Create a Skill

When to Use

Create a new skill when:

• There's a pattern the agent should follow repeatedly.
• A multi-step workflow needs reliable, step-by-step guidance.
• You want to scaffold files from a template.

Don't create a skill when:

• The guidance already exists in another skill, extend it instead.
• You're documenting something the agent already knows (e.g., how to write TypeScript).
• It's a one-off, put it in AGENTS.md (for everyone) or memory/MEMORY.md (personal, per-user). See capture-learnings.

Interview

Before writing the skill, answer these:

1. What should this skill enable?, The core purpose in one sentence.
2. Which of the four areas does it serve?, UI, actions, skills/instructions, or application state (see the adding-a-feature skill). Most skills are about how to touch one or more of these correctly.
3. When should it trigger?, Describe the situations in natural language.
4. Does it involve context awareness?, Does the agent need to know what the user is looking at? If so, reference the navigation application-state key and the view-screen action pattern. See the context-awareness skill.
5. What type of skill?, Pattern, Workflow, or Generator (see below).
6. Does it need supporting files?, References (read-only context) or none. Keep it minimal; push depth into references/.

Skill Types and Templates

Pattern (architectural rule)

For documenting how things should be done:

---
name: my-pattern
description: >-
  [Under 40 words. What it covers AND when it should trigger.]
---

# [Pattern Name]

## Rule

[One sentence: what must be true]

## Why

[Why this rule exists]

## How

[How to follow it, with code examples]

## Don't

[Common violations]

## Related Skills

[Which skills compose with this one]

Workflow (step-by-step)

For multi-step implementation tasks: