Skill Authoring Procedure

Follow these steps to generate a skill that adheres to the agentskills.io specification and progressive disclosure principles.

Step 1: Initialize and Validate Metadata

1. Define a unique name: 1-64 characters, lowercase, numbers, and single hyphens only.
2. Draft a description: Max 1,024 characters, written in the third person, including negative triggers.
3. Execute Validation Script: Run the validation script to ensure compliance before proceeding: python scripts/validate-metadata.py --name "[name]" --description "[description]"
4. If the script returns an error, self-correct the metadata based on the stderr output and re-run until successful.

Step 2: Structure the Directory

1. Create the root directory using the validated name.
2. Initialize the following subdirectories:
   • scripts/: For tiny CLI tools and deterministic logic.
   • references/: For flat (one-level deep) context like schemas or API docs.
   • assets/: For output templates, JSON schemas, or static files.
3. Ensure no human-centric files (README.md, INSTALLATION.md) are created.