Skill Creator Plus

IMPORTANT: This skill exemplifies the principles it teaches. Study its structure as a reference pattern for philosophy-first design.

Before Creating a Skill

Ask these fundamental questions:

• Purpose: What procedural knowledge will this skill provide that Claude doesn't already have?
• Philosophy: What mental framework should guide decisions in this domain?
• Triggers: When should this skill be loaded? What specific use cases?
• Scope: Is this skill focused or trying to do too much?
• Composability: How will this work with other skills?

Good answers to these questions shape effective skills.

Skill Creation Process

1. Understand with Concrete Examples

Skip only when usage patterns are already clearly understood.

Gather examples of how the skill will be used:

• Direct examples from users
• Generated scenarios validated by users
• Real-world use cases

Key questions:

• What functionality should this skill support?
• What would users say to trigger this skill?
• What are edge cases or variations?

Don't overwhelm users—ask progressively, not all at once.

2. Plan the Philosophical Foundation

Before planning scripts and resources, design the skill's philosophy:

Establish the mental framework:

• What philosophy guides this domain?
• What questions should be asked before acting?
• What principles help make good decisions?
• What mental model makes this domain intuitive?

Identify anti-patterns:

• What common mistakes happen in this domain?
• What should explicitly be avoided?
• What produces "generic" or "template" outputs?

Plan for variation:

• What should vary across outputs?
• What creates context-appropriateness?
• What prevents convergence on "favorites"?

See references/philosophy-patterns.md for frameworks to establish philosophical foundations.

See references/anti-patterns.md for common skill creation mistakes.

See references/variation-patterns.md for techniques to encourage output diversity.

3. Plan Reusable Resources

Based on concrete examples, identify helpful resources:

Scripts (scripts/):

• Code rewritten repeatedly
• Deterministic operations
• Complex, fragile procedures

References (references/):

• Documentation Claude should reference
• Schemas, API docs, domain knowledge
• Detailed workflows too long for SKILL.md

Assets (assets/):

• Templates used in outputs
• Boilerplate code, images, fonts
• Files copied or modified, not loaded into context

Progressive disclosure principle: Keep SKILL.md lean (<500 lines), move details to references.

See references/composability.md for designing skills that work well together.

4. Initialize the Skill

scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>

Creates skill directory with SKILL.md template and resource directories.

5. Edit the Skill

Write the SKILL.md

Structure (Philosophy-First Pattern):

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