Skill Creator Primer

Note: If the skill-creator skill is missing: stop and ask the user to install skill-creator@claude-plugins-official (registering the marketplace first via /plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official if needed), or to clone https://github.com/anthropics/skills and link its skills directory into their local skills directory.

Route to an entry point by the task in front of you (which-one routing per "Routing when branches multiply", not a content index):

• Creating a new skill -> start at "Capture Intent from Conversation" and work forward.
• Editing an existing skill -> the sections covering what you're changing, then the "Self-Review Protocol".
• Reviewing a skill, or a diff to one -> "Reviewing a Skill".
• Tuning a description or its triggering -> "Writing Effective Descriptions".
• Producing a report, page or visual of a skill's findings -> references/html-report.md.

Predictable Process, Not Identical Output

A skill wrangles determinism out of a stochastic system where applicable. What it makes predictable is the process - the agent taking the same steps each run - not the output. A brainstorming skill should predictably diverge: its tokens vary, its behaviour doesn't. This is the lens for the rest of this primer: triggering, structure, steering, and pruning are all levers on process consistency; cost and maintainability follow. Judge any change by whether it makes the agent behave more consistently, given what that particular skill is for.

Track Each Step as a Task

Before you create, update, or review a skill, create a task (todo) for each step of the work - the primer sections you'll apply, plus a self-review pass - each phrased with its completion criterion, then work them to completion.