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Agent skill

Codewhale Skill Creator

by codewhale-hq in codewhale-hq/Codewhale

Guides creating or improving codewhale skills: file layout, discovery paths, writing rules and whether a need fits a skill, an MCP server, hooks or a plugin.

MITAuto-check passedAgent Workflows

Install Codewhale Skill Creator

skills CLI
$ npx skills add codewhale-hq/Codewhale --skill skill-creator -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install codewhale-hq/Codewhale skill-creator --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/codewhale-hq/Codewhale.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/crates/tui/assets/skills/skill-creator .claude/skills/skill-creator && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
skill-creator
GitHub stars
41k
Token cost
~1k tokens
SKILL.md length
493 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
63
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Guides creating or improving codewhale skills: file layout, discovery paths, writing rules and whether a need fits a skill, an MCP server, hooks or a plugin.

  • Works in 7 steps: Define the skill boundary in one sentence. → Decide whether a skill is the right… → Create /SKILL.md. → …
  • Creating a new codewhale skill from a repeated workflow
  • SKILL.md covers What A Skill Is, Minimum Shape, Writing Rules and Creation Workflow, plus 2 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

A skill is a local folder with a SKILL.md file. Codewhale reads its name and description during discovery and loads the body only when a request matches. Discovery runs through a precedence-ordered list of workspace folders such as .agents/skills, skills, .claude/skills and .codewhale/skills, then the matching folders under your home directory. Skills carry instructions and workflows, MCP serves live external APIs and durable tools, hooks react to local events, and a plugin.json bundle distributes skills under a namespaced name.

Writing rules call for an action-oriented, trigger-specific description, an operational body covering what to do, what to avoid and how to verify, no general advice or marketing copy, bulky detail moved to references, scripts only for deterministic helpers and assets only for reused templates. Frontmatter stays plain single-line values with lower-case hyphen-case names, and community scripts need user intent and a trust review. The excerpt ends in the creation workflow.

When your agent uses it

  • Creating a new codewhale skill from a repeated workflow
  • Updating an existing skill's description and body
  • Deciding whether a need should be a skill, an MCP server, a hook or a plugin

Example prompts

  • “Create a codewhale skill for our release checklist.”
  • “Tighten the description of my deploy skill so it triggers on the right requests.”
  • “Tell me whether our database lookups should be a skill or an MCP server.”

Workflow steps

7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Define the skill boundary in one sentence.
  2. Decide whether a skill is the right surface
  3. Create /SKILL.md.
  4. Write frontmatter with name and description.
  5. Write a concise body with
  6. Add companion files only when they reduce real complexity.
  7. Validate by loading the skill through /skills or by running the relevant

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 8d2fb45. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Codewhale Skill Creator loads about 1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 55 tokens; SKILL.md has 493 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~55
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from codewhale-hq/Codewhale at commit 8d2fb45, republished under its MIT licence (© codewhale-hq). 493 words, ~1,041 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/skill-creator/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
skill-creator
description
Create or improve codewhale skills. Use when the user wants a new skill, wants to update an existing skill, or needs guidance on when a skill should be a skill versus MCP, hooks, tools, or a plugin scaffold.
metadata.short-description
Create Codewhale skills
aliases-for
create-skill

Skill Creator

Use this skill to create small, useful codewhale skills that match the runtime this repository actually ships.

What A Skill Is

A skill is a local folder with a SKILL.md file. Codewhale reads the skill name and description during discovery, then loads the body only when the user or task matches the skill.

Discovery paths, in precedence order:

  • <workspace>/.agents/skills
  • <workspace>/skills
  • <workspace>/.opencode/skills
  • <workspace>/.claude/skills
  • <workspace>/.cursor/skills
  • <workspace>/.codewhale/skills
  • ~/.agents/skills
  • ~/.claude/skills
  • ~/.codewhale/skills

Use skills for model instructions, workflows, and lightweight conventions. Use MCP for live external APIs or durable tools. Use hooks for automatic local events. To distribute a skill through a plugin bundle, give the bundle a plugin.json whose net.codewhale extension points skills.path at a directory holding <name>/SKILL.md folders; each skill then loads namespaced as <plugin>:<skill> after review, trust, and enablement. A bare SKILL.md directory is discoverable on the skills paths above but is not a plugin bundle and cannot be installed through /plugin install.

Minimum Shape

text
my-skill/
`-- SKILL.md
markdown
---
name: my-skill
description: Use when Codewhale should follow this specific workflow.
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent.

Frontmatter parsing is intentionally simple. Keep name and description as plain single-line values. Use lower-case hyphen-case names.

