Skill Development Guide
Guides the agent to design, write, and structure new Claude Code skills and their SKILL.md files.
- Repository
- anthropics/claude-plugins-official
- Stars
- 45,770
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Files
- 2 files
What it does
Once installed, when you ask Claude to create or improve a skill for a Claude Code plugin, it follows this guide: it asks about concrete example uses, plans which scripts, reference docs, or templates the skill needs, and writes a SKILL.md with a clear name and trigger description. It also explains progressive disclosure, which keeps the main instructions short and loads detailed material only when needed. Skills are folders of instructions that teach an AI agent a specialised task.
Great for
- Plugin developers writing their first Claude Code skill
- Teams standardising how their internal skills are structured
- Anyone improving a skill description so it triggers reliably
Skip it if
- People who just want to use an existing skill; this one only teaches how to build skills
- Non-developers looking for a finished end-user tool, since it produces skill files rather than output for a task
Try asking
- “Help me create a new skill for generating release notes in our plugin”
- “Improve the description of my skill so it triggers when users ask about invoices”
- “Organise my skill's content: what belongs in SKILL.md versus references”
Install in 3 steps
- 1
Download the skill
The ZIP contains the 2 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.
skill-development.zip - 2
Add it to your agent
Claude Code (all projects)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip skill-development.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)
mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip skill-development.zip -d .claude/skills/Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.
- 3
Ask for the task
No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.
Get better results
- Give the agent two or three concrete example requests you expect users to make, so it can plan the skill around them.
- Review the generated description field carefully, since it decides when the skill is triggered.
- Keep detailed reference material in references files rather than SKILL.md to save context.
What's inside
- references/skill-creator-original.md
- SKILL.md
Redistributed unmodified from anthropics/claude-plugins-official under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.