How does Claude discover a new skill?

Claude discovers skills by reading the 'name' and 'description' fields in the YAML frontmatter of SKILL.md files located within its designated skills directories.

Can I restrict which tools a skill can use?

Yes, you can use the 'allowed-tools' field in the skill's YAML frontmatter to limit access to specific tools like Read, Grep, or Glob for better security and focus.

What is a Claude Code Skill?

A Claude Code Skill is a specialized capability that defines how Claude behaves and what tools it uses for specific tasks, managed via a SKILL.md file and optional supporting scripts.

What makes a good skill description?

A good description follows the formula '[What it does] + [When to use it] + [Key triggers]', is under 1024 characters, and includes specific file extensions or keywords users are likely to mention.

Where should I store my custom skills?

Personal skills are stored in ~/.claude/skills/ for individual use across all projects, while project-specific skills are stored in .claude/skills/ to be committed to git and shared with a team.

Claude Skill Writer

Name: Claude Skill Writer
Author: echoleesong

byecholeesong

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Developer Tools

Empowers users to design, author, and validate custom Agent Skills for Claude Code following official best practices.

The Claude Skill Writer is a specialized meta-skill designed to streamline the creation of custom capabilities for Claude Code. It guides users through the entire development lifecycle of a Skill, from defining scope and selecting storage locations to writing optimized YAML frontmatter and structuring complex multi-file workflows. By enforcing validation rules and providing best-practice templates, it ensures that new Skills are discoverable, efficient, and robust, making it an essential tool for developers looking to extend Claude's functionality within their local or team environments.

Key Features

01Validation of skill names, description lengths, and formatting rules

02Troubleshooting support for activation issues and trigger word optimization

03Optimization of YAML frontmatter for improved skill discovery and tool restriction

04Templates for multi-file skills including reference guides and helper scripts

05Step-by-step guidance for creating SKILL.md files and directory structures

060 GitHub stars

Use Cases

01Creating complex, multi-step workflows with dedicated helper scripts and templates

02Standardizing team-specific coding conventions via shared project skills

03Converting frequent manual prompts into reusable local Agent Skills

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add echoleesong/claude-skills-plugin skill-writer

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Download Skill