Skill Creator
Guide for creating Claude Code skills following this project's conventions.
Skill Location
Skills live at ~/unix-utils/configs/ai-docs/claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md, symlinked to ~/.claude/skills/.
SKILL.md Structure
markdown
--- description: "Third-person trigger description. Be specific about when to use." user-invocable: false --- # Skill Title Brief intro (1-2 lines). ## Sections Content organized by topic. Use headers, code blocks, tables, and lists.
Frontmatter Fields
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
description | Yes | Triggers auto-loading. Use third-person: "This skill should be used when..." Include exact trigger phrases in quotes. |
user-invocable | No | Set false for auto-loaded context (default). Set true + add description for /slash commands. |
name | No | Display name (defaults to directory name). |
version | No | Semver string. |
Conventions
- •One concern per skill -- don't mix unrelated topics.
- •Auto-loaded by default -- use
user-invocable: falseunless the skill is a workflow triggered by/slash. - •Description = trigger -- Claude matches user intent to skill descriptions. Be concrete: include exact phrases users would say.
- •Static content only --
!command`` syntax works in commands, NOT in skills. Skills are loaded as-is. - •
@pathimports work -- reference other files with@~/path/to/file. - •Supporting files -- put reference material in
references/orexamples/subdirs alongside SKILL.md. - •Keep skills focused -- aim for 40-200 lines. If larger, split into multiple skills or use supporting files.
- •Skill descriptions budget -- all auto-loaded skill descriptions share ~15,000 char budget. Keep descriptions under 200 chars each.
Examples
Auto-loaded knowledge skill (most common)
yaml
--- description: "Jira API shell utilities for issue CRUD, linking, querying, and status transitions" user-invocable: false ---
User-invocable workflow skill
yaml
--- description: "Create a comprehensive code review with context gathering and GitHub posting" user-invocable: true ---
Checklist
- •Create
skills/<name>/SKILL.mdwith frontmatter - •Write focused, scannable content (headers, code blocks, tables)
- •Verify description triggers correctly (ask Claude about the topic)
- •Add symlink to
install.shif not already present (skills dir is symlinked as a whole)