Writing Rules

  • Make the description action-oriented and trigger-specific. It is the main signal Codewhale sees before loading the body.
  • Keep the body operational. Include what to do, what to avoid, and how to verify the result.
  • Do not include general programming advice, marketing copy, or long background material.
  • Move bulky details to references/ and mention exactly when to open them.
  • Add scripts/ only for deterministic helpers that are worth maintaining.
  • Add assets/ only for templates, fixtures, examples, or files reused by the workflow.
  • Do not assume scripts are safe to run. Community skill scripts require user intent and trust review.
Show full SKILL.md (221 more words)Show less

Creation Workflow

  1. Define the skill boundary in one sentence.
  2. Decide whether a skill is the right surface:
    • Instructional workflow: skill
    • External service/API: MCP server plus an optional skill
    • Repeated shell helper: local tool or script plus an optional skill
    • Packaging multiple pieces: plugin scaffold plus skill/MCP activation notes
  3. Create <skill-name>/SKILL.md.
  4. Write frontmatter with name and description.
  5. Write a concise body with:
    • trigger and scope
    • required inputs or assumptions
    • step-by-step workflow
    • validation checks
    • safety notes
  6. Add companion files only when they reduce real complexity.
  7. Validate by loading the skill through /skills or by running the relevant skill discovery tests if editing this repository.

Updating Existing Skills

  • Preserve the user's local intent. Avoid replacing a working skill wholesale unless the user asked for a rewrite.
  • Tighten descriptions when the skill is under-triggering or over-triggering.
  • Remove stale tool names, unavailable dependencies, and copied instructions from other agents that do not apply to codewhale.
  • Keep examples short and directly tied to this runtime's commands and tools.

Validation Checklist

  • SKILL.md starts with ---.
  • name matches the directory name unless there is a deliberate reason.
  • description says when to use the skill, not just what it is.
  • The body references only tools, commands, and paths that exist or are clearly optional.
  • Any scripts or external-service steps explain credential and trust handling.

© codewhale-hq, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in crates/tui/assets/skills/skill-creator of codewhale-hq/Codewhale.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 8d2fb45

Compare with similar skills

Codewhale Skill Creator next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Codewhale Skill Creator compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Codewhale Skill Creator this skillcodewhale-hq/Codewhale41k—~1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Mistral Vibe Plugin Creatormistralai/mistral-vibe5.1k—~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Skill Creatorstacklok/toolhive-studio170—~677Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
MCP Integration for Pluginsanthropics/claude-plugins-official38k11 repos~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Crush Configurationcharmbracelet/crush29k—~3.7kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Skill Seekers Builderyusufkaraaslan/Skill_Seekers15k—~760Automated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Categories

Questions about Codewhale Skill Creator

What does Codewhale Skill Creator do?

Guides creating or improving codewhale skills: file layout, discovery paths, writing rules and whether a need fits a skill, an MCP server, hooks or a plugin. md file. Codewhale reads its name and description during discovery and loads the body only when a request matches.

When should I use Codewhale Skill Creator?

Codewhale Skill Creator fits situations like: creating a new codewhale skill from a repeated workflow; updating an existing skill's description and body; deciding whether a need should be a skill, an MCP server, a hook or a plugin.

How do I install Codewhale Skill Creator in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add codewhale-hq/Codewhale --skill skill-creator -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (crates/tui/assets/skills/skill-creator in codewhale-hq/Codewhale) into .claude/skills/skill-creator in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Codewhale Skill Creator in Codex?

Run `npx skills add codewhale-hq/Codewhale --skill skill-creator -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (crates/tui/assets/skills/skill-creator in codewhale-hq/Codewhale) into .agents/skills/skill-creator in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Codewhale Skill Creator in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add codewhale-hq/Codewhale --skill skill-creator -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/skill-creator, .gemini/skills/skill-creator, .github/skills/skill-creator and .opencode/skills/skill-creator in your project.

What does Codewhale Skill Creator need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Codewhale Skill Creator is instructions for the agent only.

Does Codewhale Skill Creator access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Codewhale Skill Creator safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Codewhale Skill Creator use?

Codewhale Skill Creator is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Codewhale Skill Creator use?

About 1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4.2k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Codewhale Skill Creator?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Codewhale Skill Creator: Mistral Vibe Plugin Creator (mistralai/mistral-vibe, 5.1k stars), Skill Creator (stacklok/toolhive-studio, 170 stars), MCP Integration for Plugins (anthropics/claude-plugins-official, 38k stars) and Crush Configuration (charmbracelet/crush, 29k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Codewhale Skill Creator?

codewhale-hq (a GitHub organization) maintains it in codewhale-hq/Codewhale, which has 41,078 GitHub stars. The repository holds 63 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: codewhale-hq/Codewhale on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.