Skill Creator

This skill helps you create new Claude Code skills with proper structure and best practices.

When to Use This Skill

• Creating a new custom skill for your project

• Standardizing skill structure across your team

• Generating skill templates with scripts, references, and assets

• Packaging skills for distribution

Skill Structure

A Claude skill consists of:

skill-name/ ├── SKILL.md # Required: Main skill file with YAML frontmatter ├── scripts/ # Optional: Executable code for deterministic tasks ├── references/ # Optional: Documentation loaded contextually └── assets/ # Optional: Templates, images, boilerplate (not loaded into context)

SKILL.md Format

Every skill requires a SKILL.md file with:

name: skill-name description: One-line description of what the skill does and when to use it.

Skill Name

Brief introduction explaining the skill's purpose.

When to Use This Skill

• Trigger condition 1
• Trigger condition 2
• Trigger condition 3

What This Skill Does

1. Step 1: Description
2. Step 2: Description
3. Step 3: Description

How to Use

Basic Usage

[Examples of how to invoke the skill]

With Options

[Advanced usage patterns]

Example

User: "Example prompt"

Output: [Example output]

Tips

• Best practice 1
• Best practice 2

Related Use Cases

• Related task 1
• Related task 2

How to Use

Create a New Skill

Create a new skill called "my-skill-name" in ~/.claude/skills/

Create with Specific Purpose

Create a skill for generating release notes from git commits, with templates for CHANGELOG.md and Slack announcements

Initialize Skill Structure

Run the initialization script:

python3 ~/.claude/skills/skill-creator/scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>

Package Skill for Distribution

python3 ~/.claude/skills/skill-creator/scripts/package_skill.py <path/to/skill-folder> [output-directory]

Design Principles

Progressive Disclosure

Context loads hierarchically to optimize token usage:

• Metadata (~100 words): Always present via skill description

• SKILL.md (<5k words): Loaded when skill is triggered

• Bundled resources: Loaded as needed during execution

Organizational Patterns

Choose the pattern that fits your skill:

Pattern Best For Structure

Workflow-Based Sequential procedures Step-by-step instructions

Task-Based Multiple operations Collection of tasks

Reference/Guidelines Standards, specs Rules and examples

Capabilities-Based Interrelated features Feature descriptions

Naming Conventions

• Use kebab-case for skill names: release-notes-generator

• Use descriptive names that indicate purpose

• Keep names concise but meaningful

Bundled Resources

scripts/

Executable code for deterministic, repeatable tasks:

• init_skill.py

• Initialize new skill structure

• package_skill.py

• Package skill for distribution

references/

Documentation loaded contextually:

• API documentation

• Style guides

• Domain knowledge

assets/

Templates and resources (not auto-loaded):

• Output templates

• Boilerplate code

• Images and fonts

Example: Creating a Release Notes Skill

User: "Create a skill for generating release notes with 3 output formats: CHANGELOG.md, PR body, and Slack message"

Steps:

• Initialize structure: init_skill.py release-notes-generator --path ~/.claude/skills/

• Add templates to assets/ :

• changelog-template.md

• pr-release-template.md

• slack-template.md

• Add transformation rules to references/ :

• tech-to-product-mappings.md

• Complete SKILL.md with usage instructions

• Package: package_skill.py ~/.claude/skills/release-notes-generator

Tips

• Keep SKILL.md under 5000 words for efficient context usage

• Use references/ for domain knowledge that doesn't change often

• Put templates in assets/ so they're not auto-loaded

• Test your skill with real use cases before packaging

• Include concrete examples in your SKILL.md

Related Use Cases

• Creating project-specific automation skills

• Building team-shared development workflows

• Packaging reusable Claude capabilities