Design, improve, and evaluate reusable agent skills with high-quality SKILL.md files, precise trigger descriptions, progressive disclosure, and testable behavior.

MITAuto-check passedAgent Workflows

Install Skill Authoring

skills CLI
$ npx skills add TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit --skill skill-authoring -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit 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/TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/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
1.1k
Token cost
~1.6k tokens
SKILL.md length
778 words
Files
8 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
49
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Design, improve, and evaluate reusable agent skills with high-quality SKILL.md files, precise trigger descriptions, progressive disclosure, and testable behavior.

  • Works in 6 steps: Identify the task class first → Optimize the trigger surface early → Design behavior, not just documentation → …
  • Progressive disclosure
  • SKILL.md covers When to use this skill, Repo-managed CloudBase skill…, How to use this skill (for a… and Routing, plus 2 more sections
  • Calls npm

What it does

Skill Authoring is an agent skill from TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit. Design, improve, and evaluate reusable agent skills with high-quality SKILL.md files, precise trigger descriptions, progressive disclosure, and testable behavior. This skill should be used when users ask to create a new skill, rewrite or review an existing skill, audit a skill collection such as config/source/skills for redundancy or overlap, improve skill trigger quality, organize skill references, or evaluate whether a skill should trigger and behave correctly.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 8 other files, including reference files (for example `references/cloudbase-skill-review.md`, `references/evaluation.md` and `references/examples.md`).

It sits in Agent Workflows, covering Skill authoring. The repository describes itself as: Backend for AI coding agents on CloudBase — database, auth, functions via Plugin, Skills & MCP. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Progressive disclosure
  • Testable behavior
  • S ask to create a new skill
  • Review an existing skill

Example prompts

  • “/skill-authoring”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Identify the task class first
  2. Optimize the trigger surface early
  3. Design behavior, not just documentation
  4. Load supporting materials only when needed
  5. Use collection-level review when the request is about many skills
  6. Evaluate before considering the skill complete

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit ea2c202. 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

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • npm

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use npm, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    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 1.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~9.6k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 121 tokens; SKILL.md has 778 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~121
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.6k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~9.6k

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

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 TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit at commit ea2c202, republished under its MIT licence (© TencentCloudBase). 778 words, ~1,640 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/skill-authoring/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 7 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
skill-authoring
description
Design, improve, and evaluate reusable agent skills with high-quality SKILL.md files, precise trigger descriptions, progressive disclosure, and testable behavior. This skill should be used when users ask to create a new skill, rewrite or review an existing skill, audit a skill collection such as `config/source/skills` for redundancy or overlap, improve skill trigger quality, organize skill references, or evaluate whether a skill should trigger and behave correctly.
alwaysApply
false

Skill Authoring

Create and refine reusable agent skills with better trigger quality, cleaner structure, stronger behavioral guidance, and more reliable evaluation.

When to use this skill

Use this skill when you need to:

  • Create a new SKILL.md
  • Improve an existing skill's name or description
  • Review whether a skill is too broad, too narrow, or poorly structured
  • Audit a local skill collection such as config/source/skills for redundancy, trigger overlap, or weak boundaries
  • Split a large skill into SKILL.md plus references/, assets/, or scripts/
  • Design evaluation prompts and review whether a skill triggers and behaves correctly

Repo-managed CloudBase skill review

When the task targets config/source/skills, apply these guardrails in addition to the normal skill-authoring workflow:

This section is the repo-managed CloudBase skill review baseline for this repository.

  • Keep frontmatter complete and normalized, including version
  • Keep examples inside the skill's declared platform and scope
  • Keep shared operational rules in one canonical source instead of copying large blocks across neighboring skills
  • If the skill claims a rule is mandatory, show that rule in at least one example
  • When giving a recommended default, also explain the tradeoff behind it
  • Do not add agent-directed remote skill-fetch URLs (for example cnb.cool/.../git/raw/... skill bodies or (standalone fallback: ...) raw links). Marketplace reviewers treat those as injection / session-hijack risk.
  • Prefer local relative sibling paths (../other-skill/SKILL.md). If a sibling is missing, tell the agent to ask the user to install the full CloudBase plugin or skills pack — never to HTTP-fetch remote skill markdown into context.
  • Human documentation URLs (docs.cloudbase.net, console pages) remain allowed when they are not skill-body fetch instructions.
  • Do not infer public CNB / OpenClaw / ClawHub paths from the source tree when writing marketplace-facing install docs; verify the actual published structure first.

