writing-skills
Writing Skills
A skill exists to wrangle determinism out of a stochastic system. Predictability — the agent taking the same process every run, not producing the same output — is the root virtue; every lever below serves it.
Bold terms are defined in references/glossary.md; look them up there for the full meaning.
Branches
| When you are… | Do |
|---|---|
| Creating a new skill from scratch | Read references/authoring-procedure.md in full first — spec mechanics, directory layout, metadata validation. Then apply the doctrine below to every line of content you write. |
| Improving an existing skill (bloat, drift, weak triggers) | Apply the doctrine below, section by section, until every rule that bears on the skill has been applied. |
| Diagnosing a skill whose references or assets the agent ignores | Read references/loading-diagnosis.md in full before proposing any fix — symptoms, the pointer-strength ladder, and the fixes in order. |
Every branch ends the same way: a written audit, item by item. For create and improve, read references/checklist.md in full and mark each item Pass or Fail against the result; for diagnose, run the repair checklist in references/loading-diagnosis.md. Fix every Fail and re-audit — a skill that reads well but fails the audit is not done. The doctrine below is what Part A of that audit checks; it governs every line you write, not just the ones the procedure files mention.
Invocation
Two choices, trading different costs: