Make Skill

Create Skill

This skill helps you scaffold new agent skills that conform to the Agent Skills specification. Agent Skills are a lightweight, open format for extending AI agent capabilities with specialized knowledge and workflows.

When Not to Use

• Creating custom agents (use the agents/ directory pattern)
• Adding language-specific, framework-specific, or module-specific coding guidelines (use file-based instructions instead)

Key Principles

• Frontmatter is critical: name and description determine when the skill triggers—be clear and comprehensive
• Concise is key: Only include what agents don't already know; context window is shared
• Useful instructions: Only include information that's stable, not easily searchable and can be used for any task within the skill's scope
• No duplication: Information lives in SKILL.md OR reference files, not both

Workflow

Step 1: Investigate the Topic

Build deep understanding of the relevant topics using the repository content, existing documentation, and any linked external resources.

After investigating, verify:

• Can explain what the skill does in one paragraph
• Can list 3-5 specific scenarios where the skill is applicable
• Can identify common pitfalls or misconceptions about the topic
• Can outline a step-by-step skill workflow with clear validation steps
• Have search queries for deeper topics
• Can determine if the skill should be user-invocable or background knowledge only

If there are any ambiguities, gaps in understanding, or multiple valid approaches, ask the user for clarification before proceeding to skill creation. Also, evaluate whether the task might be better handled by a custom agent, agentic workflow, an existing skill or multiple narrower skills, and discuss this with the user if relevant.

Step 2: Create the skill directory

.agents/skills/<skill-name>/
├── SKILL.md          # Required: instructions + metadata

Step 3: Generate SKILL.md with frontmatter

Create the file with required YAML frontmatter:

---
name: <skill-name>
description: <description of what the skill does and when to use it>
user-invocable: <Optional, defaults to true. Set to false for background knowledge skills.>
argument-hint: <Optional, guidance for how agents should format arguments when invoking the skill.>
disable-model-invocation: <Optional, set to true to prevent agents from invoking the skill and only allow to be used through manual invocation.>
compatibility: <Optional, specify any environment, tool, or context requirements for the skill.>
metadata: <Optional, key-value mapping for additional metadata that may be relevant for discovery or execution.>
allowed-tools: <Optional, list of pre-approved tools that agents could use when invoking the skill.>
---

Step 4: Add body content sections

Include these recommended sections, following this file's structure:

1. <Human-readable skill name>: One paragraph describing the outcome beyond what's already in the description
2. When Not to Use: Bullet list of exclusions, optional
3. Inputs and Outputs: Example inputs and expected outputs, if applicable
4. Workflow: Numbered steps with checkpoints
5. Testing: Instructions for how to create automated tests for the skill output, if applicable
6. Validation: How to confirm the skill worked correctly
7. Common Pitfalls: Known traps and how to avoid them, optional

Step 5: Add and populate optional directories if needed

.agents/skills/<skill-name>/
├── SKILL.md
├── scripts/          # Optional: executable code that agents can run
├── references/       # Optional: REFERENCE.md (Detailed technical reference), FORMS.md (Form templates or structured data formats), domain-specific instruction files
└── assets/           # Optional: templates, resources and other data files that aren't executable or Markdown

Step 6: Write Scripts (Script-driven Only)

• Prefer PowerShell, but can also use Python or JavaScript
• Standard param block with defaults
• Ensure scripts produce clear, structured, and parseable console output (for example, section headers and status lines)
• Emoji status: ✅ green / ⚠️ yellow / 🔴 red
• Fail-closed error handling — Unknown ≠ Healthy

❌ NEVER count API failures as success. Return "Unknown" and exclude from positive counts.