Getting it into your agent
It runs from inside its repository, so the clone comes first — what it calls does not travel with the file alone.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/managedcode/dotnet-skillsnpx agentmods add skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/template-authoringWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/template-authoring)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/template-authoring"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/template-authoring/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/template-authoring"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/template-authoring.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00157 | $0.02981 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00063 | $0.01192 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00031 | $0.00596 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00016 | $0.00298 |
Grade A, and why
template-authoring scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 1mo ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
This is a copy
86% identical to template-authoring — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 219 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Template Authoring
This skill helps an agent create and validate custom dotnet new templates. It guides bootstrapping templates from existing projects and validates template.json files for authoring issues before publishing.
When to Use
- User wants to create a reusable template from an existing .csproj
- User wants to validate a template.json they are authoring before publishing
- User is setting up
.template.config/template.jsonfrom scratch - User wants to package a template for NuGet distribution
When Not to Use
- User wants to find or use existing templates — route to
template-discoveryortemplate-instantiation - User has MSBuild issues unrelated to template authoring — route to
dotnet-msbuildplugin
Inputs
| Input | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Source project path | For creation | Path to the .csproj to use as template source |
| template.json path | For validation | Path to an existing template.json to validate |
| Template name | For creation | Human-readable name for the template |
| Short name | Recommended | Short name for dotnet new <shortname> usage |
Workflow
Rules that change the answer
Use these structures exactly; do not invent fields from other template features.
Deliver the requested artifact. When the user says "show", "write", or "give me the
content", put the complete JSON/XML in the final response even if you also wrote it to disk.
Never edit this skill's SKILL.md or plugin documentation as a substitute for authoring the
user's template. Only create or modify template files when the user requested file changes and
the target template/project is present.
| Need | Correct structure | Never use |
|---|---|---|
Conditional XML in a .csproj |
XML comments such as <!--#if (database == "SqlServer") --> and <!--#endif --> around the complete element |
bare #if lines, which make the XML invalid |
| Restore generated projects | restore action 210D431B-A78B-4D2F-B762-4ED3E3EA9025; use primaryOutputs, or args.files containing source-template paths/globs |
run-script fields such as executable on the restore action |
| Restrict to the SDK host | a host constraint whose args is an array containing { "hostname": "dotnetcli" }; its optional version restricts the host/CLI version |
using host version when the requirement is specifically the active SDK version, the invalid host ID dotnet-cli, or unrelated pattern / value fields |
| Restrict the active SDK version | an sdk-version constraint with a NuGet version/range string in args |
a machine-specific exact patch unless the template truly requires it |
| Preserve CPM | keep generated PackageReference items versionless and package the owning Directory.Packages.props when the template is self-contained |
adding inline Version attributes |
| Package templates | a pack project with <PackageType>Template</PackageType> and template content packed below content/ |
describing a layout without showing the requested project file |
What ships with it
1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 1mo ago Changed · +82 lines d602c2d1e122
- 1mo ago First seen · 137 lines · 157 tokens per session scan A 993098b3ec96
template-authoring is a skill published in the GitHub repository managedcode/dotnet-skills (490 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 157 tokens to every session and 2,981 once invoked, about $0.0006 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 86% identical to template-authoring, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.
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