Skill designer

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:

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:

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

After Claude creates the skill, verify:

• skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md exists with correct frontmatter
• Directory structure follows conventions
• Score with dual-axis-skill-reviewer meets threshold

Output Format

The script outputs a plain-text prompt to stdout. Exit code 0 on success, 1 if required reference files are missing.

Resources

• references/skill-structure-guide.md -- Directory structure, SKILL.md format, naming conventions
• references/quality-checklist.md -- Dual-axis reviewer 5-category checklist (100 points)
• references/skill-template.md -- SKILL.md template with YAML frontmatter and standard sections
• scripts/build_design_prompt.py -- Prompt builder script (CLI interface)