Do NOT use for:

  • General documentation writing that is not about skills
  • README polish or marketing copy
  • Prompt tweaks that do not affect skill structure or behavior
  • Rule files unrelated to SKILL.md

How to use this skill (for a coding agent)

  1. Identify the task class first

    • Determine whether the request is about creating a new skill, reviewing an existing skill, or improving trigger quality, structure, or evaluation
  2. Optimize the trigger surface early

    • Draft name and especially description before expanding the body
    • Put realistic trigger language into description, not only into the body
  3. Design behavior, not just documentation

    • Make the main SKILL.md tell the agent what to do after the skill triggers
    • Use references for deeper guidance, not as a substitute for behavioral rules
  4. Load supporting materials only when needed

    • Use the routing table to decide which reference file to read
    • Avoid loading every reference file by default
  5. Use collection-level review when the request is about many skills

    • When reviewing config/source/skills, check overlap, duplication, trigger boundaries, and progressive disclosure across neighboring skills
    • Prefer evidence-based findings with concrete file references and rewrite guidance
    • Treat source layout, published skills-repo layout, and marketplace-consumed layout as different surfaces until you verify they are the same
  6. Evaluate before considering the skill complete

    • Create should-trigger and should-not-trigger prompts
    • Run them, review the results, and iterate on the skill
Show full SKILL.md (269 more words)Show less

Routing

TaskRead
Write or improve name and descriptionreferences/frontmatter-patterns.md
Design skill anatomy and progressive disclosurereferences/structure-patterns.md
Draft a new skill or review an existing onereferences/templates.md
Audit config/source/skills for quality, redundancy, and overlapreferences/repo-skill-review.md
Review repo-managed CloudBase source skillsreferences/cloudbase-skill-review.md
Build evaluation prompts and review outcomesreferences/evaluation.md
Compare good examples, weak examples, and rewritesreferences/examples.md

Quick workflow

  1. Identify the skill's job, boundary, and closest neighboring skills.
  2. Draft name and description with realistic trigger language.
  3. If the task targets config/source/skills, read references/repo-skill-review.md, then load references/cloudbase-skill-review.md for CloudBase-specific standards before proposing rewrites.
  4. Keep sibling routing local-only; do not add remote skill-fetch URLs.
  5. Write the main SKILL.md so it changes agent behavior after trigger.
  6. Move deep detail into references/, assets/, or scripts/ as needed.
  7. If the skill ships in plugin/cloudbase, also write plugin/cloudbase/skill-metadata.json (see references/templates.md landing checklist) and run npm run build:skill-manifest.
  8. Run evaluation prompts and revise until trigger quality and behavior are stable.

Minimum self-check

  • Is the name short, intentional, and stable?
  • Does the description explain both capability and trigger conditions?
  • Does the main SKILL.md change agent behavior after trigger?
  • Are non-applicable scenarios explicit?
  • Does routing point to the right reference file for each task?
  • Does the skill avoid agent-directed remote skill-fetch URLs and keep sibling routing local-only?
  • Are evaluation prompts present for both should-trigger and should-not-trigger cases?
  • Can you explain why this skill stays distinct from its nearest neighbors?
  • If reviewing a skill collection, can you point to redundancy, overlap, and missing boundaries with concrete evidence?
  • If this is a plugin skill, does plugin/cloudbase/skill-metadata.json include the new dir with non-empty promptSignals.phrases?

© TencentCloudBase, MIT. 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 7 other files (references) in skills/skill-authoring of TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/cloudbase-skill-review.md
  • references/evaluation.md
  • references/examples.md
  • references/frontmatter-patterns.md
  • references/repo-skill-review.md
  • references/structure-patterns.md
  • references/templates.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit ea2c202

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 skillTencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit1.1k—~1.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Skill CreatorAzure/azqr79489 repos~8.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Claude Code Skill Developer Guidediet103/claude-code-infrastructure-showcase10k10 repos~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Darwin Skill Optimizeralchaincyf/darwin-skill6.2k1 repos~4.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Claude Code Command Developmentanthropics/claude-plugins-official37k10 repos~4.8kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Claude Code Plugin Structureanthropics/claude-plugins-official37k10 repos~3.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

Similar skills

  • Skill Creator

    Azure/azqr

    Official

    Create new skills, modify and improve existing skills, and measure skill performance.

