skill-creator

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Create, improve, and audit AI agent skills. Applies 14 proven structural patterns, scores quality with deterministic audit, manages full lifecycle. Use when building, refactoring, or reviewing skills. NOT for agents, MCP servers, or running existing skills.

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NPX Install

npx skill4agent add wyattowalsh/agents skill-creator

Skill Creator

Create, improve, and audit AI agent skills. Every skill follows 14 proven structural patterns.
Scope: Skills only. NOT for creating agents (
wagents new agent
), building MCP servers (
/mcp-creator
), or running existing skills. This repo uses raw
SKILL.md
format committed directly to
skills/
.

Dispatch

$ARGUMENTSActionExample
create <name>
/
new <name>
Develop (new)
/skill-creator create my-analyzer
create <name> --from <source>
Develop (new, from exemplar)
/skill-creator create my-analyzer --from wargame
improve <name>
/
improve <path>
Develop (existing)
/skill-creator improve add-badges
audit <name>
Audit
/skill-creator audit honest-review
audit --all
Audit All
/skill-creator audit --all
dashboard
Dashboard
/skill-creator dashboard
package <name>
/
package --all
Package
/skill-creator package wargame
Natural language skill ideaAuto: Develop (new)
"tool that audits Python type safety"
Skill name + modification verbAuto: Develop (existing)
"refactor the wargame skill"
Path to SKILL.mdAuto: Develop (existing)
skills/wargame/SKILL.md
"MCP server" / "agent" / "run"Refuse + redirect
EmptyGallery
/skill-creator

Auto-Detection Heuristic

If no explicit mode keyword is provided:
  1. Path ending in
    SKILL.md
    or directory under
    skills/
    Develop (existing)
  2. Existing skill name + modification verb (improve, refactor, enhance, update, fix, rewrite, optimize, polish, revise, change) → Develop (existing)
  3. --from <source>
    in arguments → Develop (new, from exemplar)
  4. New capability description ("I want to build...", "tool that...", "skill for...") → Develop (new) — derive name, confirm before scaffolding
  5. "MCP server", "agent", "run" → refuse gracefully and redirect
  6. Ambiguous → ask the user which mode they want

Quick Start

bash
wagents new skill <name>           # Scaffold from template
wagents validate                   # Check all skills
uv run python skills/skill-creator/scripts/audit.py skills/<name>/  # Score quality
wagents package <name>             # Package as portable ZIP

Skill Development

Unified process for creating new skills and improving existing ones. Load
references/workflow.md
for the full procedure.
StepNew SkillExisting Skill
1. UnderstandDefine use cases, scope, patternsAudit + understand user's intent
2. PlanStructure, description, frontmatterGap analysis + improvement plan (approval gate)
3. Scaffold
wagents new skill <name>
Skip
4. BuildWrite/edit body, references, scripts, templates, evalsSame
5. Validate
wagents validate
+
audit.py
Same
6. IterateTest, identify issues, loop to Step 4Same

Audit

Score a skill using deterministic analysis + AI review. Load
references/audit-guide.md
.

Audit All

Comparative ranking of all repository skills. Load
references/audit-guide.md
§ Audit All.

Dashboard

Render visual creation process monitor or audit quality dashboard. Load
references/audit-guide.md
§ Dashboard.
Auto-detects mode from data:
phases
field → process monitor;
skills
array → audit overview.

Gallery (Empty Arguments)

Present skill inventory with scores and available actions. Run
uv run python skills/skill-creator/scripts/audit.py --all --format table
, display results, offer mode menu.

Package

Package skills into portable ZIP files for Claude Code Desktop import. Load
references/packaging-guide.md
for ZIP structure, manifest schema, portability checks, and cross-agent compatibility.
bash
wagents package <name>            # Single skill → <name>-v<version>.skill.zip
wagents package --all             # All skills → dist/ with manifest.json
wagents package --all --dry-run   # Check portability without creating ZIPs

Hooks

PreToolUse hooks intercept tool calls during skill execution. The
hooks:
frontmatter field scopes hooks to this skill only — they activate when the skill is loaded and deactivate when it completes.

