Skill Authoring

azure/azure-sdk-tools-skill-authoring

Write Agent Skills that comply with the agentskills.io specification. WHEN: \"create a skill\", \"new skill\", \"write a skill\", \"skill template\", \"skill structure\", \"review skill\", \"skill PR\", \"skill compliance\", \"SKILL.md format\", \"skill frontmatter\", \"skill best practices\". DO NOT USE FOR: improving existing skills (use sensei), general documentation. INVOKES: waza CLI.

4k tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

136

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-tools --skill skill-authoring

What comes with it

15 338 bytes besides the instruction

eval.yaml

evals/eval.yaml

evals/tasks/anti-trigger.yaml

evals/tasks/basic-trigger.yaml

evals/trigger_tests.yaml

references/guidelines.md

references/reference-guide.md

references/validation.md

tasks/authoring-basic-001.yaml

The instruction itself

9 sections, as written by the author

Skill Authoring Guide

Constraints

name: 1-64 chars, lowercase + hyphens, match directory
description: inline double-quoted, ≤60 words, ≤1024 chars
Use WHEN: with quoted trigger phrases (preferred over USE FOR:)
SKILL.md: <500 tokens (soft), <5000 (hard)
references/*.md: <1000 tokens each

Structure

SKILL.md (required) — Frontmatter + instructions
references/ (optional) — Detailed docs, loaded on demand
scripts/ (optional) — Executable code

Progressive Disclosure

Metadata loads at startup. SKILL.md on activation. References load when linked via text.

MCP Tools

| Tool | Purpose |

|------|---------|

| None | CLI-only; uses local file tools |

CLI fallback: Primary mode is CLI-based. No MCP servers required.

Quick Start

Create skill directory with SKILL.md
Add frontmatter: name, description, license
Run waza check {skill-name} to validate

Examples

"Create a new skill for code review"
"Review my skill for compliance"

Troubleshooting

If waza check reports broken links, verify reference file paths match exactly.

References

Guidelines — Writing and structure
Validation — Checks and procedures
Reference Guide — Budgets, loading, checklist

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take azure/azure-sdk-tools-skill-authoring from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.