Create Catalyst Skill

VerifiedSafe

Guide for adding a new skill to catalyst-skills/, with orchestrated structure and concrete examples.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DocumentationIntermediate
808/10/2026
Claude CodeCursorWindsurfCopilotCodex
#skill-creation#markdown#orchestration#pattern#library

Recommended for

Our review

Creates a new Markdown skill file for the catalyst-skills library following a structured problem-analysis-deduplication-verification-implementation pattern.

Strengths

  • Enforces a consistent fan-out/reduce/verify/synthesize structure across skills.
  • Keeps style consistent by referencing existing files.
  • Explicitly avoids modifying other files or building framework code.

Limitations

  • Relies on the referenced ORCHESTRATION-PROMPT.md and existing skill files being present.
  • Only outputs one Markdown file, with no validation of the content's actual skill quality.
  • Assumes the user knows the value of $ARGUMENTS.
When to use it

When contributing a new skill to the catalyst-skills library and you need to match its established format.

When not to use it

When implementing a skill's functionality or modifying existing files.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score80/100

The skill only reads existing reference files and creates a single Markdown file. It does not execute shell commands, access the network, or handle sensitive data. No destructive or exfiltrating actions are instructed.

No concerns found

Examples

Create a code-review skill
Add a new skill to the catalyst-skills library named 'code-review' following the standard pattern.
Create an api-testing skill
Create a skill file 'api-testing' in catalyst-skills with the usual structure and a worked example.
Create a db-migration skill
Write a new catalyst-skills skill for database migrations, using the same format as the existing skills.

Add a new skill to the catalyst-skills/ library.

Reference: Read ORCHESTRATION-PROMPT.md for the pattern (fan out, reduce, verify, synthesize). Reference: Read one existing file in catalyst-skills/ (any of them) to match the exact structure and tone.

Skill name: $ARGUMENTS

DO NOT BUILD framework code. Build ONE markdown file only: catalyst-skills/[skill-name].md

The file must include, in this order:

  1. Problem Pattern — when a ticket matches this skill
  2. Analysis Tasks — independent, parallelizable investigation tasks (FAN OUT)
  3. Deduplication — how to consolidate/filter findings (REDUCE)
  4. Verification Questions — skeptic checks with fresh context, assume false until proven (VERIFY)
  5. Implementation Checklist — concrete build steps (SYNTHESIZE)
  6. One worked example with a realistic ticket

Match the formatting, heading style, and level of specificity of the existing skill files exactly. This should feel like it belongs in the same library, not like a different author wrote it.

After creating the file, do not modify any other files.

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