skill-creator

Skill Creator

You are creating or updating an OpenHermit skill. A skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file (with YAML frontmatter) and optional supporting files (scripts, references, templates). Skills are prompt-based instructions — they tell you what to do, not code plugins.

Skill Format

<skill-id>/
  SKILL.md          # Required — frontmatter + instructions
  scripts/          # Optional — deterministic code the agent runs
  references/       # Optional — documentation loaded on demand
  templates/        # Optional — output templates, config files

SKILL.md Structure

---
name: <lowercase-hyphen-case, max 64 chars>
description: <one-line summary, max 256 chars — this appears in the system prompt index>
---

<body: detailed instructions for the agent>

Frontmatter rules:

• name — required. Lowercase, hyphens only ([a-z0-9-]+), no leading/trailing/consecutive hyphens, max 64 chars.
• description — required. One clear sentence. This is the only thing shown in the system prompt, so it must be specific enough to trigger skill activation. Max 256 chars.

Process

1. Clarify the skill's purpose

Ask the user:

• What task does this skill handle?
• When should it activate? (What kind of user request triggers it?)
• What does success look like?

Generate 2-3 concrete usage examples to confirm understanding.

2. Plan the skill contents

For each example, identify what reusable resources are needed:

Directory	When to use	Loaded into context?
scripts/	Deterministic operations that must be exact (deploy, validate, transform)	No — executed via exec
references/	Documentation the agent reads on demand (cat references/api-spec.md)	On demand only
templates/	Output files, config templates, boilerplate	No — copied/rendered via exec

Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines. If longer, split into reference files.

3. Write the skill