Writing skills

Writing Skills

Overview

Author new skills for the Frontend Expert pack following established conventions. Every skill should be consistent in structure, integrate with the intent map, and reference the pack's depth system.

When to use

• Adding a new skill to the pack
• User says "make this a skill" or "buat skill baru"
• Distilling a repeated workflow into a reusable skill
• Extending pack coverage for a new domain

When to skip

• Editing an existing skill's content (just edit the file)
• One-off fixes or configurations

Skill anatomy

Every skill lives in skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md and follows this structure:

skills/
  <skill-name>/
    SKILL.md          # Required — frontmatter + instructions
    scripts/          # Optional — helper scripts
    examples/         # Optional — reference implementations
    resources/        # Optional — templates, assets
    references/       # Optional — additional docs (prefer top-level references/)

SKILL.md template

---
name: <skill-name>
description: >-
  <2-4 sentence description covering: what it does, when to trigger,
  example phrases that should auto-load this skill. Include both English
  and Indonesian trigger phrases if applicable.>
---

# <Skill Title>

## Overview

<1-2 sentences: what problem this skill solves and its philosophy.>

## When to use

- <Trigger condition 1>
- <Trigger condition 2>
- <Trigger condition 3>

## When to skip

- <Skip condition 1>
- <Skip condition 2>

## MUST (ship rules)

| Rule | Detail |
|------|--------|
| **<Rule name>** | <What the agent must do> |
| ... | ... |

## Workflow

1. **<Step name>** — <what to do>
2. **<Step name>** — <what to do>
3. ...

## Agent boundaries

- **May decide:** <what the agent can choose autonomously>
- **Must not:** <what the agent should never do>

## Checklist

- [ ] <Gate 1>
- [ ] <Gate 2>
- [ ] <Gate 3>
- [ ] Conventions check reported (if UI-facing)

## Depth

<Reference pointers to files in references/ for detailed content>

Frontmatter rules

Field	Required	Rules
name	Yes	Kebab-case, matches folder name
description	Yes	2-4 sentences. Must include trigger phrases. Use >- for multi-line YAML. Include both English and casual Indonesian phrases if the pack serves bilingual users

Description formula

<What it does> + <When to trigger> + <Example phrases>.

Good:

description: >-
  Accessible forms, field/form errors, submit pending, wizards, progressive
  disclosure. Use when building or fixing forms, login, settings, checkout,
  filters, "validasi", "form error", or multi-step flows.

Bad:

description: Handles forms and validation.

Conventions to follow

1. Depth via references

Keep SKILL.md under 150 lines. Put rich content (code examples, extensive tables, theory) in references/<skill-name>.md. Reference it with:

## Depth

Full guide: `references/<topic>.md`.

2. Workflow structure

Use numbered steps with bold step names:

1. **Identify** — what to look for
2. **Apply** — how to fix/implement
3. **Verify** — how to check it worked

3. Tables over prose

Prefer tables for rules, patterns, do/don't comparisons:

| Do | Don't |
|----|-------|
| Token colors | Raw hex |
| `<button>` | `<div onClick>` |

4. Checklist as ship gate

End with a checklist that the agent verifies before DONE:

## Checklist

- [ ] <Required gate 1>
- [ ] <Required gate 2>
- [ ] Conventions check reported

5. Agent boundaries

Explicitly state what the agent may decide autonomously vs what it must not do:

## Agent boundaries

- **May decide:** query lib vs loader, skeleton vs spinner
- **Must not:** swallow errors, ship success-only UI

Integration checklist

After creating a new skill, update these files:

1. AGENTS.md — Intent map

Add a row to the skills table:

| `<skill-name>` | <Pillar> | <Trigger description> |

Add to the intent map if the skill has a clear user intent trigger.

2. plugin.json — Registration

Add the skill path:

"skills": [
  ...
  "skills/<skill-name>"
]

3. docs/pillars.md — Pillar assignment

Add to the appropriate pillar in the skills list.

4. CHANGELOG.md — Version history

Add entry under the next version.

5. references/compliance-gates.md — Ship gate (if applicable)

If the skill introduces a compliance requirement, add a row to the hard defaults table and a Conventions check line.

6. evals/ — Eval case (recommended)

Create evals/<skill-name>.md with test scenarios:

# Eval: <skill-name>

## Scenario

<User prompt that should trigger this skill>

## Expected behavior

1. <What the agent should do>
2. <What the output should include>
3. <What should NOT happen>

## Pass criteria

- [ ] Skill was loaded
- [ ] <Expected output was produced>
- [ ] <Anti-pattern was avoided>

Workflow

1. Name — choose a kebab-case name matching the concept
2. Draft — write SKILL.md following the template above
3. Depth — if content > 150 lines, extract to references/<name>.md
4. Integrate — update AGENTS.md, plugin.json, pillars.md, CHANGELOG.md
5. Eval — write at least one eval case
6. Test — verify the skill triggers correctly on natural language input

Checklist

• SKILL.md follows template structure
• Frontmatter has rich description with trigger phrases
• Content ≤ 150 lines (depth in references/)
• Has When to use + When to skip
• Has Workflow with numbered steps
• Has Checklist as ship gate
• AGENTS.md updated with skill entry
• plugin.json updated
• pillars.md updated
• CHANGELOG.md updated
• Eval case created (recommended)

Depth

Pack architecture: docs/pack-layers.md. Pillar map: docs/pillars.md. Existing skills as examples: any skills/*/SKILL.md.