Skill Boilerplate

Skill Boilerplate

Purpose

Document the mandatory local data layout and instructions to embed in new skills. This skill does not create any folders or files.

Determine project_root and data dir

• Let be the folder containing SKILL.md.
• If /.. is skills, guess project_root as two levels above the skills folder (i.e. /../../..).
• This works when skills are stored as //skills/, where can be .codex, .claude, .github, or any other parent.
• Ask the user to confirm the guess; if it is wrong, request project_root.
• If the skill is not under a skills directory, do not guess; ask the user for project_root.
• Data dir: /.skills-data//.

Mandatory SKILL.md section (copy into every new skill)

## Local data and env
- Store all mutable state under <project_root>/.skills-data/<skill-name>/.
- Keep config and registries in .skills-data/<skill-name>/ (for example: config.json, <feature>.json).
- Use .skills-data/<skill-name>/.env for SKILL_ROOT, SKILL_DATA_DIR, and any per-skill env keys.
- Install local tools into .skills-data/<skill-name>/bin and prepend it to PATH when needed.
- Install dependencies under .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv:
  - Python: .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv/python
  - Node: .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv/node_modules
  - Go: .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv/go (modcache, gocache)
  - PHP: .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv/php (cache, vendor)
- Write logs/cache/tmp under .skills-data/<skill-name>/logs, .skills-data/<skill-name>/cache, .skills-data/<skill-name>/tmp.
- Keep automation in <skill-root>/scripts and read SKILL_DATA_DIR (default to <project_root>/.skills-data/<skill-name>/).
- Do not write outside <skill-root> and <project_root>/.skills-data/<skill-name>/ unless the user requests it.

Environment variables

Write these keys into .skills-data//.env:

• SKILL_ROOT: absolute path to the skill directory
• SKILL_NAME: skill name
• SKILL_DATA_ROOT: absolute path to /.skills-data
• SKILL_DATA_DIR: absolute path to /.skills-data/

Optional language-specific keys (use only if the skill needs that runtime):

• PYTHON_VENV
• NODE_PATH
• NPM_CONFIG_CACHE
• GOMODCACHE
• GOCACHE
• COMPOSER_CACHE_DIR
• COMPOSER_VENDOR_DIR
• COMPOSER_HOME

Boilerplate helper functions

If a skill needs setup automation, add helper scripts under that skill's scripts/ directory. Keep them opt-in and document them in that skill's SKILL.md. Use references/boilerplate-functions.md for copy-ready snippets.

OS utilities (optional)

If a skill needs system utilities (rg, jq, git), document manual install commands and reference references/os-install.md.

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