meta-skill

Meta-Skill: Dynamic Skill Library

A system for managing on-demand skills that are loaded dynamically instead of at session startup. Skills are stored in skill-library/ and registered in SKILLUSE.md at the project root.

How It Works

Automatic Matching (via CLAUDE.md)

During initialization, a section is added to CLAUDE.md that instructs Claude to check SKILLUSE.md on every user request. When the user's request matches a skill description:

1. Read skill-library/<skill-name>/SKILL.md from the project root
2. If the skill references supporting files, read those too
3. Follow the skill's instructions to handle the user's request

SKILLUSE.md Format

A markdown file at the project root. Each ## heading is a skill name (maps to skill-library/<heading>/), followed by a natural language description:

# Skill Library

## code-review
Code review skill. Perform quality reviews, identify potential issues, and provide improvement suggestions.

## api-design
RESTful API design patterns. Naming conventions, error handling, and versioning.

skill-library/ Structure

skill-library/
├── code-review/
│   ├── SKILL.md            # Main instructions (required)
│   ├── templates/           # Optional supporting files
│   └── examples/            # Optional examples
└── api-design/
    └── SKILL.md

Compatible with .claude/skills/ — skills can be moved between the two systems.

Management Operations

Initialize

When user asks to initialize the skill library:

1. Create skill-library/ directory in the project root
2. Create SKILLUSE.md in the project root with this template:

# Skill Library

Skills listed below are available for on-demand loading.

1. Append Meta-Skill section to CLAUDE.md:

   Read the template from the plugin's templates/claude-md-section.md.

   Replace {VERSION} with the version from .claude-plugin/plugin.json.

   Then apply to CLAUDE.md in the project root:

   • If CLAUDE.md exists and contains <!-- META-SKILL:START -->: Replace everything between <!-- META-SKILL:START --> and <!-- META-SKILL:END --> (inclusive) with the new content
   • If CLAUDE.md exists but has no markers: Append the content to the end of the file (with a blank line separator)
   • If CLAUDE.md does not exist: Create a new CLAUDE.md with the content