Create Skill

What it does

When your agent uses it

• The user asks to create a skill
• Add a SKILL.md workflow
• Register a skill in skills-manifest.json
• Package a skill in a Vetta plugin

Example prompts

• “/create-skill”

Workflow steps

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

1. 1Convert the requested name to lowercase kebab-case. It must be 1-64 characters containing only lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens. The…
2. 2Inspect nearby Skills and relevant project documentation before writing. Reuse established terminology and tool names without copying…
3. 3Create /SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter containing name and description.
4. 4Write the body as imperative workflow instructions. State when to inspect context, when to ask a question, what files to create or edit…
5. 5Add scripts/, references/, or assets/ only when genuinely required. Keep detailed reference material outside SKILL.md and link to it with…
6. 6Do not overwrite an existing Skill or unrelated configuration without reading it first. Ask before replacing intentional behavior. Inside…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit a2d314a. 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 json and 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

Create Skill loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 61 tokens; SKILL.md has 721 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~61

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.6k

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

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 openvetta/open-vetta at commit a2d314a, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© openvetta). 721 words, ~1,551 tokens.

name

create-skill

description

Create or update Vetta-compatible Agent Skills. Use when the user asks to create a skill, add a SKILL.md workflow, register a skill in skills-manifest.json, package a skill in a Vetta plugin, or add a built-in Vetta skill preset.

---
name: example-skill
description: Describe what the Skill does and the user requests that should trigger it.
---

# Example Skill

Concise workflow instructions.

{
  "example-skill": {
    "name": "example-skill",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "installedAt": "<current ISO-8601 timestamp>",
    "source": "custom",
    "enabled": true,
    "type": "skill",
    "alias": "Optional display name",
    "description": "Description aligned with SKILL.md frontmatter"
  }
}

{
  "agent": {
    "skillPaths": ["agent/skills"]
  }
}

© openvetta, 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

SKILL.md and 1 other file in packages/skill-presets/create-skill of openvetta/open-vetta.

• SKILL.md
• ability.json

Open the folder on GitHubat commit a2d314a