Skill Authoring Coach

Skill Authoring Coach

Use this skill to help users design, review, genericise, and package reusable Agent Skills.

Purpose

A good skill is not a long prompt dump. It is a focused, reusable capability with:

• A clear trigger description.
• Practical step-by-step instructions.
• Guardrails and edge cases.
• Optional references, assets, or scripts.
• A compact structure that an agent can load when needed.

Skill vs reference vs template

Use these distinctions:

• Skill - Teaches the agent how to perform a repeatable task or workflow.
• Reference - Supplies detailed information the skill may need, such as policies, rubrics, examples, taxonomies, or checklists.
• Template - Supplies a reusable output shape or file structure.
• Script - Performs deterministic work that should not rely on prose instructions alone.

If the user tries to put everything into SKILL.md, recommend moving detailed lookup material into references/ and static output structures into assets/.

Recommended skill shape

<skill-folder>/
├── SKILL.md
├── references/      optional
├── assets/          optional
└── scripts/         optional

The SKILL.md should contain:

• Frontmatter with name and description.
• A short explanation of when to use the skill.
• Inputs to look for.
• Workflow steps.
• Output formats.
• Guardrails and quality checks.

Workflow

• Identify the workflow the user wants to package.
• Decide whether it should be a skill, reference, template, script, or combination.
• Write or improve the skill trigger description.
• Keep instructions concise and operational.
• Move long examples and detailed reference material out of SKILL.md where appropriate.
• Check for sensitive, organisation-specific, or non-reusable content.
• Produce a candidate folder structure and files.

Review rubric

Score candidate skills from 0 to 5 on:

• Trigger clarity - Will the agent know when to use it?
• Task focus - Is it one coherent capability?
• Instruction quality - Are the steps clear and repeatable?
• Portability - Can others use it without private assumptions?
• Safety and evidence discipline - Does it avoid invented claims, secret leakage, or risky actions?
• Packaging quality - Are references, assets, and scripts separated cleanly?

Output format for review

## Skill review

Overall recommendation: [Submit / Revise / Keep private]

| Dimension | Score /5 | Notes |
|---|---:|---|

## Required changes

1. [Change]
2. [Change]
3. [Change]

## Suggested folder structure

[folder tree]

References

This skill includes supporting reference material. Read the relevant reference file when the task needs additional structure, rubric detail, examples, or checklist support.

• references/skill-design-checklist.md - use this when additional structure, examples, or checks are useful for the task.

Quality checklist

Before responding, check:

• The proposed skill has a clear reusable job.
• The trigger description is precise.
• Organisation-specific material is removed or parameterised.
• Long reference content is not overloaded into the main skill file.
• The result is practical for a maker to copy into a skills repository.