    794 GitHub starsUsed in 89 repos~8.2k tokens
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check passed
  • Claude Code Skill Developer Guide

    diet103/claude-code-infrastructure-showcase

    A guide to creating and managing Claude Code skills with auto-activation: skill-rules.json triggers, hooks, enforcement levels, YAML frontmatter and progressive disclosure.

    10k GitHub starsUsed in 10 repos~3.5k tokens
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check passed
  • Darwin Skill Optimizer

    alchaincyf/darwin-skill

    Scores SKILL.md files on a nine-dimension rubric, then improves them in a keep-or-revert loop with independent judge agents, test prompts, git history and human checkpoints.

    6.2k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~4.7k tokens
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check passed
  • Claude Code Command Development

    anthropics/claude-plugins-official

    Official

    Explains how to write Claude Code slash commands: Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, arguments, file references, bash context and interactive prompts.

    37k GitHub starsUsed in 10 repos~4.8k tokens
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check passed
  • Claude Code Plugin Structure

    anthropics/claude-plugins-official

    Official

    Explains the directory layout, plugin.json manifest and component organization of a Claude Code plugin, including auto-discovery and portable paths.

    37k GitHub starsUsed in 10 repos~3.4k tokens
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check passed
  • Skill Release Gate

    rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch

    Evaluates an Agent Skill bundle before release for structure, trigger quality, artifact improvement, script correctness, safety, installed-tree integrity and host portability.

    65k GitHub stars~1k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Agent WorkflowsAuto-check passed

More from TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit

All 49 skills in this repo
  • AI Model Nodejs

    TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit

    A skill your agent uses for Node.js backend AI via @cloudbase/node-sdk (=3.16.0) — cloud functions, CloudRun, Express/Koa/NestJS, serverless APIs, scheduled jobs, LLM proxies, agent orchestration.

    1.1k GitHub starsUsed in 3 repos~5k tokens
    Auto-check passed
  • HTTP API Cloudbase

    TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit

    CloudBase official HTTP API client guide. An agent skill from TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit.

    1.1k GitHub starsUsed in 3 repos~2.1k tokens
    Auto-check passed
  • Cloud API Recipe Authoring

    TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit

    Author or revise a cloud-api-operations recipe (config/source/skills/cloud-api-operations/references/recipes/).

    1.1k GitHub stars~3.7k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Auto-check passed
  • Manage Local Skills

    TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit

    Analyze, standardize, validate, and sync locally maintained skills into agent skill directories with a skills CLI-aligned workflow.

    1.1k GitHub stars~1.2k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Auto-check passed
  • Cloudbase Agent Python

    TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit

    Build production-ready AI agent backends using the CloudBase Agent Python SDK — create agents with LangGraph/CrewAI/LlamaIndex, serve them via FastAPI with AG-UI protocol streaming +…

    1.1k GitHub starsUsed in 2 repos~2.9k tokens
    Auto-check: notes
  • Cloudbase

    TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit

    A skill your agent uses when you develop, design, build, deploy, debug, migrate, or troubleshoot CloudBase (腾讯云开发, 云开发, TCB, 微信云开发) projects — Web, 微信小程序, 小程序, uni-app, mobile (iOS, Android…

    1.1k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~4.7k tokens
    Auto-check passed

Categories

Questions about Skill Authoring

What does Skill Authoring do?

Design, improve, and evaluate reusable agent skills with high-quality SKILL.md files, precise trigger descriptions, progressive disclosure, and testable behavior. Skill Authoring is an agent skill from TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit.md files, precise trigger descriptions, progressive disclosure, and testable behavior.

When should I use Skill Authoring?

Skill Authoring fits situations like: progressive disclosure; testable behavior; S ask to create a new skill; review an existing skill.

How do I install Skill Authoring in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit --skill skill-authoring -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/skill-authoring in TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit) 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 TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit --skill skill-authoring -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/skill-authoring in TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit) 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 TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit --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?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Skill Authoring needs the command-line tools its instructions call (npm).

Does Skill Authoring access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use npm, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. 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 MIT 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 1.6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 8k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Skill Authoring?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Skill Authoring: Skill Creator (Azure/azqr, 794 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, 37k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Skill Authoring?

TencentCloudBase (a GitHub organization) maintains it in TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit, which has 1,132 GitHub stars. The repository holds 49 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 6, 2026.

Source: TencentCloudBase/CloudBase-AI-Toolkit on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.