Skill Creator

Skills are modular packages that extend Claude's capabilities with specialized workflows, domain knowledge, and bundled resources. They transform a general-purpose agent into a specialized one.

Two iron laws:

1. The context window is a public good — only add what Claude doesn't already know.
2. No skill ships without a failing test first (TDD for documentation).

When to Create a Skill

Create when: technique wasn't intuitively obvious, you'd reference it across projects, pattern applies broadly, others would benefit.

Don't create for:

• One-off solutions
• Standard practices Claude already knows
• Project-specific conventions — put those in CLAUDE.md
• Mechanical constraints enforceable with regex/validation — automate instead; save skills for judgment calls

Skill Anatomy

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md              # Required — frontmatter + instructions
├── scripts/              # Deterministic code (executed, not always read)
├── references/           # Docs loaded on demand (keeps SKILL.md lean)
└── assets/               # Output files (templates, images — never loaded into context)