New Skill

Adding a component to claude-skills

Where the file goes

Paths are relative to the repo root.

A skill may also carry supporting files in its own directory — reference.md for detail the model loads only when needed, scripts/ for anything executable.

Skill frontmatter

---
name: kebab-case-name
description: When Claude should reach for this skill, phrased as a trigger.
---

name is required and must be set explicitly. Marketplace installs place plugins in version-named directories, so the fallback to the directory name is not stable across updates.

description is the only part of a skill the model sees when deciding whether to load it. Write it as a trigger condition — "Use when the user is X" — rather than a summary of the contents.

Optional: model pins a model for the skill, and disable-model-invocation: true restricts it to explicit invocation by name.

After writing

1. Confirm it loads in a fresh session — the skill list is built at startup, so an already-running session will not see it.
2. Commit it.
3. Bump version in .claude-plugin/plugin.json only when publishing a change that marketplace users should pick up.

If the repo is symlinked into the skills directory

Write to the repo path rather than through the symlink. Same inode either way, but the repo path keeps git status honest. See the README for that setup.