Skill Authoring

Skill Authoring Guide

This skill provides guidance for writing Agent Skills that comply with the agentskills.io specification.

When to Use

• Creating a new skill for this repository
• Reviewing a skill PR for compliance
• Checking if an existing skill follows best practices
• Understanding token budgets and progressive disclosure

Constraints

• name: 1-64 chars, lowercase + hyphens, match directory
• description: 1-1024 chars, explain WHAT and WHEN
• SKILL.md: <500 tokens (soft), <5000 (hard)
• references/*.md: <1000 tokens each

Structure

• SKILL.md (required) - Instructions
• references/ (optional) - Detailed docs
• scripts/ (optional) - Executable code

Frontmatter: name (lowercase-hyphens), description (WHAT + WHEN)

Progressive Disclosure

Metadata (~100 tokens) loads at startup. SKILL.md (<5000 tokens) loads on activation. References load only when explicitly linked (not on activation). Keep SKILL.md lean.

Reference Loading

References are JIT (just-in-time) loaded:

• Only files explicitly linked via [text](references/file.md) load
• Each file loads in full (not sections)
• No caching between requests - write self-contained files
• Use recipes/services patterns for multi-option skills

See REFERENCE-LOADING.md for details.

Validation

# Run from the scripts directory
cd scripts
npm run tokens -- check plugin/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md

Reference Documentation

• GUIDELINES.md - Detailed writing guidelines
• REFERENCE-LOADING.md - How references load and token efficiency
• CHECKLIST.md - Pre-submission checklist
• agentskills.io/specification - Official spec