How to use the Content Freshness Signals agent skill (freshness)

What the freshness skill makes the agent do

Agent skills are folders of instructions that an AI agent loads when a task matches the skill's description. The freshness skill is written for auditing content pages for freshness signals, setting up Last-Modified headers in a web server config, and making sure Article JSON-LD dateModified is updated when CMS content changes.

When installed, the agent can check each article or blog page for: the Last-Modified HTTP response header, a dateModified property in ISO 8601 format, a visible 'Last updated' date, and whether these three agree. It can flag mismatches, suggest web server or CMS changes, and explain why freshness matters for time-sensitive content.

Install the freshness skill

Download the ZIP for the skill from the directory page and unzip it. Place the folder in one of these locations: ~/.claude/skills/ for your personal use, or .claude/skills/ inside a project for that project only.

You can also upload the skill in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

• Personal: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
• Project: unzip into .claude/skills/ in your project folder
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload

Trigger the skill with natural requests

You do not need a special command. Describe the task in plain language and the agent will load the skill when the request matches its description. The skill is a good fit for requests about auditing freshness, Last-Modified headers, or dateModified in article templates.

• Audit this article page for freshness signals.
• Check whether the Last-Modified header is set on our blog pages.
• Our CMS updates dateModified on every save. Review how to limit that to real content changes.
• Add a visible 'Last updated' date to this article template and make sure it matches dateModified.

Work through a typical audit

For each article, the skill's checklist asks four questions: is the Last-Modified header present and recent, is dateModified in the JSON-LD in ISO 8601 format, is a visible 'Last updated' date shown to readers, and do the JSON-LD date, the visible date and the header agree.

The skill's fix guidance includes configuring Nginx with add_header Last-Modified $date_gmt; and noting that Apache serves Last-Modified automatically for static files when mod_headers is enabled. It also covers passing a frontmatter updatedAt field through to JSON-LD and <time> elements in static site generators such as Next.js or Astro.

• Keep dateModified tied to substantive content changes, not metadata-only saves.
• Do not run a blanket timestamp update on every page during deploy.

Limits and safety notes

The skill is advice and checklist work. It does not change your rankings and cannot guarantee any search gain. It only sets out the recommended signals. The source describes Google's QDF algorithm as boosting recent or updated content for time-sensitive queries; whether that applies to your site is a judgement you should make.

According to its metadata, the skill requires nothing beyond the agent itself, does not run scripts, and does not use the network. Its files are SKILL.md and references/rule.md.

• Not useful for sites without time-sensitive content.
• Expect recommendations, not guaranteed ranking results.