Create skill

Skill OctavianTocan/create-skill

A meta-skill for AI agents: scaffolds new skills via structured interview, cookbook architecture, and cross-skill connection discovery.

Install

npx -y skills add OctavianTocan/create-skill

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What its author says it does

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Create new AI agent skills with proper structure, YAML frontmatter, and cookbook-based organization. Uses a grill-me style interview to understand requirements before building — walks the design tree one question at a time, resolving each branch. Use when the user wants to create a skill, make a new skill, scaffold a skill, or mentions "new skill", "create skill", "make skill", "skill template". Triggers on skill creation requests.

SKILL.md

5.7 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Create Skill

Creates skills following the cookbook-based format: a lean SKILL.md as a routing document plus detailed cookbook/ files for each operation. Step 1 is always the Grill — a relentless one-question-at-a-time interview (like /grill-me) that walks the design tree until there's shared understanding. Each question includes a recommended answer the user can accept, modify, or reject.

Variables

DEFAULT_SKILL_DIR: ~/.claude/skills/
SHARED_AGENT_SKILL_DIR: ~/.agents/skills/
GITHUB_OWNER: the GitHub account every skill repo is published under. Defaults to the authenticated gh account (gh api user --jq .login; currently OctavianTocan).
REPO_VISIBILITY: public — matches the existing skill repos under GITHUB_OWNER.

How It Works

Skills use progressive disclosure. Metadata (frontmatter) is always loaded by the agent. The SKILL.md body is read when a trigger matches. Cookbook files are read on demand when a specific command is invoked. This keeps context windows small while supporting complex multi-step workflows.

Commands

Command	Purpose
`/create-skill <name> <desc>`	Create a new skill with the given name
`/create-skill --project`	Create a skill in `.claude/skills/` (project scope)
`/create-skill --global`	Create a skill in `~/.agents/skills/` (all agents)
`/create-skill validate <name>`	Validate an existing skill's structure
`/create-skill edit <name>`	Edit or update an existing skill

Every skill created with create-skill is published as its own standalone, npx skills-installable repo on GITHUB_OWNER's account — every time, as the final step of create. See cookbook/publish-repo.md.

Decision Tree

Before creating, determine what the skill needs:

Should multiple AI agents have access to it? → Create it in ~/.agents/skills/
Does the skill have multiple operations/commands? → Create a cookbook/ directory with one .md per operation
Does the skill run shell operations? → Create a scripts/ directory with executable helpers (see cookbook/create.md for detailed guidance)
Does the skill need reference documentation? → Create a references/ directory
Does the skill need templates or assets? → Create an assets/ directory
Simple single-workflow skill? → Just SKILL.md with inline instructions

Regardless of the layout above, every skill is published as its own standalone, npx skills-installable Git repo on GITHUB_OWNER's account — this is not optional and runs every time (see cookbook/publish-repo.md).

Cookbook

Each command has a detailed step-by-step guide. Read the relevant cookbook file before executing a command.

Command	Cookbook	Use When
create	cookbook/create.md	User wants to create a new skill from scratch
validate	cookbook/validate.md	User wants to check if a skill is well-formed
edit	cookbook/edit.md	User wants to modify an existing skill
publish-repo	cookbook/publish-repo.md	Always — final step of `create`; publishes the skill as its own repo on GITHUB_OWNER's account and cleans it up there

When a user invokes a /create-skill command, read the matching cookbook file first, then execute the steps.

Key Principles

SKILL.md should be lean (<3k words) — it is a routing document, not a manual.
Cookbook files contain the detailed step-by-step procedures.
One cookbook file per operation or concern.
Use imperative language in all instructions.
Progressive disclosure: metadata → SKILL.md → cookbook → resources.
The description field MUST include trigger keywords so the agent discovers the skill.
Frontmatter must have name and description at minimum.
Include a stages field in frontmatter to enable cross-skill discovery.
Keep every skill npx skills-installable: a valid root SKILL.md, relative links only, no symlinks or absolute paths leaking outside the skill dir. Verify with npx skills add <skill_dir> --list.
Every skill gets its OWN repo on GITHUB_OWNER's account, every time, with the standard layout (SKILL.md + README.md + LICENSE + CHANGELOG.md + .gitignore + cookbook/…), matching the other published skills. This is the mandatory final step of create — not opt-in. See cookbook/publish-repo.md.
After pushing, leave the repo clean on GitHub: a clean working tree, a set repo description, only intended files tracked (no cruft, no leftover TODO: markers), and a verified public install. The "clean it up on GitHub" step in cookbook/publish-repo.md is required.

Related Skills

Works with: /grill-me, /validate, /library