skill-creation

Skill Creation

You can create new skills to extend your own capabilities. Skills are Markdown instruction modules that persist across conversations and require no restart.

When to Create a Skill

• A recurring task that benefits from a structured workflow
• Domain knowledge worth preserving across conversations
• A multi-step process the user asks about repeatedly
• Integration with a new CLI tool or API

When NOT to Create a Skill

• One-off tasks that won't recur
• Information that belongs in MEMORY.md (user preferences, personal facts)
• Temporary instructions or experiment notes

How to Create a Skill

1. Choose a name: lowercase, digits, hyphens only (e.g., meeting-notes, code-review)
2. Create the file using write_file:

write_file("skills/<name>/SKILL.md", content)

1. The skill is available immediately on the next message — no restart needed
2. Always tell the user when you create a new skill

SKILL.md Format

Every skill needs a YAML frontmatter block followed by Markdown instructions:

---
name: <skill-name>
description: "Brief description of what this skill does and when to use it. Max 1024 chars."
---

# Skill Title

Instructions in markdown...

Frontmatter Fields

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Must match the directory name exactly
description	Yes	What the skill does and when to use it. Max 1024 chars
requires_env	No	List of environment variables needed (skill is hidden if missing)
requires_bridge	No	Host gateway bridge name required (skill is hidden if bridge unavailable)
homepage	No	External URL for reference documentation
metadata	No	Provider-specific metadata (e.g., OpenClaw)

Frontmatter Examples

Simple skill (no dependencies):

---
name: meeting-notes
description: "Generate structured meeting notes from conversations. Use when the user asks to summarize or document a meeting."
---