skill-creator

Skill Creator

Generate new Claude Code skills with correct directory structure, YAML frontmatter, and optional bundled resources.

When to Use

• Creating a new custom skill for a project
• Standardizing skill structure across a team
• Generating skill templates with scripts, references, and assets
• Packaging skills for distribution

Skill Directory Structure

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md          # Required: Main skill file with YAML frontmatter
├── scripts/          # Optional: Executable code for deterministic tasks
├── references/       # Optional: Documentation loaded contextually
└── assets/           # Optional: Templates, images, boilerplate (not loaded into context)

Workflow

1. Create the Skill

Create a new skill called "my-skill-name" in ~/.claude/skills/

Or with a specific purpose:

Create a skill for generating release notes from git commits,
with templates for CHANGELOG.md and Slack announcements

Or via the initialization script:

python3 ~/.claude/skills/skill-creator/scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <output-directory>

2. Generated SKILL.md Template

The created SKILL.md follows this structure:

---
name: skill-name
description: "What the skill does. Use when [trigger conditions]."
---

# Skill Name

## When to Use
- Trigger condition 1
- Trigger condition 2

## What This Skill Does
1. **Step 1**: Description
2. **Step 2**: Description

## How to Use
[Usage examples]

## Example
**User**: "Example prompt"
**Output**: [Example output]

3. Validate the Skill

After creation, verify:

1. Frontmatter: name is kebab-case, 1-64 chars; description is a quoted string with "Use when" clause
2. Content: Has "When to Use" section with trigger conditions and at least one usage example
3. Structure: SKILL.md is under 5000 words; references and assets are in correct subdirectories
4. Test: Invoke the skill with a real use case and confirm expected output

4. Package for Distribution (Optional)