Purpose
Provide clear, imperative guidance to design, initialize, validate, and package modular skills that extend Claude. Emphasize progressive disclosure, reusable resources, and high-quality metadata.
When to Use
Use when a user requests to create or improve a skill that bundles specialized workflows, tools, domain knowledge, or assets. Trigger when queries mention new skills, packaging skills, initialization, validation, or distribution.
How to Use
- •Understand concrete usage examples and confirm scope.
- •Plan reusable resources: scripts, references, assets.
- •Initialize a new skill directory using the initializer.
- •Edit SKILL.md in imperative style; keep references in separate files.
- •Validate and package into a distributable zip.
Initialize a New Skill
Run the initializer to scaffold a skill directory with required structure and a SKILL.md template.
scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>
Outputs:
- •<output-directory>/<skill-name>/
- •SKILL.md (with YAML frontmatter placeholders)
- •scripts/
- •references/
- •assets/
Edit the Skill
- •Write SKILL.md in imperative/infinitive form; third-person phrasing.
- •Keep detailed schemas, policies, and API docs in
references/. - •Store templates, fonts, icons, boilerplate code in
assets/. - •Add deterministic or frequently reused code to
scripts/.
Validate and Package
Run the packager to validate structure and metadata, then create a distributable zip.
scripts/package_skill.py <path/to/skill-folder> [./dist]
Validation checks (summary):
- •SKILL.md exists with frontmatter containing
nameanddescription. - •Description is concise (≤120 words) and uses third-person (“This skill should be used when …”).
- •Optional folders (
scripts/,references/,assets/) are organized;references/excludes binaries.
See references/validator_criteria.md for full criteria.
Progressive Disclosure
- •Metadata (name + description) — always loaded.
- •SKILL.md body — load when the skill triggers (<5k words).
- •Bundled resources — load or execute on demand.
Notes
- •Keep SKILL.md lean; move details to
references/. - •Include grep patterns in SKILL.md only when references are large.
- •Maintain non-interactive defaults in scripts; provide
--help.