# Skill Creator

Guide for creating effective skills.

- Repository: https://github.com/bubbuild/bub (1696 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: Apache-2.0
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: yes, review before use

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add bubbuild/bub --skill skill-creator -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add bubbuild/bub --skill skill-creator -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add bubbuild/bub --skill skill-creator -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add bubbuild/bub --skill skill-creator -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Guide for creating effective skills. This skill should be used when users want to create a new skill (or update an existing skill) that extends Bub's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Skill Creator

This skill provides guidance for creating effective skills.

## About Skills

Skills are modular, self-contained folders that extend Bub's capabilities by providing
specialized knowledge, workflows, and tools. Think of them as "onboarding guides" for specific
domains or tasks, they transform Bub from a general-purpose agent into a specialized agent
equipped with procedural knowledge that no model can fully possess.

### Skill Location Policy

When creating a skill, place it in one of these two roots:

1. Project-local: `$workspace/.agents/skills/<skill-name>`
2. Global: `~/.agents/skills/<skill-name>` (shared across workspaces)

Prefer project-local by default. Use global only when the user explicitly wants the skill available across multiple workspaces.

### What Skills Provide

1. Specialized workflows - Multi-step procedures for specific domains
2. Tool integrations - Instructions for working with specific file formats or APIs
3. Domain expertise - Company-specific knowledge, schemas, business logic
4. Bundled resources - Scripts, references, and assets for complex and repetitive tasks

## Core Principles

### Concise is Key

The context window is a public good. Skills share the context window with everything else Bub needs: system prompt, conversation history, other Skills' metadata, and the actual user request.

**Default assumption: Bub is already very smart.** Only add context Bub doesn't already have. Challenge each piece of information: "Does Bub really need this explanation?" and "Does this paragraph justify its token cost?"

Prefer concise examples over verbose explanations.

### Set Appropriate Degrees of Freedom

Match the level of specificity to the task's fragility and variability:

**High freedom (text-based instructions)**: Use when multiple approaches are valid, decisions depend on context, or heuristics guide the approach.

The rest: https://github.com/bubbuild/bub/blob/HEAD/src/skills/skill-creator/SKILL.md