# Skill Designer

Design new Claude skills from structured idea specifications.

- Repository: https://github.com/tradermonty/claude-trading-skills (3536 stars)
- Category: Design
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: yes, review before use

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add tradermonty/claude-trading-skills --skill skill-designer -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add tradermonty/claude-trading-skills --skill skill-designer -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add tradermonty/claude-trading-skills --skill skill-designer -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add tradermonty/claude-trading-skills --skill skill-designer -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Design new Claude skills from structured idea specifications. Use when the skill auto-generation pipeline needs to produce a Claude CLI prompt that creates a complete skill directory (SKILL.md, references, scripts, tests) following repository conventions.

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

# Skill Designer

## Overview

Generate a comprehensive Claude CLI prompt from a structured skill idea
specification. The prompt instructs Claude to create a complete skill directory
following repository conventions: SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter, reference
documents, helper scripts, and test scaffolding.

## When to Use

- The skill auto-generation pipeline selects an idea from the backlog and needs
  a design prompt for `claude -p`
- A developer wants to bootstrap a new skill from a JSON idea specification
- Quality review of generated skills requires awareness of the scoring rubric

## Prerequisites

- Python 3.9+
- No external API keys required
- Reference files must exist under `references/`

## Workflow

### Step 1: Prepare Idea Specification

Accept a JSON file (`--idea-json`) containing:
- `title`: Human-readable idea name
- `description`: What the skill does
- `category`: Skill category (e.g., trading-analysis, developer-tooling)

Accept a normalized skill name (`--skill-name`) that will be used as the
directory name and YAML frontmatter `name:` field.

### Step 2: Build Design Prompt

Run the prompt builder:

```bash
python3 skills/skill-designer/scripts/build_design_prompt.py \
  --idea-json /tmp/idea.json \
  --skill-name "my-new-skill" \
  --project-root .
```

The script:
1. Loads the idea JSON
2. Reads all three reference files (structure guide, quality checklist, template)
3. Lists existing skills (up to 20) to prevent duplication
4. Outputs a complete prompt to stdout

### Step 3: Feed Prompt to Claude CLI

The calling pipeline pipes the prompt into `claude -p`:

```bash
python3 skills/skill-designer/scripts/build_design_prompt.py \
  --idea-json /tmp/idea.json \
  --skill-name "my-new-skill" \
  --project-root . \
| claude -p --allowedTools Read,Edit,Write,Glob,Grep
```

### Step 4: Validate Output

The rest: https://github.com/tradermonty/claude-trading-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/skill-designer/SKILL.md