Skill Reference

Frontmatter Fields

| Field | Required | Guidance | |-------|----------|----------| | name | Yes | Lowercase, hyphenated, under 64 chars, action-oriented | | description | Yes | What + when. Include trigger keywords. Under 200 chars. See SKILL.md §4 | | allowed-tools | No | Only tools the skill actually needs. See SKILL.md §3 | | disable-model-invocation | No | true if side-effects or destructive (user must invoke explicitly) | | user-invocable | No | false only for background knowledge Claude references silently | | model | No | Only set if a specific model is required; omit to inherit | | context | No | fork to run in isolated subagent context | | agent | No | When context: fork: Explore, Plan, or general-purpose | | argument-hint | No | Show expected args in autocomplete (e.g., [issue-number]) |

Omit any field that would be set to its default value.

Template

---
name: <name>
description: <description>
[only include fields that differ from defaults]
---

# <Title>

## Purpose
One sentence explaining what this skill does.

## Instructions
1. Step 1
2. Step 2
3. Continue as needed

## Output Format
Expected structure of results.

## Best Practices
- Guideline 1
- Guideline 2

## Example
Concrete input → output demonstrating usage.

Validation Checklist

Frontmatter:

• [ ] name is lowercase-hyphenated, under 64 chars
• [ ] description explains what AND when, includes trigger keywords
• [ ] allowed-tools only lists tools referenced in instructions (or omitted)
• [ ] No fields set to default values
• [ ] model only set if specific model is required

Body:

• [ ] Under 500 lines total
• [ ] Instructions are numbered and actionable
• [ ] Each instruction step is specific (not "do the thing")
• [ ] Output format is specified
• [ ] Includes at least one concrete example
• [ ] No placeholder text remains

Description quality:

• [ ] First clause: what it does
• [ ] Second clause: when to use it
• [ ] Contains trigger keywords a user would say
• [ ] Under 200 characters