New: 98,000+ skills indexed from GitHub repos with 100+ stars · every skill safety-checkedBrowse top skillsTop skills
Esc to closeBrowse all skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills

Agent skill

Building Skills From Patterns

by spencerpauly in spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills

When the same multi-step workflow repeats in Cursor (user corrections or agent redos), capture it as a new SKILL.md under .cursor/skills/ so future sessions load it automatically.

CC0-1.0Auto-check passed

Install Building Skills From Patterns

skills CLI
$ npx skills add spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills --skill building-skills-from-patterns -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills building-skills-from-patterns --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/spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/resources/building-skills-from-patterns .claude/skills/building-skills-from-patterns && 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
building-skills-from-patterns
GitHub stars
844
Token cost
~705 tokens
SKILL.md length
338 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
60
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
CC0-1.0

At a glance

When the same multi-step workflow repeats in Cursor (user corrections or agent redos), capture it as a new SKILL.md under .cursor/skills/ so future sessions load it automatically.

  • Works in 4 steps: Name the pattern → Draft SKILL.md → Validate → …
  • SKILL.md covers When to trigger, Workflow, Relationship to rules and hooks and Notes
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Building Skills From Patterns is an agent skill from spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills. When the same multi-step workflow repeats in Cursor (user corrections or agent redos), capture it as a new SKILL.md under .cursor/skills/ so future sessions load it automatically.

Its SKILL.md is about 710 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

The repository describes itself as: A curated list of awesome skills for Cursor. The licence is CC0-1.0.

Example prompts

  • “/building-skills-from-patterns”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Name the pattern
  2. Draft SKILL.md
  3. Validate
  4. Point the user to it

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 99cd265. 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

Building Skills From Patterns loads about 705 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 52 tokens; SKILL.md has 338 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~52
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~705

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 spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills at commit 99cd265, republished under its CC0-1.0 licence (© spencerpauly). 338 words, ~705 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/building-skills-from-patterns/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
building-skills-from-patterns
description
When the same multi-step workflow repeats in Cursor (user corrections or agent redos), capture it as a new SKILL.md under .cursor/skills/ so future sessions load it automatically.
user-invocable
true

Building Skills From Patterns

Skills are reusable SKILL.md files. This meta-skill tells the agent to promote repeated muscle memory into a named skill: research once, encode the workflow, reuse forever.

When to trigger

  • The user has asked for the same sequence three or more times (e.g. “always run lint then tsc then test before commit”).
  • The agent notices it is re-deriving the same steps on every task in this repo (e.g. “how we deploy preview branches”).
  • A correction sounds like a policy (“never use raw SQL here — always the repository layer”) — pair with suggesting-cursor-rules if it should be always-on; use a skill if it is a procedure with steps.

Workflow

1. Name the pattern

Choose a short slug (lowercase, hyphens): verifying-api-before-merge, releasing-mobile-build, etc.

2. Draft SKILL.md

Create .cursor/skills/<slug>/SKILL.md (or in this repo’s pattern, copy from resources/<slug>/SKILL.md when contributing upstream).

Frontmatter:

yaml
---
name: <slug>
description: One line: what it does and when to use it. Ends with a clear trigger.
user-invocable: true   # optional, if the user should be able to invoke by name
---

Body sections (keep lean):

  1. Title — human-readable.
  2. When to use — bullets.
  3. Steps — numbered, imperative, tool names where useful (npm, gh, MCP tools).
  4. Notes — edge cases, safety, when not to use.

Match the tone of other skills in the repo: concrete commands, no filler.

3. Validate
  • Description is specific enough for Cursor to match the skill when the user describes the task.
  • Steps are executable by an agent without guessing repo layout (or say “detect package manager from lockfile”).
  • No secrets or machine-specific paths.
4. Point the user to it

Tell the user where the file lives and that the agent will pick it up on the next chat in that workspace.

Relationship to rules and hooks

MechanismUse for
SkillOn-demand procedure, branching steps, tool usage.
Rule (.cursor/rules/)Always-on conventions, style, file patterns.
Hook (.cursor/hooks.json)Automate after file save / stop events.

If the pattern is “every time I save, run X,” suggest a hook instead. If it is “when I ask to ship,” keep it as a skill.

Notes

  • Prefer one skill per workflow — avoid megaskills that try to cover every situation.
  • Update an existing skill instead of adding a duplicate if the workflow evolves.

© spencerpauly, CC0-1.0. 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 resources/building-skills-from-patterns of spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 99cd265

Compare with similar skills

Building Skills From Patterns 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.

