tomevault-io Create a Skill
Skills live in skills/<name>/SKILL.md (model-invoked) or commands/<name>/SKILL.md (user-invoked).
Filesystem Scope
IMPORTANT: See the Filesystem Scope section in
CLAUDE.md.
Frontmatter quick reference
All supported frontmatter fields:
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
name |
Yes | Kebab-case name — must match the directory name |
description |
Yes | When/why to invoke this skill; drives auto-invocation matching |
user-invokable |
No | true to allow /plugin:name slash command invocation (default: false) |
tools |
No | Comma-separated tool allowlist for agent definitions (omit to inherit defaults) |
model |
No | Model override: opus, sonnet, or haiku (omit to inherit from parent) |
disable-model-invocation |
No | true to prevent Claude from auto-invoking; use for user-only commands with side effects |
Notes:
toolsandmodelare primarily used in agent files (agents/*.md), not skill filesdisable-model-invocation: trueis appropriate for commands like/leadand/create-ticketthat should only run when explicitly invoked- Skills in
skills/that are also user-invokable should setuser-invokable: true; commands incommands/are always user-invokable and do not need this field
Choosing commands/ vs skills/
| Type | Directory | Invocation |
|---|---|---|
| User-invoked slash command (side effects) | commands/ |
/plugin:name only |
| Model-invoked background knowledge | skills/ |
Claude auto-invokes based on context |
| Both user and model | skills/ |
Either can invoke |
Required sections
New SKILL.md files must include a ## Filesystem Scope section with the single-line reference:
## Filesystem Scope
> **IMPORTANT:** See the **Filesystem Scope** section in `CLAUDE.md`.
Example SKILL.md
A realistic mini-skill showing all frontmatter fields and required sections:
---
name: run-checks
description: Run linting and tests for the project. Use before committing or creating a PR.
user-invokable: true
tools: read_file, run_shell_command, glob, Grep
model: sonnet
---
# Run Checks
Runs the project's verification suite. Always run before opening a PR.
## Filesystem Scope
> **IMPORTANT:** See the **Filesystem Scope** section in `CLAUDE.md`.
## Commands
Run from the project root:
- Lint: `shellcheck scripts/**/*.sh`
- Test: `npm test`
## What to check
- All shellcheck warnings are errors — fix them before proceeding
- Test failures block the PR; flaky tests should be marked or fixed, not ignored
## Scripts
Helper scripts live in `skills/run-checks/scripts/`:
- `scripts/check-and-report.sh` — runs checks and formats output for issue comments
Writing the content
- Use imperative/verb-first language ("Create the file" not "You should create")
- Keep SKILL.md under ~100 lines; move large references to separate files in the same directory
- Include concrete values (constants, commands) — save Claude a file lookup
- No prose padding; every line should earn its place in context
- Co-locate scripts in a
scripts/subdirectory within the skill/command directory (e.g.,skills/my-skill/scripts/), not at the project root
After creating
Commit the new skill and push to its open PR.
Next step: evaluate and iterate
Once the first draft is committed, hand off to the skill-iterate skill if the user wants to:
- Measure how reliably the skill triggers (description accuracy)
- Run quantitative evals on skill output quality
- Iteratively improve the skill through a test/evaluate/rewrite loop
Cadence's create-skill handles bootstrap conventions (directory layout, frontmatter, required sections). The skill-iterate skill handles the eval/iterate/optimize loop using Anthropic's upstream skill-creator tooling.
Source: dokipen/claude-cadence — distributed by TomeVault.