Can I validate my skill's token count automatically?

Yes, the skill provides a validation script (npm run tokens) within the scripts directory to check your files against required limits before submission.

Why are token budgets important for agent skills?

AI models have limited context windows. This skill ensures your SKILL.md stays under 5000 tokens, preventing performance degradation and maintaining high response quality.

What is the agentskills.io specification?

It is a standard for defining agent behaviors using a structured format (SKILL.md) and specific directory layouts to ensure AI agents understand and execute tasks effectively.

What are the core naming constraints for a new skill?

The name must be 1-64 characters, use only lowercase letters and hyphens, and must match the directory name exactly.

How does JIT loading work in this skill?

References are only loaded when explicitly linked via Markdown. This means only necessary info enters the context at the moment it is needed, keeping the session lean.

Skill Authoring Guide

Name: Skill Authoring Guide
Author: microsoft

bymicrosoft

•

109

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Learning & Documentation

Standardizes the creation and validation of high-performance agent skills following the agentskills.io specification.

This skill provides a structured framework for developers to author, review, and optimize specialized capabilities for Claude. It enforces strict compliance with the agentskills.io specification, focusing on efficient token management through progressive disclosure and just-in-time (JIT) reference loading. By providing clear constraints for file structure, frontmatter, and token budgets, it ensures that new skills are lean, performant, and easily discoverable by AI agents during task execution.

Key Features

01109 GitHub stars

02Manages token budgets with strict limits for SKILL.md and reference files

03Includes validation scripts for automated token checking and compliance audits

04Implements progressive disclosure to minimize startup context overhead

05Enforces agentskills.io specification compliance for standardized skill structure

06Provides JIT reference loading patterns for efficient information retrieval

Use Cases

01Bootstrapping a new Claude Code skill with the correct directory structure and frontmatter

02Optimizing large documentation sets into high-performance JIT-loaded references

03Performing technical reviews on skill pull requests to ensure specification adherence

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add microsoft/github-copilot-for-azure skill-authoring

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Download Skill