Create New Skill

VerifiedSafe

Guides the creation of a SKILL.md file following the fan-out/reduce/verify/synthesize pattern, with required sections and a worked example.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DocumentationIntermediate
208/5/2026
Claude Code
#skill-authoring#catalyst-skills#markdown#orchestration#template

Recommended for

Our review

This skill guides the creation of a new SKILL.md file for the catalyst-skills library, following a structured pattern of decomposition, deduplication, verification, and synthesis.

Strengths

  • Ensures perfect consistency with existing skill files.
  • Breaks down writing into clear, parallelizable steps.
  • Includes skeptic checks to validate assumptions.
  • Provides a concrete worked example for each new skill.

Limitations

  • Requires access to existing reference files to work.
  • The template is rigid and may not suit all skill types.
  • Does not generate code or infrastructure, only a markdown file.
When to use it

When you need to add a new skill to the catalyst-skills library and want to follow the standard format.

When not to use it

When creating a skill outside this library or when the structured pattern is not relevant.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score90/100

The skill is purely instructional; it describes how to create a markdown file with a specific structure, with no executable commands or risky operations. There is no potential for harm.

No concerns found

Examples

Create a skill for refactoring legacy code
Add a new skill to the catalyst-skills/ library for refactoring legacy code. Follow the ORCHESTRATION-PROMPT.md pattern and match the style of existing skills.
Create a skill for database cleanup
Create a skill in catalyst-skills/ that handles database cleanup tasks. Use the fan-out, reduce, verify, synthesize structure from the reference files.
Create a skill for writing unit tests
Add a skill for writing unit tests to the catalyst-skills library. Make sure it includes analysis tasks, verification questions, and a worked example as described.

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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