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Official agent skill

Authoring Skills

by vercel in vercel/next.js

How to create and maintain agent skills in .agents/skills/. An agent skill from vercel/next.js.

OfficialMITAuto-check passedAgent Workflows

Install Authoring Skills

skills CLI
$ npx skills add vercel/next.js --skill authoring-skills -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install vercel/next.js authoring-skills --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/vercel/next.js.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/authoring-skills .claude/skills/authoring-skills && 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
authoring-skills
GitHub stars
143k
Token cost
~1k tokens
SKILL.md length
261 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
27
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

How to create and maintain agent skills in .agents/skills/. An agent skill from vercel/next.js.

  • Works in 4 steps: What the skill covers (topic) → When to use it (trigger scenario) → Key file names the skill references… → …
  • Creating a new SKILL.md
  • SKILL.md covers When to Create a Skill, File Structure, Supported Frontmatter Fields and Writing Descriptions, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Authoring Skills is an agent skill from vercel/next.js, published by the product's own GitHub organization. How to create and maintain agent skills in .agents/skills/. Use when creating a new SKILL.md, writing skill descriptions, choosing frontmatter fields, or deciding what content belongs in a skill vs AGENTS.md. Covers the supported spec fields, description writing, naming conventions, and the relationship between always-loaded AGENTS.md and on-demand skills.

Its SKILL.md is about 1k 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 and Agent instruction files. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Creating a new SKILL.md
  • Writing skill descriptions
  • Choosing frontmatter fields
  • Deciding what content belongs in a skill vs AGENTS.md

Example prompts

  • “/authoring-skills”

Workflow steps

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

  1. What the skill covers (topic)
  2. When to use it (trigger scenario)
  3. Key file names the skill references (e.g. config-shared.ts)
  4. Keywords a user or agent might mention (e.g. "feature flag", "DCE")

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6469906. 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

Authoring Skills loads about 1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 94 tokens; SKILL.md has 261 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~94
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1k

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 vercel/next.js at commit 6469906, republished under its MIT licence (© vercel). 261 words, ~1,029 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/authoring-skills/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
authoring-skills
description
How to create and maintain agent skills in .agents/skills/. Use when creating a new SKILL.md, writing skill descriptions, choosing frontmatter fields, or deciding what content belongs in a skill vs AGENTS.md. Covers the supported spec fields, description writing, naming conventions, and the relationship between always-loaded AGENTS.md and on-demand skills.
user-invocable
false
metadata.internal
true

Authoring Skills

Use this skill when creating or modifying agent skills in .agents/skills/.

When to Create a Skill

Create a skill when content is:

  • Too detailed for AGENTS.md (code templates, multi-step workflows, diagnostic procedures)
  • Only relevant for specific tasks (not needed every session)
  • Self-contained enough to load independently

Keep in AGENTS.md instead when:

  • It's a one-liner rule or guardrail every session needs
  • It's a general-purpose gotcha any agent could hit

File Structure

.agents/skills/
└── my-skill/
    ├── SKILL.md          # Required: frontmatter + content
    ├── workflow.md        # Optional: supplementary detail
    └── examples.md        # Optional: referenced from SKILL.md

Supported Frontmatter Fields

yaml
---
name: my-skill # Required. Used for $name references and /name commands.
description: > # Required. How Claude decides to auto-load the skill.
  What this covers and when to use it. Include file names and keywords.
argument-hint: '<pr-number>' # Optional. Hint for expected arguments.
user-invocable: false # Optional. Set false to hide from / menu.
disable-model-invocation: true # Optional. Set true to prevent auto-triggering.
allowed-tools: [Bash, Read] # Optional. Tools allowed without permission.
model: opus # Optional. Model override.
context: fork # Optional. Isolated subagent execution.
agent: Explore # Optional. Subagent type (with context: fork).
---

Only use fields from this list. Unknown fields are silently ignored.

Writing Descriptions

The description is the primary matching surface for auto-activation. Include:

  1. What the skill covers (topic)
  2. When to use it (trigger scenario)
  3. Key file names the skill references (e.g. config-shared.ts)
  4. Keywords a user or agent might mention (e.g. "feature flag", "DCE")
yaml
# Too vague - won't auto-trigger reliably
description: Helps with flags.

# Good - specific files and concepts for matching
description: >
  How to add or modify Next.js experimental feature flags end-to-end.
  Use when editing config-shared.ts, config-schema.ts, define-env-plugin.ts.

Content Conventions

Structure for Action

Skills should tell the agent what to do, not just what to know:

  • Lead with "Use this skill when..."
  • Include step-by-step procedures
  • Add code templates ready to adapt
  • End with verification commands
  • Cross-reference related skills in a "Related Skills" section
Relationship to AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md (always loaded)Skills (on demand)
One-liner guardrailsStep-by-step workflows
"Keep require() behind if/else for DCE"Full DCE pattern with code examples, verification commands, edge cases
Points to skills via $nameExpands on AGENTS.md rules

When adding a skill, also add a one-liner summary to the relevant AGENTS.md section with a $skill-name reference.

Naming
  • Short, descriptive, topic-scoped: flags, dce-edge, react-vendoring
  • No repo prefix (already scoped by .agents/skills/)
  • Hyphens for multi-word names
Supplementary Files

For complex skills, use a hub + detail pattern:

pr-status-triage/
├── SKILL.md         # Overview, quick commands, links to details
├── workflow.md      # Prioritization and patterns
└── local-repro.md   # CI env matching

© vercel, MIT. 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 .agents/skills/authoring-skills of vercel/next.js.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6469906

Compare with similar skills

Authoring Skills 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.

Authoring Skills compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Authoring Skills this skillvercel/next.js143k—~1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Harness Agent Team Designerrevfactory/harness9.1k—~4.5kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Harness Evolution Feedback Looprevfactory/harness9.1k—~855Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Skill Creatorccusage/ccusage19k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
ShellLM Skill Authorlaude-institute/headlong1.2k—~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Skill CreatorGentleman-Programming/gentle-ai7.6k—~998Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Categories

Questions about Authoring Skills

What does Authoring Skills do?

How to create and maintain agent skills in .agents/skills/. An agent skill from vercel/next.js. js, published by the product's own GitHub organization.agents/skills/.

When should I use Authoring Skills?

Authoring Skills fits situations like: creating a new SKILL.md; writing skill descriptions; choosing frontmatter fields; deciding what content belongs in a skill vs AGENTS.md.

How do I install Authoring Skills in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add vercel/next.js --skill authoring-skills -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.agents/skills/authoring-skills in vercel/next.js) into .claude/skills/authoring-skills in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Authoring Skills in Codex?

Run `npx skills add vercel/next.js --skill authoring-skills -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.agents/skills/authoring-skills in vercel/next.js) into .agents/skills/authoring-skills in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Authoring Skills 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 vercel/next.js --skill authoring-skills -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/authoring-skills, .gemini/skills/authoring-skills, .github/skills/authoring-skills and .opencode/skills/authoring-skills in your project.

What does Authoring Skills need to run?

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

Does Authoring Skills 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 Authoring Skills 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 Authoring Skills use?

Authoring Skills 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 Authoring Skills use?

About 1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4.1k 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 Authoring Skills?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Authoring Skills: Harness Agent Team Designer (revfactory/harness, 9.1k stars), Harness Evolution Feedback Loop (revfactory/harness, 9.1k stars), Skill Creator (ccusage/ccusage, 19k stars) and ShellLM Skill Author (laude-institute/headlong, 1.2k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Authoring Skills?

vercel (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in vercel/next.js, which has 143,038 GitHub stars. The repository holds 27 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: vercel/next.js on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.