Skill Creation — From Idea to Production

Trigger Examples

• "把这个重复流程做成 skill"
• "create a new skill for code review"
• "帮我写一个 SEO 研究的 skill"
• "review and improve this skill"
• "这个工作流应该 skillify"

Philosophy

Context window is a public good. Only add what the agent doesn't already know.

A skill is an onboarding manual for the agent — after reading it, the agent knows your process, standards, and preferences without re-teaching every session.

Phase 0: Should This Be a Skill?

Before writing anything, decide the right mechanism:

Skill ROI threshold: Will this workflow run ≥3 times? If not, just explain in conversation.

Phase 1: Design (Before Writing SKILL.md)

Step 1: Define Use Cases

Write 3-5 concrete user prompts that should trigger this skill. Not abstract descriptions — actual sentences users will type:

Example for a "daily planning" skill:
- "plan my day"
- "start work"
- "今天做什么？"
- "morning routine"
- "daily standup prep"

These prompts shape everything: skill name, description, input/output, workflow steps.

Step 2: Define Input → Output

Step 3: Choose Pattern

When in doubt, start with Pattern A. Add scripts later if needed.

Step 4: Choose Freedom Level

Phase 2: Write SKILL.md

File Structure

my-skill/
├── SKILL.md              # Required. < 500 lines
├── scripts/              # Optional. Deterministic code
├── references/           # Optional. Loaded on demand
└── assets/               # Optional. Templates, data

Frontmatter (Critical)

The description determines whether the skill ever triggers. Agent defaults to NOT triggering — your description must be "pushy."

---
name: kebab-case-name        # ≤64 chars, lowercase + hyphens only
description: >                # ≤1024 chars, third person
  [What it does]. Trigger when user says [keyword1], [keyword2],
  [keyword3], or [scenario description]. Also trigger when
  [implicit trigger condition].
---

Rules:

• Third person always ("Processes X", not "I help you" or "You can use this")
• First sentence: what it does (purpose)
• Second sentence: explicit trigger keywords (list actual user phrases)
• Third sentence: implicit triggers (file types, contexts, patterns)
• Be specific > be brief. Use all 1024 chars if needed

Bad: description: Helps with data tasks Good: description: Analyze sales/revenue CSV files to find patterns and calculate metrics. Trigger when user mentions sales data, revenue analysis, profit margins, or uploads xlsx/csv with financial column headers.

Body Structure

## Trigger Examples
- "realistic user prompt 1"
- "realistic user prompt 2" (different language/style)
- "realistic user prompt 3"
- "realistic user prompt 4"
- "realistic user prompt 5"

## [Workflow Steps]
Step 1: ...
Step 2: ...

## [Rules / Constraints]

## [Output Format] (if applicable)

Writing Principles

1. Concise is key — Claude is smart. Only add what it doesn't know. Challenge every paragraph: "Does this justify its token cost?"
2. Reasons > commands — "Show command before executing, because users need to verify safety" beats "ALWAYS show commands. NEVER execute directly."
3. Examples > explanations — One input/output pair teaches more than three paragraphs of description
4. One default, one escape hatch — Don't list 5 options. Pick the best one, mention the alternative for edge cases
5. Consistent terminology — Pick one term, use it everywhere. Not "endpoint/URL/route/path" interchangeably

Progressive Disclosure

• SKILL.md = overview + navigation (< 500 lines)
• references/ = detailed docs, loaded on demand
• scripts/ = executable code, runs without entering context
• Reference depth: max 1 level. SKILL.md → reference.md. Never reference.md → sub-reference.md
• For references > 100 lines, add a table of contents at top

Phase 3: Test

Write Messy Test Prompts

Real users make typos, use slang, forget file names. Test with realistic prompts, not clean ones:

# Good (realistic)
"ok so my boss sent me this xlsx (its in downloads, called
something like 'Q4 sales final FINAL v2.xlsx') and she wants
profit margin as a percentage"

# Bad (too clean)
"Please analyze the sales data in the uploaded Excel file
and add a profit margin column"

Iteration Loop

1. Run skill with test prompts
2. Did it trigger? If not → fix description
3. Did it produce correct output? If not → fix workflow steps
4. Is output format right? If not → fix template/examples
5. Repeat

Check Trigger Rate

Short simple requests rarely trigger skills. Ensure test set includes prompts with enough complexity and matching keywords.

Phase 4: Review Checklist

Before shipping, verify:

• Description is specific, includes trigger keywords, third person
• SKILL.md body < 500 lines
• Has 5 Trigger Examples with realistic prompts
• Long content split into references/
• No time-sensitive info (or in "old patterns" section)
• Consistent terminology throughout
• Concrete examples, not abstract explanations
• Reasons given for rules (not just MUST/NEVER)
• Scripts handle errors explicitly (don't punt to agent)
• No hardcoded secrets or magic numbers
• Tested with messy realistic prompts

Anti-Patterns

OMK-Specific Conventions

When creating skills for oh-my-kiro projects:

1. Naming: omk- prefix for framework skills, project-specific names for project skills
2. Location: Framework skills → oh-my-kiro/skills/, project skills → skills/
3. Security: Run bash tools/audit-skill.sh <dir> before installing external skills
4. Sync: After creating in submodule, run bash tools/sync-omk.sh . to propagate
5. Registration: python3 scripts/generate_configs.py to update platform configs