State Management

Creation progress persists at
~/.claude/skill-progress/<name>.json
. Read/write via
scripts/progress.py
. Survives session restarts. Use
--state-dir
to override the default location.

Reference File Index

FileContentRead When
references/workflow.md
Unified 6-step skill development process for new and existing skillsDevelop (new), Develop (existing)
references/audit-guide.md
Audit procedure, Audit All, Dashboard rendering, Gallery, grade thresholdsAudit, Audit All, Dashboard, Gallery
references/proven-patterns.md
14 structural patterns with examples from repo skillsStep 4 (Build), gap analysis
references/best-practices.md
Anthropic guide + superpowers methodology + cross-agent awarenessStep 2 (Plan), Step 4 (Build), description writing
references/frontmatter-spec.md
Full field catalog, invocation matrix, decision treeStep 3 (Scaffold), frontmatter configuration
references/packaging-guide.md
ZIP structure, manifest schema, portability checks, import instructionsPackage
references/evaluation-rubric.md
11 scoring dimensions, grade thresholds, pressure testingAudit (pressure testing), scoring targets
Read reference files as indicated by the "Read When" column above. Do not rely on memory or prior knowledge of their contents.

Core Principles

Conciseness is respect — The context window is shared. Every line competes with the agent's working memory. Earn every line or delete it.
Progressive disclosure — Frontmatter for discovery (~100 tokens), body for dispatch (<5K tokens), references for deep knowledge (on demand), scripts/templates for execution (never loaded).
Self-exemplar — This skill follows every pattern it teaches. When in doubt, look at how skill-creator applies it.

Critical Rules

  1. Run
    uv run wagents validate
    before declaring any skill complete
  2. Run
    uv run python skills/skill-creator/scripts/audit.py
    after every significant SKILL.md change
  3. Never create a skill without a dispatch table — it is the routing contract
  4. Never create a dispatch table without an empty-args handler — unrouted input is a bug
  5. Every reference file must appear in the Reference File Index — orphan refs are invisible
  6. Every indexed reference must exist on disk — phantom refs cause agent errors
  7. Body must stay under 500 lines (below frontmatter) — move detail to references
  8. Description must include "Use when" trigger phrases AND "NOT for" exclusions
  9. Names must be kebab-case, 2-64 chars, no consecutive hyphens, no reserved words
  10. Scripts use argparse + JSON to stdout — no custom output formats
  11. Templates are self-contained HTML with no external dependencies
  12. Do NOT call
    wagents docs generate
    — delegate to docs-steward
  13. Do NOT create agents or MCP servers — refuse gracefully and redirect
  14. Improving existing skills requires presenting an improvement plan and getting user approval before implementing changes
  15. Audit mode is read-only — never modify the skill being audited
  16. Update evals when dispatch behavior or modes change — stale evals are invisible bugs
Canonical terms (use these exactly throughout):
  • Modes: "Develop (new)", "Develop (existing)", "Audit", "Audit All", "Dashboard", "Package", "Gallery"
  • Steps (Development): "Understand", "Plan", "Scaffold", "Build", "Validate", "Iterate"
  • Grade scale: "A" (90+), "B" (75-89), "C" (60-74), "D" (40-59), "F" (<40)
  • Patterns: "dispatch-table", "reference-file-index", "critical-rules", "canonical-vocabulary", "scope-boundaries", "classification-gating", "scaling-strategy", "state-management", "scripts", "templates", "hooks", "progressive-disclosure", "body-substitutions", "stop-hooks"
  • Audit dimensions: "frontmatter", "description", "dispatch-table", "body-structure", "pattern-coverage", "reference-quality", "critical-rules", "script-quality", "portability", "conciseness", "canonical-vocabulary"