Write A Skill

Write A Skill

The meta-skill for building skill packages. It turns standards/skill-authoring-standard.md from a document you agree with into a gate you can run: scaffold the package, write a description that actually activates, place content in the right file, and lint against all 11 patterns before anyone reviews it. Most rejected skills fail on two things — a description nothing matches, and a SKILL.md carrying content that belonged in references/.

When to use this skill

• Creating a new skill from a one-line idea and needing the package structure right the first time
• Reviewing a skill PR and wanting a mechanical pass before spending attention on judgement
• Fixing a skill that never activates despite being well written — almost always a description problem
• Splitting an oversized SKILL.md that has crept past 500 lines
• Auditing a whole domain for description collisions after adding several neighbouring skills
• Onboarding a new author who needs the standard operationalised rather than explained

Inputs the skill expects

• The skill's one-sentence purpose and the domain directory it belongs in
• The three to five user sentences that should activate it (these become the description)
• Which existing skills sit closest to it in trigger space
• Whether it emits a deliverable (drives the Pattern 11 Clarify First gate) or only advises
• The analysis each script will perform, and the sample input each will run against
• Any deep knowledge that will exceed the SKILL.md budget and belongs in references/

Under Pattern 9 this skill is self-contained except for one permitted outbound reference: standards/skill-authoring-standard.md. Standards apply library-wide, so citing them does not create a cross-skill dependency. Nothing here may point at another skill's files.

Clarify First

Before scaffolding, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:

• Trigger sentences — the literal phrases a user would type; they set the description, which decides whether the skill ever activates
• Nearest existing skills — determines whether this should be a new package or an extension of one that already owns the trigger space
• Generative or advisory — generative skills require the Clarify First gate; advisory ones must omit it
• What the scripts compute — a skill whose scripts only reformat user input will not clear the 40% time-saving bar