skill-authoring_skill

Overview

This skill helps design, improve, and evaluate reusable agent skills with clear triggers, progressive disclosure, and testable behavior. It focuses on producing a concise main skill document, precise trigger descriptions, and reference files that guide agent behavior after a trigger. Use it to ensure skills trigger correctly and behave reliably in real interactions.

How this skill works

I inspect the requested change class (create, rewrite, review, or evaluate) and optimize the trigger surface first by drafting name and description with realistic trigger phrases. I then shape the main skill document so it prescribes agent behavior after activating, and I organize deep details into referenced files to be loaded only when needed. Finally, I produce evaluation prompts and run should-trigger and should-not-trigger checks to iterate until trigger quality and behavior are stable.

When to use it

• When creating a new skill document and defining its activation language
• When improving a skill’s name, short description, or trigger precision
• When reviewing a skill that is too broad, too narrow, or poorly structured
• When splitting a large skill into a main file plus references, assets, or scripts
• When designing evaluation prompts and verifying trigger behavior

Best practices

• Start by identifying the skill’s job, boundaries, and nearest neighbors
• Draft a short, intentional name and put realistic trigger language in the short description
• Make the main skill file specify what the agent must do immediately after triggering
• Move deep guidance into reference files and load them only when relevant
• Create explicit should-trigger and should-not-trigger prompts and iterate on failures

Example use cases

• Rewrite a skill’s description so the agent only activates on specific user intents
• Split a monolithic skill into a concise main file and separate reference examples
• Design evaluation tests to catch false positives and false negatives before release
• Review an existing skill to ensure it changes agent behavior rather than only documenting
• Improve trigger wording so downstream routing loads only required reference files