Why is the imperative writing style important for skills?

Writing in the imperative form (verb-first) provides Claude with clear, direct instructions that are easier to follow as procedures compared to conversational or descriptive text.

What is the recommended length for a SKILL.md file?

To maintain context efficiency, a SKILL.md file should target 1,500-2,000 words. Detailed content should be moved to a references directory to use progressive disclosure.

How do I ensure my Claude skill triggers correctly?

Use specific, concrete phrases in the YAML description field written in the third person, listing exact scenarios or keywords the user might mention.

What is the three-level loading system for skills?

It consists of Metadata (name/description), the SKILL.md body, and Bundled Resources (references/scripts), ensuring Claude only consumes context as needed.

Skill Best Practices

Name: Skill Best Practices
Author: Within-7

byWithin-7

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Developer Tools

Provides comprehensive guidance and standards for creating high-quality, optimized Claude Code skills.

This skill equips developers with the framework and best practices needed to build effective Claude Code skills that transform Claude into a domain expert. It focuses on optimizing performance through progressive disclosure, implementing robust trigger phrases for reliable activation, and enforcing a clean, imperative writing style to ensure precise procedural execution within the Claude environment.

Key Features

01Imperative writing style guidelines for actionable instructions

021 GitHub stars

03Trigger phrase optimization for reliable skill activation

04Organized directory structures for references, scripts, and examples

05Standardized SKILL.md structure and YAML frontmatter templates

06Context-efficient progressive disclosure loading patterns

Use Cases

01Standardizing documentation workflows for Claude Code plugin development

02Refactoring existing skills to reduce context bloat and improve reliability

03Creating specialized custom skills for internal proprietary tools

What are Skills?·How to Install

Install with 🐟 Skill.Fish

npx skillfish add within-7/minto-plugin-tools skill-best-practices

For use in Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Download Skill