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Agent skill

Skill Authoring

by hashgraph-online in hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins

A skill your agent uses when creating, editing, or reviewing HOTL skills, agents, command prompts, or other behavior-shaping instruction files.

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedAgent Workflows

Install Skill Authoring

skills CLI
$ npx skills add hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins --skill skill-authoring -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins skill-authoring --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/hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/yimwoo/hotl-plugin/skills/skill-authoring .claude/skills/skill-authoring && 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-authoring
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~825 tokens
SKILL.md length
395 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
686
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when creating, editing, or reviewing HOTL skills, agents, command prompts, or other behavior-shaping instruction files.

  • Works in 6 steps: State the behavior change → Choose the right abstraction → Write trigger-only frontmatter → …
  • Reviewing HOTL skills
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, When To Use, Process and Description Trap, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Skill Authoring is an agent skill from hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins. Use when creating, editing, or reviewing HOTL skills, agents, command prompts, or other behavior-shaping instruction files.

Its SKILL.md is about 830 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Agent Workflows, covering Skill authoring. The repository describes itself as: A curated list of awesome OpenAI Codex / ChatGPT plugins, skills, and resources. The 1 Codex Marketplace. See live plugins at: https://hol.org/plugins/best-codex-plugins. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Reviewing HOTL skills
  • Command prompts
  • Other behavior-shaping instruction files

Example prompts

  • “/skill-authoring”

Workflow steps

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

  1. State the behavior change
  2. Choose the right abstraction
  3. Write trigger-only frontmatter
  4. Keep behavior text testable
  5. Update routing and mirrors
  6. Verify behavior

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 78497e5. 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 yaml).

    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

Skill Authoring loads about 825 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 35 tokens; SKILL.md has 395 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~35
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~825

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 hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins at commit 78497e5, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© hashgraph-online). 395 words, ~825 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/skill-authoring/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
skill-authoring
description
Use when creating, editing, or reviewing HOTL skills, agents, command prompts, or other behavior-shaping instruction files.

HOTL Skill Authoring

Overview

HOTL skills are behavior-shaping code. Treat changes to skill text, agent prompts, command routers, and adapter instructions with the same care as production logic: define the failure mode, make the desired behavior explicit, verify the change, and update every index or mirror that exposes it.

When To Use

Use this before changing:

  • skills/*/SKILL.md
  • agents/*.md
  • commands/*.md
  • cline/rules/*.md
  • adapter templates that steer agent behavior
  • docs that define skill invocation or routing

Do not use it for ordinary product docs, generated reports, or local project README edits unless they change how agents should behave.

Process

  1. State the behavior change

    • What agent behavior is wrong, missing, or ambiguous?
    • What prompt or session exposed the issue?
    • Is the change broadly useful, or project-specific?

  2. Choose the right abstraction

    • Skill: reusable workflow or process the user can invoke.
    • Agent: isolated specialist with a stable output contract.
    • Inline prompt: short role text used by one skill only.
    • Script/lint: deterministic rule that should not depend on model judgment.

  3. Write trigger-only frontmatter

    • name: kebab-case, no command-name collision.
    • description: says when to activate, not the workflow steps.
    • Avoid descriptions that summarize the process; agents may follow the summary and skip the body.

  4. Keep behavior text testable

    • Use direct rules for invariants.
    • Add red flags for common rationalizations.
    • Prefer short, concrete examples over long narratives.
    • Separate heavy references or templates into adjacent files only when they reduce the main skill's noise.

  5. Update routing and mirrors

    • Add new skills to skills/using-hotl/SKILL.md.
    • Update docs/skills.md, README tables, and Codex docs for user-visible skill changes.
    • Update Cline rules or adapter templates when their behavior mirrors the changed skill.

  6. Verify behavior

    • Add or update smoke tests for structural expectations.
    • For high-impact skill wording, run pressure tests or before/after sessions that demonstrate the target behavior.
    • Run bats test/smoke.bats before claiming the skill change is ready.
Show full SKILL.md (88 more words)Show less

Description Trap

The frontmatter description is discovery text, not a miniature skill. If it contains a workflow summary, an agent may act on that summary without reading the full body.

Bad:

yaml
description: Use when executing plans - dispatches workers, reviews every task, then finalizes

Good:

yaml
description: Use when executing implementation workflows that can delegate contained steps to fresh subagents.

Checklist

  • The change solves a real behavior gap.
  • The abstraction is skill vs agent vs inline vs script for a reason.
  • Frontmatter description is trigger-only.
  • New skills are indexed in using-hotl.
  • User-facing docs list new or renamed skills.
  • Mirrors and adapters are updated when behavior is shared.
  • Smoke tests or pressure tests cover the changed behavior.

© hashgraph-online, Apache-2.0. 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 plugins/yimwoo/hotl-plugin/skills/skill-authoring of hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 78497e5

Compare with similar skills

Skill Authoring 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.

Skill Authoring compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Skill Authoring this skillhashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins1.2k—~825Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Skill CreatorAzure/azqr79589 repos~8.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Claude Code Skill Developer Guidediet103/claude-code-infrastructure-showcase10k11 repos~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Darwin Skill Optimizeralchaincyf/darwin-skill6.2k1 repos~4.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Claude Code Command Developmentanthropics/claude-plugins-official38k10 repos~4.8kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Claude Code Plugin Structureanthropics/claude-plugins-official38k10 repos~3.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Categories

Questions about Skill Authoring

What does Skill Authoring do?

A skill your agent uses when creating, editing, or reviewing HOTL skills, agents, command prompts, or other behavior-shaping instruction files. Skill Authoring is an agent skill from hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins. Use when creating, editing, or reviewing HOTL skills, agents, command prompts, or other behavior-shaping instruction files.

When should I use Skill Authoring?

Skill Authoring fits situations like: reviewing HOTL skills; command prompts; other behavior-shaping instruction files.

How do I install Skill Authoring in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins --skill skill-authoring -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/yimwoo/hotl-plugin/skills/skill-authoring in hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins) into .claude/skills/skill-authoring in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Skill Authoring in Codex?

Run `npx skills add hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins --skill skill-authoring -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/yimwoo/hotl-plugin/skills/skill-authoring in hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins) into .agents/skills/skill-authoring in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Skill Authoring 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 hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins --skill skill-authoring -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-authoring, .gemini/skills/skill-authoring, .github/skills/skill-authoring and .opencode/skills/skill-authoring in your project.

What does Skill Authoring need to run?

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

Does Skill Authoring 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 Skill Authoring 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 Skill Authoring use?

Skill Authoring is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Skill Authoring use?

About 825 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.3k 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 Skill Authoring?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Skill Authoring: Skill Creator (Azure/azqr, 795 stars), Claude Code Skill Developer Guide (diet103/claude-code-infrastructure-showcase, 10k stars), Darwin Skill Optimizer (alchaincyf/darwin-skill, 6.2k stars) and Claude Code Command Development (anthropics/claude-plugins-official, 38k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Skill Authoring?

hashgraph-online (a GitHub organization) maintains it in hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins, which has 1,242 GitHub stars. The repository holds 686 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.

Source: hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.