Building Skills From Patterns compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Building Skills From Patterns this skillspencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills844—~705Automated safety check: PassCC0-1.0
Repeatsoftspark/ai-toolkit179—~1.2kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
Repeat With Delayrebornix/Agmente546—~473Automated safety check: PassMIT
Do Not Repeat YourselfDimon94/skills107—~551Automated safety check: PassNone
Bio Genome Annotation Repeat AnnotationGPTomics/bioSkills1.2k1 repos~4.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Shopify Admin Repeat Purchase Rate40RTY-ai/shopify-admin-skills194—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Repeat

    softspark/ai-toolkit

    Runs prompt/slash command on recurring interval until done or limit.

    179 GitHub stars~1.2k tokensUpdated 2 days ago
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check: notes

  • Repeat With Delay

    rebornix/Agmente

    Execute repeated shell commands as separate tool calls with a delay between each iteration.

    546 GitHub stars~473 tokensUpdated 4 mo ago
    Testing & QAAuto-check passed

  • Do Not Repeat Yourself

    Dimon94/skills

    Find and reuse the nearest correct mechanism before adding another.

    107 GitHub stars~551 tokensUpdated 2 days ago
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Bio Genome Annotation Repeat Annotation

    GPTomics/bioSkills

    Discovers, classifies, and masks repetitive elements and transposable elements with RepeatModeler2 (de novo family library), RepeatMasker (masking against a library), EDTA (plant/structural TEs), or…

    1.2k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~4.6k tokens
    Research & ScienceAuto-check passed

  • Shopify Admin Repeat Purchase Rate

    40RTY-ai/shopify-admin-skills

    Read-only: calculates what percentage of customers place 2+ orders within N days, segmented by product or collection.

    194 GitHub stars~1.4k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Omh Rules Distill

    rlaope/oh-my-hermes

    [omh] Turn repeated lessons into written rules: extract repeated principles from skills, prompts, traces, reviews, and failures into reviewed rule candidates without auto-mutating guidance.

    3.2k GitHub stars~1.7k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check passed

More from spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills

All 60 skills in this repo

  • Generating Images

    spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills

    Generate or edit images using the OpenAI Image API (gpt-image-2).

    844 GitHub stars~3.7k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check: notes

  • Babysitting PR

    spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills

    Monitor a pull request for CI failures, review comments, and merge conflicts — then fix them automatically.

    844 GitHub stars~930 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Best Of N Solving

    spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills

    Solve a hard problem by trying multiple approaches in parallel using isolated git worktrees.

    844 GitHub stars~698 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Grinding Until Pass

    spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills

    Keep iterating on code changes until the tests pass, the build succeeds, or linting is clean.

    844 GitHub stars~796 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Parallel CI Triage

    spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills

    When GitHub Actions fails, fetch failing job logs and assign each failing job to a separate subagent that fixes its slice of the problem in parallel.

    844 GitHub stars~793 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Parallel Exploring

    spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills

    Explore a large codebase in parallel by launching multiple explore subagents that each investigate a different area simultaneously.

    844 GitHub stars~787 tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    Auto-check: notes

Questions about Building Skills From Patterns

What does Building Skills From Patterns do?

When the same multi-step workflow repeats in Cursor (user corrections or agent redos), capture it as a new SKILL.md under .cursor/skills/ so future sessions load it automatically. Building Skills From Patterns is an agent skill from spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills.cursor/skills/ so future sessions load it automatically.

How do I install Building Skills From Patterns in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills --skill building-skills-from-patterns -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (resources/building-skills-from-patterns in spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills) into .claude/skills/building-skills-from-patterns in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Building Skills From Patterns in Codex?

Run `npx skills add spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills --skill building-skills-from-patterns -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (resources/building-skills-from-patterns in spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills) into .agents/skills/building-skills-from-patterns in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Building Skills From Patterns 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 spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills --skill building-skills-from-patterns -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/building-skills-from-patterns, .gemini/skills/building-skills-from-patterns, .github/skills/building-skills-from-patterns and .opencode/skills/building-skills-from-patterns in your project.

What does Building Skills From Patterns need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Building Skills From Patterns is instructions for the agent only.

Does Building Skills From Patterns 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 Building Skills From Patterns 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 Building Skills From Patterns use?

Building Skills From Patterns is published under the CC0-1.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Building Skills From Patterns use?

About 705 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.8k 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 Building Skills From Patterns?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Building Skills From Patterns: Repeat (softspark/ai-toolkit, 179 stars), Repeat With Delay (rebornix/Agmente, 546 stars), Do Not Repeat Yourself (Dimon94/skills, 107 stars) and Bio Genome Annotation Repeat Annotation (GPTomics/bioSkills, 1.2k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Building Skills From Patterns?

spencerpauly (a GitHub user) maintains it in spencerpauly/awesome-cursor-skills, which has 844 GitHub stars. The repository holds 60 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 2, 2026.

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