Claude Skill Management

VerifiedSafe

Meta-skill to create or update Claude skills from conversation. Detects mode and generates appropriate frontmatter.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentIntermediate
107/25/2026
Claude Code
#skill-management#skill-creation#skill-update#claude-skills#meta-skill

Recommended for

Our review

This skill creates or updates another skill based on the current conversation, following a structured procedure.

Strengths

  • Automates skill creation and update without leaving the workflow.
  • Maintains format consistency and allows adding specific rules.
  • Supports both creation and update modes with automatic detection.

Limitations

  • Requires the skill name to be in kebab-case.
  • Does not handle skill deletion.
  • Section detection for updates can be ambiguous.
When to use it

Use this skill when you want to formalize a new practice or modify an existing skill based on conversation context.

When not to use it

Do not use for trivial changes that could be done manually, or when the skill to create requires decisions not covered by the procedure.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score90/100

The skill only performs file existence checks, directory creation, and file writes using standard tools. No destructive commands, network calls, or exfiltration risks.

No concerns found

Examples

Create a new skill
Create a skill called 'code-review' that checks pull requests for common errors and enforces coding standards.
Update an existing skill
Update the 'code-review' skill to also check for missing error handling.

Create or update a skill based on the current conversation.

The first word of $ARGUMENTS is the skill name (kebab-case). The rest is an optional note about what to add or change.


Step 1 — Detect mode

Check whether .claude/skills/$0/SKILL.md already exists.

  • Existsupdate mode: read the current file, then go to Step 3.
  • Does not existcreate mode: go to Step 2.

Step 2 — Determine frontmatter (create only)

Decide the correct frontmatter based on what the skill does:

description — one sentence: what the skill does + when Claude should auto-load it. Put the key trigger phrase first (budget is 1,536 chars).

paths — set only if the skill is scoped to specific files. Use glob patterns:

  • Design system / theme work → @soroush.tech/design-system/**
  • All TypeScript → **/*.ts,**/*.tsx
  • Omit for project-wide knowledge

argument-hint — short label shown in autocomplete, e.g. [filename] or [component-name].

disable-model-invocation: true — add only if this is a manual workflow with side effects (deploy, commit, send). Reference knowledge should NOT have this.

user-invocable: false — add only if users should never call it directly (pure background context).


Step 3 — Write content

Rules for skill content:

  • Reference skills (conventions, patterns, style guides): state the rule + one ✗/✓ code pair. No prose explaining why — the example shows it.
  • Task skills (step-by-step actions): numbered steps, imperative verbs, no explanation.
  • Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines.
  • Every line is a recurring token cost — cut anything that doesn't change Claude's behavior.
  • End with: If $ARGUMENTS names a file, read it and apply the rules. Otherwise apply to the code being discussed. (for reference skills only).

Update mode: add the new rule or change to the appropriate section. Do not touch unrelated rules. Remove any rule made obsolete by the change.


Step 4 — Write the file

For create: run mkdir -p .claude/skills/$0 then write .claude/skills/$0/SKILL.md.

For update: write the updated .claude/skills/$0/SKILL.md.

Confirm what was created or changed. If a new paths scope was set, mention which files will trigger it.

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