skills:write

A guide for creating or editing Claude Code skills using a standard folder structure, naming rules, templates, and checks. It also describes how to track the work and prepare a change for review.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to create a new skill, revise an existing one, validate its structure, and check that its workflow diagram still matches the instructions.
Why use it?
It reduces errors caused by inconsistent skill files or missing validation. Reading existing skills first and working in a separate Git worktree helps protect the main codebase while changes are made.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/rossoctl/examples/skills-write
Any agent
npx skills add rossoctl/examples --skill skills-write
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/rossoctl/examples

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 18 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,103 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00018 $0.02103
Opus 5 $0.00009 $0.01052
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00421
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00210

Measured 2d ago against content hash 72334b3d58d7, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

skills:write 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 2d 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.

.claude/skills/skills:write/SKILL.md · 287 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 287 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Write / Edit Skill

Create new skills or edit existing ones. Both follow the same checklist and conventions.

Worktree Gate

All skill work MUST happen in a worktree. Before proceeding, verify you are in a worktree:

git worktree list

If not in a worktree, create one first:

git fetch upstream main
git worktree add .worktrees/skills-<topic> -b docs/skills-<topic> upstream/main

Table of Contents

New vs Edit

Action Steps
New skill Create directory + SKILL.md from template, fill in content, validate
Edit skill Read existing file first, apply changes, re-validate, ensure diagram still matches text

For edits: always read the skill FIRST, then edit. Never overwrite without reading.

Skill Structure

.claude/skills/<category>:<skill-name>/
└── SKILL.md

IMPORTANT: Use colon notation in directory names (e.g., auth:my-skill/). Required for Claude Code skill discovery.

Categories should match your repo's tech stack (e.g., ci, git, k8s, orchestrate, rca, skills, tdd)

Frontmatter

---
name: category:skill-name
description: One-line description (what it does, not how)
---

Use colon notation in name: field. Directory name must match.

Content Guidelines

  1. Title: # Skill Name
  2. TOC: Include for skills over 50 lines
  3. Length: Target 80-200 lines (300 max). Split longer skills.
  4. Sections:
    • When to Use
    • Steps/Workflow
    • Workflow Diagram (required for workflow/router skills)
    • Task Tracking (required for workflow skills)
    • Troubleshooting
    • Related Skills
  5. Style:
    • Imperative voice ("Run X", not "You should run X")
    • Real, copy-pasteable commands
    • Include expected output where helpful

Read the full file on GitHub · 287 lines

Changes

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.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 287 lines · 18 tokens per session scan A 72334b3d58d7

Subscribe to this mod's changes

skills:write is a skill published in the GitHub repository rossoctl/examples (11 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 18 tokens to every session and 2,103 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

importing-a-codebase

Use when the repo holds real source code but no specs: the existing-codebase branch of setting-up-a-project, normally reached via that dispatcher, directly only when the situation is unmistakable. Not for empty workspaces (starting-a-new-project) or feature work in a specced project (brainstorming).

JetBrains/thinkrail · 69 tokens

starting-a-new-project

Use when the workspace is empty — no code yet — and the user brings a raw idea: the brand-new branch of setting-up-a-project, normally reached via that dispatcher, directly only when the situation is unmistakable. Not for features in an existing project — use brainstorming instead.

JetBrains/thinkrail · 61 tokens

todos

This chat has a shared, live TODO plan — your tasks for the conversation, which the user also edits. Read this skill and reach for the todo tools whenever a request takes more than a couple of steps. It covers the plan model (group = task, items = its steps; loose items are the user's lane), how to work it: propose…

JetBrains/thinkrail · 127 tokens

writing-workflow-skills

Use when adding a new workflow skill to pi-thinkrail-workflow, changing an existing workflow skill's role, trigger, handoff, or structure, or checking a workflow skill against the workflow system's rules. Not for authoring general-purpose skills outside this package.

JetBrains/thinkrail · 60 tokens

brainstorming

Use this BEFORE any creative or feature work: building a new feature, adding functionality, changing behavior, or making a nontrivial design decision. Turns the user's request into a validated design — recorded as a spec-graph task-spec — before any implementation. Do not skip this because a change looks small.

JetBrains/thinkrail · 65 tokens

reviewing-changes

Use when a review package asks you to review a plan step's change set (todo.startReview): you are the REVIEWER, not the author. How to judge an agent-written diff, file findings with addreviewcomment, and settle with exactly one reviewverdict.

JetBrains/thinkrail · 59 tokens