skills/smithery.ai/developing-skills

developing-skills

Installation
SKILL.md

<essential_principles> Skills are modular, filesystem-based capabilities that provide domain expertise on demand.

1. Name and Description Are CRITICAL — The name and description are the ONLY way agents discover and decide to use a skill. If these are wrong, the skill will never be invoked. Treat them as the most important lines in the entire skill. See references/skill-structure.md for detailed guidance.

2. Skills Are Prompts — All prompting best practices apply. Be clear, be direct, use XML structure. Assume Claude is smart - only add context Claude doesn't have.

3. SKILL.md Is Always Loaded — When invoked, the agent reads SKILL.md. Use this guarantee:

  • Essential principles go in SKILL.md (can't be skipped)
  • Workflow-specific content goes in workflows/
  • Reusable knowledge goes in references/
Installs
1
First Seen
Mar 29, 2026
developing-skills from smithery.ai