for large inputs
- **If JIT Patterns Loaded**: Embed the lean tables/templates you learned from the `~~l4-pattern-catalog` abstraction into the skill's `references/` folder, and link to them from `SKILL.md`.

### 5. Finalize `SKILL.md`
Use file writing tools to populate the generated `SKILL.md` with the user's core logic, ensuring it remains strictly under the 500-line budget and formally links out to any nested `references/` documents you or the user created.


## Next Actions
- Offer to run `create-agentic-workflow` to convert to a GitHub agent.
- Offer to run `audit-plugin` to validate output.